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Your most-asked start-up questions: answered by founders
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    • Your most-asked start-up questions: answered by founders
      • Intro
      • Funding & finance
        • How much does it cost to launch?
        • How much can I earn?
        • Do I need an investor?
        • Is an 'exit' realistic?
      • Planning & preparing
        • How do I build a brand?
        • Does my non-compete block me?
        • Can I run contractors from day one?
        • icon picker
          What research should I do?
        • What technology do I need?
      • Expectations & examples
        • How does a typical start-up perform?
        • What challenges should I expect?
        • What case studies can I explore?
        • How valuable is RecruitHub's 'community'?
      • recruithub
        About RecruitHub
        • Overview
        • How does RecruitHub work?
        • RecruitHub customers
        • The launch process
        • Get in touch
Your most-asked start-up questions: answered by founders
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What research should I do?

What research should I do?

Starting a company is a huge commitment. It’s not something you should take lightly.

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Across RecruitHub’s time in the start-up space, we’ve met founders who’ve:

launched solo, felt isolated and wished they’d had some support
mis-managed finances (run out of cash / got upside-down with their taxes)
failed to bill consistently (poor go-to-market planning, 101+ distractions away from sales)
launched with a ‘bare bones’ tech stack that’s caused them more problems than it’s solved
given away huge %s of their business to investors (and regretted it)
⁠

Setting solid foundations

Before launching your agency, we recommend you:
build a thorough go-to-market plan
Know exactly what your ‘Ideal Customer Profile’ (ICP) consists of, map the market, identify key decision-makers, and ensure that there’s tons plenty of demand for your services.
Plan how you’ll engage new clients, how you’ll build your candidate network and why your clients will buy from you (vs your competition or filling roles themselves).
create a detailed financial forecast
Understand the risks and minimum performance required to run a profitable business and grow your headcount.
plan your exit
Review your post-termination restrictions and get advice on how to resign from your current company + launching without legal fallout.
shop around for funding (if needed)
Find a way to launch whilst owning as much equity as possible in your company.
Take this as seriously as you would making any other large financial decision (e.g. mortgage), and don’t jump at the first offer.
get great references
Do your homework on any potential business partner, investor or other key person involved in your plans.

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