Never underestimate the power of a basement office.
Take recruitment professional Stacey Stratton. She decided to leave the Minneapolis-based staffing firm Celarity and strike out on her own in 2008 to start
True Talent Group, and she laughs now about the timing: "It was a terrible time to start a business, just dismal."
But she wanted to give it a try anyway. She set herself up in the basement, with a bathmat as her office rug, and told her husband that she was giving herself 60 days to make it work. Over the next year, she did sales recruiting, and then got back into working with creative professionals. "I'm so passionate about this industry, I just love it," she says. "And that's translated into triple-digit growth."
In 2009, she brought on three employees and all work out of their homes, which Stratton believes is beneficial for achieving a strong work/life balance.
Although the firm initially focused only on permanent placement for creatives, the industry at the time was more geared toward contract work, so Stratton added freelancers to the pool. She focuses on marketing and creative professionals partly because marketing is her background, but mainly because she finds the fields exciting.
"There's nothing cooler than looking at great creative," she says. "Also, creative is its own animal. If someone says they need a production artist, we know exactly who to find. There's value in sticking with a niche instead of trying to build expertise in all areas."
To keep the growth rolling, Stratton will be launching a new website in the near future, and focusing on keeping her 90 percent referral rate. "The Twin Cities has such a vibrant community when it comes to marketing and creative," she says. "That makes our opportunities seem limitless."
Source: Stacey Stratton, True Talent Group
Writer: Elizabeth Millard