What happens when you cold email Lord Sugar asking for investment? Tom Johnson did exactly that…and it worked! On this week's show, I am joined by Tom Johnson, founder of Hernshead Group, a recruitment business he launched six years ago with backing from Lord Alan Sugar after watching The Apprentice. In this episode, Tom shares the full story – from that bold email to building and scaling Hernshead Group, launching (and closing) multiple brands, and recently completing a management buyout to take full ownership of the company. In this episode, we discuss: How Tom secured investment from Lord Sugar and built the business from scratch The reality of launching new brands and learning from failure The highs and lows of building a team, navigating COVID-19, and scaling with clarity How and why he bought back 100 percent of the shares If you're looking for investment, currently working with a business partner, or planning for long-term ownership and growth, this is an episode you need to hear. Chapters 00:00 The journey begins: Tom Johnson's entrepreneurial path 03:08 Investment and growth: Partnering with Sir Alan Sugar 06:14 Navigating challenges: The impact of COVID-19 08:56 Expanding horizons: The launch of multiple brands 11:56 Learning from failure: The downfall of new ventures 15:03 Refocusing on core strengths: The future of Hearnshead Group 30:06 Scaling the team and business growth 31:03 Implementing effective processes and training 33:14 Leveraging AI and technology in recruitment 34:21 Balancing AI assistance with human touch 36:33 Data-driven management and performance tracking 39:05 Overcoming fear and building confidence in sales 44:04 Strategic business decisions and future planning 49:09 Equity and incentives for team growth 52:50 Vision for the future and sustainable growth __________________________________________ Episode Sponsor: Atlas Your memory isn’t perfect. So Atlas remembers everything for you. Atlas is an end-to-end recruitment platform built for the AI generation. It automates your admin so you can focus on the business tasks that matter. How many conversations do you have every day? With clients. Candidates. Your team. Service providers. Now how many of those conversations can you recall with 100% accuracy? How many hours a week do you spend making notes to try and retain as much as possible? And how much is still getting lost along the way? Traditional CRM systems weren’t built for the type of recruitment business you’re running right now. They were built to rely on the structured, tagged, categorised, and formal data you could feed it. Manual processes that needed you to input specific information, based on specific questions and answers. But what about all the other conversations you’re having every single day? Atlas isn’t an ATS or a CRM. It’s an Intelligent Business Platform that helps you perform 10X better than you could on your own. How? By removing all your low value tasks, acting as your perfect memory, and providing highly relevant recommendations to impact your performance. Learn more about the power of Atlas – and take advantage of the exclusive offer for The RAG listeners – by visiting https://recruitwithatlas.com/therag/ __________________________________________ Episode Sponsor: Hoxo Ready to find 25+ warm leads within seven days on LinkedIn? As a recruiter, most of the working day is spent chasing people via cold outreach on LinkedIn. This method is super time-consuming, and most people don’t reply...
