Interview with Romney Rawes

This video starts out slow but then gets into some very important issues. Whether one goes public, sells, or just wants to “own and grow”, there are some beneficial points in the second half of the video (you still have to watch the first half to fully appreciate it).

Discussions of adding temp/consulting to perm practices is very good, the comments on being a recruiter but not a “trained business owner” is very valid, and most importantly, the focus on developing a strategic plan is critical if one truly wants to grow one’s business.

You won’t walk away with an ability to formulate many new ideas from this video, but I guess that’s not the point. This is more of a “teaser” that will make you comfortable that Romney knows this business well, in the event one wants to engage him for guidance. I will be contacting him to learn more about the role he plays as an advisor and his cost structure.

I was very much interested in viewing/listening to this interview. However, the audio was so low, that I could not.

I obviously checked all of my volume controls on my computer. Please let me know if there is something more I could do.

Jeffrey Patterson

Interesting where do you get the 10 ideas from

Always great to hear from someone who has been there. Totally agree with learning more from mistakes than successes

Great video. Real stuff. Romney seems to have the right mix of experience, humility and confidence. Definitely a fellow worth listening to.

Always interesting and inspiring to hear of other people’s success. This is a great teaser to interest us into the detail that will hopefully come later. Good stuff though. Ben

Mark,

It was quite good, both of you were quite interesting and made some
excellent points. I am not sure who your target audience is, someone who is
looking to grow a business and take it public?

Rich

Hi guys

Awesome video.
I’m a recruiter – still call myself one even though I’ve been running Recruitment Systems for ten years, building and selling a recruitment system. I got into recruitment in 1985, built two companies and a branch for Candle in Canberra, Australia. And built that, with no help (interference!) from head office into being the most profitable branch in the Candle empire in three years. Zero to 270 contractors in that time. We started doing perms seriously when we hit the 200 mark.

I’m passionate about recruitment – and about entrepreneurship. Romney: The biggest and best takeaway I got was that I should take some money off the table.

We have 300 clients – recruitment companies – around the world. 65% or so in Australia, quite a few in Asia which is our biggest growth market now. I’m thinking that there might be something we can do together. Not sure what, but anything I can do to raise the quality of the recruitment process I will do. And if I make some money out of it directly that’s fine, but the main driver is to contribute to the industry.

Neil
Neil Bolton
CEO
T +61 2 6296 7777
M +61 419 205 629

Really inspiring stuff, good one Romney. I’m big ears attentive and looking forward to hearing more from Romney, with a particular interest in leveraging off a micro plateau to higher ground, with limited resources.

Very inspiring story that keeps me motivated; Mark, thank you for asking the question at the end of the interview, you spoke for me! I’d like to hear more specifics and tips from Romney how he ran and grew his successful recruting business; hopefully will be in the next segments. Thank you for the generosity of knowledge!
Violeta.

Excellent Interview. I can relate to lot of the Challenges that Romney had mentioned, If we are not Planning Carefully for the Growth, Pretty soon we would have depleted the Cashflow though the P/L might show Profit.

Would be really Curious to Know how he handled that early stage Cashflow Issues other than Floating the Equity of the Company.

Thanks in Advance
Suresh K

Excellent, balanced and informative. Food for thought. Our business is very niche -construction and engineering permanent placements and very little temp although I have recognised the potential.
I will watch the video a second and maybe third time.
Thank you Mark and Romney

Mark,

You didn’t ask the most important question: What were your “differentiators?”

JE

Very good video. Another one that makes you sit back and think!! Having watched it it makes me wonder if i have enough (if any!) real differenters in today’s tough market. It’s easy to get bogged down to thinking we are all doing the same thing but clearly we need to make a difference and be able to express this to our clients. Our business has been going for 1.5 years – our plan has always been to build up a successful business to sell on in 5-8 years. How to i avoid staying small and what needs to be put in place now to achieve this before it’s too late…? Anyway great video and good inspiration…