How to start your own recruitment agency

If you’re an experienced recruiter and want to look at forming your own recruitment business, then our guide should help you get started. Quba partner with many new start agencies every year and we’ve seen first-hand how a knowledgeable recruiter can go from being an employee to running a hugely successful recruitment business and making significant profits.

But where do you start?

1. Choose your company name and incorporate:

Follow this link to check your chosen name is available – https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company-name-availability.

Once you’ve found a company name that’s not being used, you’ll need to incorporate the business by going to https://www.gov.uk/limited-company-formation/register-your-company. It will typically take 24 hours for the certificate of incorporation to be sent to you via email.

2. Apply for relevant references and VAT etc:

Before you could start placing contractors, you would also need the following to be set up however if you choose to appoint an accountant they would manage this for you. Register for VAT – https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/how-to-register Register as an employer – https://www.gov.uk/register-employer

You will also require your UTR (unique tax reference) number which is a 10 digit number that HMRC issues to all newly formed Limited Companies. This will be automatically sent out to you so no need to apply.

3. Choose relevant partners:

You’ll have a number of businesses that should want to partner with you, the following are suggestions of what you would likely want to look at. Finance and back office provider – typical terms would be invoice finance and factoring CRM systems Business Insurances – prior to placing contractors you will require three key insurances: Public Liability, Employers Liability and Professional Indemnity. Setting up a business bank account Job boards Website Marketing How can Quba Solutions help? For steps 1 & 2 our sister company, Aviso, would be able to incorporate your new company and apply for all relevant documentation too. Aviso are an accountancy practice set up specifically for recruitment agencies and therefore understand exactly what you need to get going and will also charge monthly rather than yearly to ensure payments are manageable.

For the last step, as an established recruitment financier we provide the finance, insure your outstanding invoices and provide you with a full back office set up including credit control, payroll and an online platform to run timesheets, assignments and management tools such as a gross profit report too. Your contractors can be paid weekly or monthly and your margin is paid across to you weekly too! There are no upfront costs or hidden fees – our fee is a flat percentage on your weekly net invoice value meaning you will only pay when you’ve got contractors out.

Through helping other agencies set up we can also point you in the right direction for relevant partners such as insurance and CRM’s. If you’d like to have a chat to discuss this further and see whether it could be something of interest, please feel free to call Jenny Underhay on 07741 636965.