A day in the life… running a tech start-up

by Perry Coppen and Brett Creed, co-founders of CrunchPoster

CrunchPoster is shaping the online recruitment market by giving recruiters the tools to find the right people for the job. It’s as simple as that.

We are a tech start up that provides recruiters with an applicant tracking system. We believe our model provides a solution to an existing problem.We want to make the recruitment process more convenient, more accessible and more organised. Our system means that the job advert, postings, applications and resourcing function is held together in one place.

You could say that our different backgrounds have helped get us where we are today. Brett is the recruitment expert, with more than five years in the industry, while I (Perry) have experience running a separate business. We met several years before we even started the business, simply through mutual friends, and Brett knew me when I started Tidi-Cable in 2012. We launched CrunchPoster to create the best possible flat-fee recruitment service for businesses of all sizes, from SMEs to large corporations.

We work with businesses of all sizes, from one-man bands to household names. Some our clients include NHS and Boots, while others include Land Registry and Remington. So a real mix!

Running your own business means you get to make decisions about your work schedule. My alarm goes off at 6:30am, and I usually kick-start the morning with a run. Meanwhile Brett’s day begins with caring for his daughter, usually from around 7:00am. As a working dad, Brett is in a position where he can fit his working schedule around his family if he needs to. We both arrive at the office at 8:30am, ready for a morning of meetings with clients where we’ll discuss the system and how we can help them.

After client meetings, we’ll catch up with relevant teams and brief them on any updates. As the owners, any decisions on the direction of the business fall straight to us. One benefit of being a co-founder of a business is that you’ve got an extra person to bounce ideas off. Starting a new business can be daunting too – there’s the fear of failure with any new business, but having each other means we’re in it together. It’s hugely reassuring.

On particularly busy days, it’s not unusual for us to miss our lunchbreaks. Most of our mornings are spent with clients so we’ll usually dash out to grab a quick sandwich from somewhere nearby. We’re always short of time, so we’ll head straight back to the office and respond to any emails that need urgent attention.

Our afternoons are usually spent working on any actions taken from the morning’s meetings. For the most part, Brett will attend off-site face-to-face client meetings to ensure we provide the best deal.

Although the majority of the day is spent racing against the clock, we usually leave the office around 6pm. We try to be super-organised and efficient throughout the day so we can leave on time, but it hasn’t always been like that. In the early days of starting out, we’d often be working overtime to get things up and running. Almost two years on, we’re finally in a position where we have a better work-life balance. It’s a good position to be in, and we don’t take it for granted!

To us, it’s really important to spend time with our friends and family, so we’ll do what we can to ensure we can kick-back in the evenings. We aim to instil these values in our staff too – work-life balance is so important to us. Unless there are urgent deadlines to meet, we’ll encourage our employees to enjoy their spare time as much as possible. We know they’ll put in the hard work when it’s needed.

In fact, our staff are our best asset. It think it’s what makes it special here at CrunchPoster. One of the best parts of running a business is watching them develop and improve their skills. For example, we have seen an employee, who has been with us since the very start, move up to become our Sales Director; and a former apprentice now does the marketing for both CrunchPoster and Tidi-Cable. We really invest in those we believe in.

And while much more responsibility comes with running your own business, together with plenty of stress – it’s much more rewarding seeing your own business idea develop. We are responsible for generating our own results, so it’s an amazing feeling when we win some new business or generate a real spike in sales. It makes all the hard work worth it.

We’ve been lucky enough to receive the right financial support to get our venture started. After securing a £15,000 of funding from The Start Up Loans Company, we used the capital to grow our company, investing in things like credits and our applicant tracking system.

Our dream is to offer our service to as many recruitment companies as possible. We want to shake up the industry in a big way: by offering bigger and better things for our clients. Our main plan for the future is to expand our service in order to create the best possible flat fee recruitment service we can.

 

 

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