Insight from a Sports Business Owner- Starting from the Ground Up

My first Insight-Out BLOG is an interview with Robert McMurtrie. Rob is the Managing Director of People Recruitment Group which incorporates Sportspeople Recruitment . Rob started his business from the ground up in 1996. Rob has been generous to offer his Insights to us into how to start a business, build a business and a build a brand whilst continuing to transform and grow to remain a competitive and sustainable business after 26 years!

Given your own experience of starting a business, if there were three things that you could share now with someone considering starting their own business, what would they be?

·         Find a trusted mentor, preferably someone who has built a business from the start-up phase through to long term success. They will be an invaluable source of advice when you inevitably hit rock bottom and fill yourself with doubt. I was fortunate to have a couple and among many other things they taught me the value of focussing on cash flow early in the business development cycle and to expect peaks and troughs in cash flow. 

·         At the start-up phase, understand what your basic living costs are and focus on meeting these however possible. That might mean working in a second job while you’re building the business. If you are passionate and committed to building a business, you will always find a path. Being self-employed is rarely easy and you will need to be prepared to make sacrifices particularly in the early years. 

·         If you are starting a business where others are already providing the same services, be better. If you have a business idea that is absolutely unique, spend the time understanding why no-one else has thought of it before. When I launched Sportspeople Recruitment in 1996 there were plenty of recruitment agencies, but none operating as a specialist in sport. I took 12 months to workshop the idea, understand where I was likely to fail and where I could succeed before we launched.

 As competition has increased in the on-line recruitment sector, how have you gone about making those strategic decisions that have ensured that Sportspeople has remained sustainable and competitive?

·         Sportspeople Recruitment has been the go-to agency for the sport sector since 1996 and while we’ve seen competitors come and go, we still fill more jobs than any other agency by a quantum. In 1999 we established the Sportspeople Jobs Market at www.sportspeople.com.au as we felt there were many more jobs available than simply those we were filling through Sportspeople Recruitment. The Sportspeople Jobs Market, the first of its kind in the world at the time, is a DIY portal for employers, many of which have their own HR team or the capacity to manage the recruitment in-house. The Sportspeople Recruitment and Sportspeople Jobs Market business ran alongside each other capturing the bulk of the agency and DIY work in the Australian & NZ sport sector until I sold the Sportspeople Jobs Market in 2018.

·         The service offering of Sportspeople Recruitment has shifted and changed along the way, providing a range of search and recruitment services tailored around the needs of the employers. Some employers, particularly those with lesser experience or perhaps no in-house HR team, engage Sportspeople Recruitment to manage the full recruitment cycle from job construct, search, managing the interviews and negotiating the terms of employment. Others engage us to market a role and build the candidate group, accessing our talent network and we pass the process over to them at the shortlist stage. Others use us purely for executive search or international search where a highly specialised role needs to be filled or perhaps a sensitive or high-profile role becomes available. 

. While our use of technology has changed, we were an early adopter of video-interviews as we have been working internationally since 2000. Our talent network has been curated over many, many years and we have candidates inside & outside the sport sector from all parts of the world. In 2021 there is really no need to have bricks & mortar offices spread around the globe as we can contact, talk and negotiate with virtually anyone, anywhere and at any time.  

Thinking about the growth you have experienced in your business, what advice can you share with business leaders who are figuring out how to scale and transform their own companies?

·         Do what you do better than everyone else. Don’t over commit. Don’t fall short on delivery. Make decisions when they need to be made. Trust your instincts as they’re usually 100% right. Be prepared to change ideas and ways you do things. Don’t be afraid of failing. 

·         I’ve often been asked why we didn’t seek to develop a global brand or have the words ‘international’ or ‘global’ in our branding. The simple truth is we set out to be the No. 1 recruiter for  the Australian & New Zealand sport sector and I’m very pleased we have maintained that position unrivalled since 1996. Along the way we have in fact developed an international presence and reputation, regularly targeting and bringing talent to Australia & NZ particularly candidates from afar including Europe, North America and Asia. We live in a highly connected world where we have the ability to connect with people regardless of their location. You don’t have to be complex and large to be successful. I’d encourage anyone contemplating starting a business to focus on doing a few things better than anyone else in that market and use the success as a steppingstone. Understanding what you want to achieve from being self-employed is really important.