This month the Ten Percent Group celebrates 25 years since we started trading. We launched our legal recruitment agency in April 2000 and made our first placement in October 2000! Our specialist transcription business opened in 2001, our first law firm sale was in 2005 and we moved into locum work in 2011.
We have worked in locations ranging from London to as far away as the Falkland Islands and with a diverse range of clients from sole practitioners to multinational companies. Our company has placed just about every type of candidate from junior paralegals through to managing partners and CEOs.
Since starting up we have stuck true to our value of donating 10% of our net profits to charity, with over £270,000 given away to date.
Here are 10 lessons learnt in the last 25 years – usually the hard way!
Business is Hard Work
I thought setting up a business was the hard bit and the money would flow in. Global success, a Caribbean island and lots of time off was my 5 year plan! After a few years in business the reality sets in; although you can have a very comfortable existence owning your own business, it takes a lot more than just trading to ever enjoy a level of success that leads on to a path of riches. Running a business is hard work and consumes a lot of your time.
Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness
We work with clients who are on the path to untold wealth – expansion, huge plans for the future, large bank loans, financial backing – and you can hear the stress in their voices. Happiness (we think) comes from a good work life balance and doing things you enjoy.
Be Yourself
Our USP is our uniqueness as a business – for example we offer 12 month rebates and instalments to all clients (we decided long ago this was a fair way of charging for our services) and we do not hype up clients to candidates and vice versa. Trying to be something else or like someone else never works. Be yourself and make sure your clients know what you stand for, whether this is (for example) personal service, efficiency, or being realistic at all times.
Stick to Your Principles
Clare Fagan (my wife and co-founder) and I set up Ten Percent Legal in 2000. Like anyone else going into business, we wanted to make lots of money and never have to work again. At the same time though we thought that it wouldn’t matter much if we donated a bit of our money to charity (10%) and what a great idea it was to call ourselves Ten Percent.
We have stuck with this through thick and thin, partly because we do genuinely believe in philanthropy but also partly because we are both incredibly stubborn! We said we’d donate 10% to charity and that’s exactly what we’ve done for 25 years. Its difficult at times, but philanthropy is rewarding and you do get to fund some amazing charities.
All of our companies donate to our charitable trust, without exception. The principle has stayed the same throughout; business can be a force for good and making money is not necessarily a bad thing.
Charity Donations Are Not Good For Business
To date we have donated just over £270,000 to charities across the U.K. and Africa. We are a group of companies with a turnover the same as most small-medium law firms, with a similar sized staff team. When I write articles about charity donation, I usually include a quick note to dispel a few myths.
Is there a tax benefit to donating to charity? No.
Do we get any business benefit from our charity donations? No, not according to our customer feedback (business clients see us as a bit eccentric, university clients in our transcription business like it but they are very price dependent when picking suppliers).
Would we donate 10% of our profits to charity if we started again? Yes. Philanthropy is very satisfying and we do not regret our decision 25 years ago. Which leads us onto the next lesson:
Business is More Than Making Money
We’ve realised over time that success in business is more than just making money. It’s about giving staff a job and a career, it’s about helping clients and it is of course about enjoying your own life. When you forget these things, business becomes an unpleasant place to be.
Work with Clients You Like
There are a lot of good people out there running businesses. We know who you are; if you use our recruitment services you explain to us why the previous person has left in generous terms and say how much you’ll miss them. When you list your firm for sale you’ll be genuinely worried about who will look after your clients when you leave.
Most solicitors are decent hardworking individuals who want to do the best they can for their clients and make money at the same time. We love working with these clients; we want to do the best we can and help them by providing our recruitment and law firm broker services.
Try to Avoid ‘Horrible’ Clients
Get over the concept as quickly as you can that there is no such thing as a bad customer. There most definitely is! We regularly decline instructions from law firms who we know to be (for want of a better term) dodgy. It may be we have worked with them before, or their reputation precedes them. These firms want to make as much money as they can by exploiting their staff, their clients and their suppliers. Clients rarely believe me when I say that there are certain law firms in the UK who appear to actually have a policy of not paying their suppliers unless court proceedings are issued.
Ronseal is Right
We like the Ronseal motto – always do exactly what you say you’ll do. If you say you will phone a candidate on a particular day at a particular time, do it. If you threaten to sue a client in 14 days time for non-payment of a bill make sure this happens.
Have a Plan
This is the one piece of advice we are not very good at sticking to. Have a plan with your business; where do you want to be in 5, 10 or 20 years’ time and what do you need to do in order to get there? We want to travel; but how do we get our business into a position where we can effectively be digital nomads and travel at the same time? If you are looking to retire when you are 50 years old, how much money do you need to amass in your pension or assets, or have you got a fully functioning business that runs without your involvement?
Thank You to our Clients, Candidates and Readers
Finally a big thank you to all clients and candidates who have used us over the years and kept our business going. Whether you signed up with us because you liked the concept of supporting charity through recruitment, or you use our services because of our professionalism (or you accidentlaly found us online), it doesn’t matter. Thanks to you, we are still going strong. Here’s to another 25 years in business!.
Jonathan Fagan, Founder Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment
