THE CLIMB
As a society, we often associate growth with being vertical in nature. Many of us spend a great deal of our careers constantly striving to get to the "next step" the "next position" and onto the "next big thing." One of the biggest lessons I've learned since moving into the Ownership seat at Cormack is that bigger isn't always better.
When I first decided to purchase Cormack in the summer of 2020, I was excited to "grow" the business and, at the time, to me that meant to grow the team. I've always loved working with, coaching and developing a team. Even before I got into the wonderful world of Recruitment, People were everything to me as a leader in Retail. I loved training and development, coaching and mentorship and just the commerodary associated with being a part of a strong team. So, naturally, I was elated to have the opportunity to select my own team once again and really build the brand. Over the course of the next year, I did just that. I was able to build a small, but mighty team of incredible people that I truly loved working with. The next year, we expanded our services to include HR Consulting and we hit some huge revenue milestones I never thought I would see. But, as great as things were going, by year 4, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. It took some long talks with a few close colleagues, friends and family to realize that what was missing for me was the hands-on recruitment piece. As the team had grown, I wasn't doing as much of the recruitment myself anymore and I realized I missed it terribly.
SHIFTING GEARS
As the saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it too. I knew that jumping back onto the desk, working with Candidates and Clients one-on-one again was definitely going to re-light my fire, but it was also going to mean that I wouldn't be able to continue to scale the business. That was a hard pill for me to swallow. I am so passionate about what we do and the unique experience we give our Candidates and Clients, that I really wanted to share that with everyone, as many people as I could possibly reach. But when I really stood back and looked at what we had built, I realized that the truth of the matter was, the larger our business and team had gotten, the more diluted the truly personalized experience had become and I was NOT ok with that.
So, at the end of 2024, I made one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made. I scaled back the business. I walked away from the HR Consulting side of our company and went full steam ahead with Recruitment. I was embarrassed to realize that, something which never would have occurred before I was a business owner had happened: I had lost touch with SO many people in my network. I spent January and February really focused on putting the "personal connection" piece back into Cormack. I took full advantage of the traditional downtime we have in our first quarter, to reconnect with old Colleagues, Clients and Candidates I haven't talked to in years and something magical happened. I was able to reignite the embers of past relationships and connections that had faded and ultimately breathe new life into Cormack. By the time our 10th anniversary rolled around the first week of May, we were on fire once more, I was on fire once more.
LESSON LEARNED
Over the last 5 years as a business owner, I have learned many things, but chief among them is, bigger is definitely not always better. It's not about the size of my team or how much more revenue can we generate. It's about the mission we are trying to accomplish and the message I want my brand to send. At Cormack, we specialize in People and we recognize that we have the power to change lives. We forge relationships and connections that build businesses of all sizes and shape careers at all levels. This is our mission. This is what we stand for.
Scaling back was a tough decision for me and, I'm not going to lie, I was really concerned that doing so would hurt the overall revenue of the business. That said, when I made the decision to scale back, I also committed to doing so no matter what the result, because I felt like it was the right thing to do to bring us back in line with our core values. In doing so, I realized that my cup is truly best filled by creating a unique experience in the world of Recruitment amongst our competition for Candidates and Clients alike, both personally and financially. Prioritizing personal connection and customization has actually resulted in revenue increases over last year, so lesson learned: bigger isn't always better and trust your gut.
Until next time, stay classy and stay connected!
Amanda Cox
