Thinking of branching out on my own - looking for suggestions

Hi! I was laid off recently, but since I have the good fortune of having some resources to carry me for a while, I am thinking this might be a serendipitous opportunity to grab some of the business I often come across as a result of being highly networked in my local business community.

I came across AgentHR, which gives you job board access, Sendouts access, marketing materials, etc, for a cut of the fees... pretty reasonable I think but I don't know if perhaps there are similar operations out there I should look at for comparison? Does anyone have any comments on AgentHR, or suggestions as to similar outfits (i.e. ones that would not require an outlay of franchise fees)?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by pam claughton on February 28, 2009 at 2:18pm

Chris,

If you have some resources to invest in yourself and the initiative to go on your own, what do you need AgentHR for? I took a quick look at what they offer and the pricing, and here's my thoughts:

You get access to Monster and Careerbuilder and Sendouts. Plus other assorted training stuff. For that you will pay them $25,000, which is 50% of the first 50k that you bill, and you keep what you bill after that.

You're still paying them $25,000!

You could buy your own subscription to Monster and Careerbuilder for roughly 6k each, give or take a little depending what options you choose. But it's still less than half the price of what you'll pay AgentHR.

I pay $69 a month for my ATS, cbizsoft. Sendouts may be a little higher, but probably not that much. There's lots of inexpensive ATS options that you can pay monthly.

They also do the invoicing and collections. They position that as if that is a benefit for you. I don't see that it is. It will take you longer to get your money. If you invoice and collect yourself, you have much more control over the process.

Bottom-line is if you have the initiative to commit to the business for at least a year, putting in 110%, you don't need AgentHR to be successful.

However, if you're not sure if you can do it, and don't want to invest any money in yourself up front, then AgentHR might be an option.

But, if you're going to go into business for yourself, believing you can do it, and making a dollar and time committment is essential.

If you invest the money yourself, up front, you might be even more motivated.

Just my take on it.

Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Chris Wessell on February 28, 2009 at 2:21pm

I should clarify - I have resources to last me a good 4-6 months living expenses wise... but don't have money to cough up for startup costs. Therein lies my dilemma. Although there is probably a solution somewhere in between the AgentHR example and completely going out on my own... I definitely appreciate your rather detailed suggestion.

That's still a good point though, that I'm basically paying them $22500... hence I am wondering if anyone knows of someone that offers a better deal...

I'll have to contact Monster, Dice, etc and get an idea of what packages they offer...

Thank you again

pam claughton said:

Chris,

If you have some resources to invest in yourself and the iniative to go on your own, what do you need AgentHR for? I took a quick look at what they offer and the pricing, and here's my thoughts:

You get access to Monster and Careerbuilder and Sendouts. Plus other assorted training stuff. For that you will pay them 22,500, which is 50% of the first 50k that you bill, and you keep what you bill after that.

You're still paying them 22,500!

You could buy your own subscription to Monster and Careerbuilder for roughly 6k each, give or take a little depending what options you choose. But it's still half the price of what you'll pay AgentHR.

I pay $69 a month for my ATS, cbizsoft. Sendouts may be a little higher, but probably not that much. There's lots of inexpensive ATS options that you can pay monthly.

They also do the invoicing and collections. They position that as if that is a benefit for you. I don't see that it is. It will take you longer to get your money. If you invoice and collect yourself, you have much more control over the process.

Bottom-line is if you have the initiative to commit to the business for at least a year, putting in 110%, you don't need AgentHR to be successful.

However, if you're not sure if you can do it, and don't want to invest any money in yourself up front, then AgentHR might be an option.

But, if you're going to go into business for yourself, believing you can do it, and making a dollar and time committment is essential.

If you invest the money yourself, up front, you might be even more motivated.

Just my take on it.

Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Andrew Greenberg on January 4, 2010 at 11:15pm

Chris,

I have an interesting scenario that might work for you. - please give me a call at 973-429-8989.

Regards,
Andy

www.midlandsearch.com

Permalink Reply by Chris Wessell on January 11, 2010 at 5:15pm

Andrew - update on this, since February when I posted this question, I started a firm with two partners in October and have been humming along... but if you want to do splits or something feel free to contact me!

Chris

Andrew Greenberg said:

Chris,

I have an interesting scenario that might work for you. - please give me a call at 973-429-8989.

Regards,
Andy

www.midlandsearch.com

Permalink Reply by Alan Strauss on January 11, 2010 at 7:16pm

You can also look at CATS at catsone.com and bountyjobs.com. CATS I hear is a good inexpensive ATS and they have a community of other small headhunters. Bountyjobs is more of a sharing service for headhunters.

Permalink Reply by Mike Hard on January 26, 2010 at 9:13am

Thanks for mentioning us Alan. Chris - I'd recommend BountyJobs as a good resource, but only if you are targeted and have 1-2 specialty areas where you have a strong supply or insighyt into candidates. We (I work there) attracted frankly too many generalists in late 2008 and for the past 6 months have been more careful about which search firms are right for the site so that we could increase the quality of interactions they have with employers. If that sounds like a fit for you, happy to help mike@bountyjobs.com.

Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on January 27, 2010 at 7:22am

So, I'm curious - did you do it? Go out on your own? How did/are things go/going??

Permalink Reply by Chris Wessell on February 26, 2010 at 8:49am

Maureen,

Here we are a year later, almost to the day... at this point in time I have a firm with two partners and a couple staff employees, a few dozen people on billing, several perm placements and two retained searches...

So far so good!!

Now I just have to fix up our website, which I pretty much threw together... as soon as I get some time to stop recruiting for a minute ;-) www.recruitingandhr.com

Maureen Sharib said:

So, I'm curious - did you do it? Go out on your own? How did/are things go/going??

Permalink Reply by Chris Wessell on February 26, 2010 at 8:53am

So I'm definitely not "on my own" in the true sense... but I am a 33% owner and report to no man. So, I guess best of both worlds... kind of like going "on my own" but with some of the risk shared ;) It works for me so far!!
Definitely doing a lot better than if I was trying to do it all myself.

Chris Wessell said:

Maureen,

Here we are a year later, almost to the day... at this point in time I have a firm with two partners and a couple staff employees, a few dozen people on billing, several perm placements and two retained searches...

So far so good!!

Now I just have to fix up our website, which I pretty much threw together... as soon as I get some time to stop recruiting for a minute ;-) www.recruitingandhr.com

Maureen Sharib said:
So, I'm curious - did you do it? Go out on your own? How did/are things go/going??