by Veronica Blatt
If your niche has been softening in recent months, you may be wondering how you can reduce expenditures to preserve cash. That is certainly a strategy to consider, but it’s difficult to offset a decline in revenue purely by cutting costs. At some point, you simply need more revenue. Here are some ways to diversify your recruitment desk that will provide additional revenue:
Add contracting
Contracting is a terrific way to diversify your recruitment desk by adding professional temporary staffing in addition to fulltime, direct-hire services. Because you get paid each time the contractor gets paid, it’s an easy way to provide a steady stream of regular income, which can even out your cash flow. On top of that, many employers are able to add headcount via contracting or temp labor when their budgets for fulltime hires are frozen or already spent. Finally, if your exit strategy includes selling your business, contracting creates a tangible asset (book of business) that can be factored into the sale price. There are dozens of back-office providers who will manage the payroll obligation for you, including taxes, unemployment insurance, and other benefits. This means you don’t have to learn a new business model or get licensed in multiple states to offer this to your clients.
Unbundle your services (or upsell different services)
Another way to add revenue is to consider unbundling your services or upselling other stand-alone services on a per-project basis. Some ideas include conducting market research on salaries, benchmarking jobs, or offering to review internal candidates for positions that may not require full-service recruitment. These may not be likely to take the place of diminished recruitment fees, but they can help provide some additional income—especially for high-value services that benefit clients and that they cannot manage on their own.
Expand your niche or geographic coverage
Finally, consider expanding the range of niches you serve or the geographic areas you cover. If you do this by hiring additional staff, you’ll incur overhead costs of your own, so it may cost you more money in the short-term. Another way to expand your business is to work on a split-fee basis with other recruiters. This allows you to only pay when a placement is made. You can provide candidates for other recruiters’ jobs, ask your clients to fill roles in other locations (even internationally!), or expand the types of roles you typically fill with an existing client. Working with a partner can help reduce the learning curve.
Economic dips will always exist. If you diversify your recruitment desk, your business will be less impacted by downturns. You may even realize improved cash flow, which is always a top priority for small business owners.
