Recruitment Finance: There is another way.

A recent report published by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found that the number of small business owners applying for traditional financial support has fallen sharply since 2016. Of those who did seek external funding, just 63% of applicants successfully secured the support they needed.

This raises an important question - at a time of record growth for the recruitment industry, what impact is this having on new agency owners looking to get their business off the ground?

The answer could be a lack of awareness about the options they have on the table – one of which being alternative finance.

Since the recession, there has been a sharp rise in recruitment agencies turning away from traditional lenders in favour of specialist recruitment finance providers such as ourselves. It is easy to see why.

While banks and such-like were once the mainstay of financial support for both fledgling and established businesses, the restrictions placed on their lending ability meant agency owners had to reconsider their options.

Of course, if fewer business owners are able to access the funds they need, when they need them, there is less cash flow available that can be invested back into the agency to stimulate growth. This could weaken the agency’s competitive position and prevent it from taking advantage of the innumerable opportunities being presented in the market right now.

This is where products such as Simplicity’s 100% solution come into play. Suppose you have just won a great new contract to supply a team of people to start work next week, can you guarantee they will be paid each week up until your client pays their invoice?

Our 100% recruitment finance option ensures that you have the money available when you need it most to pay workers and your margin every Friday. This means that instead of chasing late payments from your clients and stressing over whether you will be able to cover your costs on time, we do all of that for you.

Access to the right finance is critical, but so is having the right systems in place to support and adapt to the changing needs of the agency itself. We recently announced the roll out of a dedicated recruitment end-to-end workflow solution and CRM – GEMS.

Completely free to all Simplicity partners, GEMS enables busy recruiters to save significant time each week by combining your front and back office systems into one simple process. From job bookings, client and candidate management, to timesheet and payroll management, invoicing and credit control, and reporting, GEMS has been proven to save recruiters time which can then be used to focus on meeting candidates and business development.

The world of recruitment is changing, and ambitious recruiters looking to increase market share need to ensure they are taking advantage of the opportunities readily available to them. How fast you grow and how profitable you want to be is down to you. We simply provide the technology and support to help your agency ambitions.