3 Months In - Our Journey So Far, and A New Member!

Distinct is just over 3 months old and we wanted to share the good, bad, and ugly of the last month which has flown by.

It’s safe to say, you’d be somewhat concerned if the 3rd month of trading wasn’t a “record month” to date – so no surprises there, but did we believe it would be as good as it was given we’ve only been trading for 13 full weeks, in short no.

It’s a sign of the progress made, combined with the high expectations of everyone involved that we were actually a little disappointed at the end of the month. This is despite the fact that 3 months in, once we’ve crunched the numbers it’s likely that we will have made a profit. When you’re not taking a salary out of the business that means a lot.

So why were we disappointed – simply because a “great month”, two days before the end, was shaping up to be an “exceptional month” until we suffered a double blow. One that I’m sure anyone working in our industry will empathise with and something that is quite prevalent in the market at the moment as businesses do everything they can to keep hold of the best talent – the “Counter Offer”. What made this one a little more difficult to take was the fact that we were very close to replacing the particular candidate at their current business – so a double whammy in just one phone call.

On the same afternoon we had 2 final interviews for a role in Nottingham, both candidates really keen on the position but the call we got expecting an offer turned out to be the client saying they had received a “speculative CV” through of a candidate who was immediately available and they’d offered them the job – this is great when it happens in your favour but it’s a tough one to take when you’re on the receiving end – fair play to our Competitor who got us with that one :) but that’s recruitment, and having spent 16 years in the sector news like this is part and parcel of the job. That said we found 12 people new jobs and added them to our own team here at Distinct.

Rosalind Day has joined us this month as our Finance Manager. Having spent the last 8 years working in the recruitment sector, Ros brings a wealth of knowledge and we feel privileged to have such an experienced individual joining us in what will be a pivotal role as part of the growth of the business. Whilst it’s been a great experience getting to grips with the back office and battling with HMRC it feels as though a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders passing all the back office over to Ros. So the light nights have arrived and we are focused on building on our strong start as we head towards the summer. We have built an excellent team here at Distinct in the first 3 months of trading but this is just the beginning and we are now focused on our next recruitment drive as we look to achieve significant growth over the next 12 months. Going into April there is a lot happening and whether it’s finalising our 2-year plan, continuing to build our customer base, integrating our new accounting software, or making sure we have enough fire extinguishers so we can have our evening BBQ’s on our terrace when the sun shines. I’m sure April will prove to have highs and lows just like March and hopefully will result in another record month.

- Arran