First clients in a recruitment agency
The first-ten method runs on public job postings: every posting means budget approved and a hiring manager assigned, and a posting up for weeks is a nervous manager. Add venture-backed companies sixty to ninety days past a funding round, and the question that ends every candidate call, "where else are you interviewing," naming warm companies for free. Outreach runs to a hundred potential clients a week, batched by niche, recycled every three months; March's silence can be June's emergency. The first touch:
"Hi [Name], saw the [role title] opening on your careers page, it has been up about a month. I place [role type] in [niche], and I have several who fit what your posting describes. Would it be worth twenty minutes to see if I can shorten the search? If it's already close to filled, no pitch, tell me and I'll check back next quarter."
Replies skew toward the fourth touch, not the first. The warm network signs fastest: "If a role ever lands on your desk that is dragging, I would like to be on your short list." Scripts and cadence in finding your first clients.
Pricing in a recruitment agency
The pricing method lands on direct-hire fees of 15 to 30 percent of first-year base salary, 20 percent the most common. At a $90,000 salary that is $13,500 at 15%, $18,000 at 20%, $22,500 at 25%. Contingency is how every agency starts; retained search at 25 to 35 percent is a graduation sold on track record. Throughput is operator consensus: one to two placements a month competent, three above average. Three clauses defend the fee: guarantees of 30, 60, or 90 days (90 most common, fight for free replacement over refund), payment at net-10 from start stretching to thirty, candidate ownership for six to twelve months. When pushed on price: "We are a finder's fee, same as the agencies you already use. The difference is you pay nothing unless this person signs and starts." The flat-fee trap is an operator's scar: $5,000 flat per engineer, three placements, $15,000 total, less than one standard placement. The walkthrough is the fee model and the math and the fee agreement.
Rules in a recruitment agency
The legal framework plus one trade-specific check: no federal license exists, but roughly half the states regulate employment agencies, and the state that matters can be your client's, not yours. Before the first fee agreement, search your state's Department of Labor and Secretary of State sites for "employment agency license." Never charge candidates; candidate-side fees are what these laws police. Work from the ASA/NAPS model agreement, signed before any submission; one hour of lawyer time on it is the entire recommended legal budget. E&O averages about $82 a month, bought the first time procurement asks for a certificate. Taught in licenses, contracts, and the law.
Money in a recruitment agency
The money system wraps the longest payout lag in this catalog: sourcing, one to three months of interviews, weeks of notice, then net-10 terms. The optimistic path to a first cleared fee is three months; one r/recruiting poster took seven. Budget several zero-placement months in year one, a thin December, six months of runway. The lean stack opens for roughly $100-600 (LLC $35-500 by state, EIN free, free tool tiers), monthly burn under $300, closer to $500 with LinkedIn Recruiter Lite at about $170 or a paid ATS seat near $25. The week-by-week table is working for free: the cash-flow truth; the purchases are the lean stack.
First hire in a recruitment agency
The first hire is a junior recruiter or researcher who takes the sourcing half of the desk while you keep clients and closing. The classic structure is the desk model: business-development recruiters own clients, delivery recruiters own searches. Split placements, a fifty-fifty fee with a firm holding the other half, borrow capacity before any hire; write the agreement before names change hands. The shapes are in scaling, splits, and going deeper; the trigger math lives in the first-hire module.
Everything here is condensed from the full course, which adds the sourcing methods, the thirty-minute screen, and a ninety-day launch plan.