Please note, this is a personal message to Recruitment FDs members from our MD, Paul Glynn:

Good afternoon,

I don’t think it’s too late to wish you a happy New Year! I hope you had a good break over Christmas. Christmas is my favourite time of the year; everything goes so quiet on the work front – it’s the best time of year to switch off and spend great time with the family. I hope you found time to recharge the batteries too, ready for the year ahead.

I wanted to start with some very exciting news: Recruitment FDs has signed its first partnership with Skipton Business Finance!

We have worked with Skipton for several years now at Aristar Consulting and they are our provider of choice for new clients seeking invoice finance. We were first introduced to Skipton after one of the high street banks let us down with a facility for a superb public sector recruitment business we were in the process of onboarding. Our contact at Skipton turned the facility round from initial client meeting to funds out the door within 7 days and they have been delighting us with their customer service approach ever since. Their pricing is always very competitive, more importantly the day-to-day relationship and support has been exceptional. We have easy access to senior decision makers and there is always a sensible and pragmatic approach to lending.

It is important for me personally to promote brands that share the same approach to business and the same values, so I am really delighted that Skipton have joined us as we look to scale the Recruitment FDs network in 2023. You can read more about our partnership with Skipton Business Finance & Recruitment FDs here. If you are looking to review your facility in 2023, I would certainly recommend a chat with them.

After the success of our ‘Rise of the EOT and other M&A stories!’ event hosted by LinkedIn in Q3 last year, we are looking to host an event per quarter in 2023. What really resonated with me after the last event was the renewed appetite for face-to-face networking. Yes, the content, speakers and panel were great but the highlight for me was seeing so many of you in the pub afterwards making new connections and rising to my challenge of leaving the event having added at least two new FDs to your network!

We are busy working on our first event of the year, which will be about: ‘Scaling your recruitment business in the US’ alongside PGC – so whether you are a recruitment business considering your first foray into the US market in 2023 or your objective is to scale your operations in the US this year, then this promises to be a great event. The event will take place on the 21st February from 4-6pm with drinks afterwards, and will again be hosted by LinkedIn. I really liked the panel discussion at our last event so will be looking to recreate that too. If you have experience of scaling in the US and would like to be part of our panel, please let me know.

We are also considering taking our events on the road this year if there is an appetite for us to do so. We are thinking of also running the US event in Manchester. If you would be interested in attending, please let me know, and if we have enough interest, we will make that happen for you.

We will be continuing with the Quarterly Benchmarking Reports in 2023, with the website being ready to accept Q4 2022 data next week. There were no real surprises in the Q3 report data with the summer being a strong market across most areas of the recruitment sector. However, Q4 was more of a mixed bag across our client base as confidence levels dropped due to the negative press about the economy, and Liz Truss’s attempts to derail UK Plc! With over 70 recruitment businesses contributing to this report, it will become more and more useful the more businesses we have contributing. Don’t forget, if you don’t contribute you won’t receive your copy of the report!

I have been asked by several members if we would consider setting up a Recruitment FDs WhatsApp Group. I am very happy to do this – if you would like to be included, please email members@recruitmentfds.co.uk with your mobile number and I will set the group up.

Finally, I wanted to say thank you for your continued support of the network. We are looking to really scale in 2023, and as part of that we will be asking for your opinion on the direction you want the group to take, and the content areas you would like covered. Keep an eye out for emails about that in the coming weeks.

Speak soon,

Paul