I’ve been through my fair share of downturns and recessions, it’s one of the few benefits of working for such a long time. The current ‘downturn’ whichever you’re in often feels like it’s the worst one. Each recession impacts in different ways, but my overarching message here is to use the time to review your business, your goals, your objectives and practices. The best news here is, it wont last forever (but as long as you stay in business in the meantime…)
Advice, and blogs on how to survive / thrive will all be targeted to slightly different shapes and sizes. This advice comes with a small 5-15 people business in mind, owner manager recruitment business. Ok here’s mine:
- Lock in. Tough love time, this aint gonna be easy or particularly fun, you didnt start your business to deal with stuff like this, but I’m afraid this is the situation. Mentally how you approach this will make a big difference.
- Think Cash. When times are good, you tend to look at bills raised, deals done, jobs on, all as reliable future cash, today, focus on cash in the bank. Cash flow and cash reserves will help you get through this, so think twice before investing in anything that removes your liquidity. Often people say to have 6 months expenses in the bank… truth alert, most dont, so keep as much as you can.
- Overcome the relationship issue with your customers. This is a tricky one, you may have been running very well in the past with a relatively good client relationship but when the jobs dry up, that relationship becomes a bit harder to maintain. There’s only a number of times you can call them and ask how business is (have you got any jobs). This isnt my main area of expertise, but you’ll need to tread carefully to make sure you’re top of the list when they do recruit again, but too much contact seems desperate and becomes annoying. You decide how much is enough, but mix things up with salary surveys, research and reports within the industry that keep you relevant.
- In response to 3, review how you work and interact with your customers, so you’re not in such a conundrum in the next recession. Review working practices, fees, processes, markets worked, how you market, brand positioning. Caution though, this can be a slippery slope impacted by emotion and fear based on your current situation, so my advice do this, then put it aside for a while to revisit later. No client likes multiple U turns or dramatic change – especially during this time.
- Expenses easier to cut. Although some will say in a recession to keep up the marketing spend, which has some validity to it, the truth is nothing should be off the table when it comes to costs, this is your fastest way to reducing losses and should be looked at very closely. During the boom time of 2022 it was easy to get carried away with adding to your rec tech stack. Time for a proper audit! You might even find you can replace some of your existing tech stack with newer tech AND save some extra money, and by the way, what a time to buy if you’re replacing old clunky tech with something cheaper and better.
- Time to get back on the tools. Sure it might have been a few years since you were a consultant, and you might be a bit rusty, and you might feel like you’re going backwards in your own development. But switch your mindset, you’re in survival and start up mode, so you’re back to doing what you need to. Besides, secretly, you missed doing deals, getting jobs on and working at the coal face. Think of it this way, you just hired yourself a great new consultant… for free!
- Communicate to the team. They’re worried too. It’s easy to get very insular in hard times to close off. It’s like a level of self preservation. Fight this feeling as much as you can, if you have a team they’ll be seeing what’s going on too. It’s likely they are not hitting the numbers they used to and will see the changes happening in the market. Communicate your vision and your strategy moving forward, you will need to keep them as motivated and engaged as you can so bring them in as part of the start up mindset. You’ll be surprised how a crisis (or a recession) can bring togetherness and solidarity.
This will pass, you just need to survive it, business gurus talk about ‘thriving’ in a recession – I probably have, and I’m not a guru, i think we get a bit entrepreneurial at times like this. That’s ok too, good even, but if you’re not, that’s fine, your number 1 objective is to survive. The good times will return, and when they do you’re next objective is to put into place all the things you said you’d do during this time, because when the jobs start flowing, the money is being banked, it’s very easy to forget about these times (which is why the next recession will feel like the hardest one yet…)
This article was originally posted on ukrecruiter.co.uk on the 6th of August 2025
