Ricky Burns: How to build £1.1M profit in year one (after losing it all at 32) Ricky Burns made incredible money at 28 Then he drank it all away. Partied it into oblivion and got hit with a massive VAT bill he couldn't pay. Most people never recover from that kind of failure, but at 32, he decided to shut the business down and start again. He went back into employment for 11 years. Ran European divisions. Watched. Learned. Took notes on what actually works. Then in September 2024 he launched Pulse Group with his co-founder Tony. 12 months later: £1.4M in fees £1.1M in EBITDA (profit) I don't know anyone who's achieved these numbers in year one. This week on The RAG Podcast, Ricky breaks it all down. We cover: How they hit £1.1M profit in 12 months (it's simpler than you think) What killed his first business (beyond the partying) The 10 years of lessons that made the comeback inevitable Why he paired recruitment with SOW consultancy The systems and client focus driving 83% margins How AI is making them more efficient without adding headcount Why work-life balance is now non-negotiable This isn't your typical "I scaled fast" story. This is brutal honesty about failure, sobriety, and building something sustainable the second time around. __________________________________________ Episode Sponsor: Atlas Admin is a massive waste of time. That’s why there’s Atlas, the AI-first recruitment platform built for modern agencies. It doesn’t only track CVs and calls. It remembers everything. Every email, every interview, every conversation. Instantly searchable, always available. And now, it’s entering a whole new era. With Atlas 2.0, you can ask anything and it delivers. With Magic Search, you speak and it listens. It finds the right candidates using real conversations, not simply look for keywords. Atlas 2.0 also makes business development easier than ever. With Opportunities, you can track, manage and grow client relationships, powered by generative AI and built right into your workflow. Need insights? Custom dashboards give you total visibility over your pipeline. And that’s not theory. Atlas customers have reported up to 41% EBITDA growth and an 85% increase in monthly billings after adopting the platform. No admin. No silos. No lost info. Nothing but faster shortlists, better hires and more time to focus on what actually drives revenue. Atlas is your personal AI partner for modern recruiting. Don’t miss the future of recruitment. Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive RAG listener offer at https://recruitwithatlas.com/therag/ __________________________________________ Episode Sponsor: Hoxo Every recruitment founder is investing in LinkedIn. Spending thousands on Recruiter licences. Building connections. Posting content. Growing networks. But here’s the question almost no one can answer: How much revenue is LinkedIn actually bringing into your business? Most founders have thousands of connections but no clear process to turn that attention into cash. That’s the problem we solve. At Hoxo, we help recruitment founders build predictable revenue systems on LinkedIn, not just noise or vanity metrics. Our clients are turning LinkedIn into £100K–£300K in...
