Every startup founder understands the value of a business plan.
But is yours too grandiose to turn into a solid business?
After working across the recruitment and HR technology market for more than 20 years, JP Caffery founded talent acquisition platform RAMP Global to remove friction between agencies.
The online platform aims to allow employers and global talent pools to connect and work together, claiming to cut hiring costs by more than 20%.
“I’ve come to recognise the importance of developing a clear understanding of the ‘ideal customer’ and aligning the platform and value proposition very closely,” he tells TechBlast of his quest to meet the needs of customers.
“While on this journey, the business has made a major shift – moving from a marketplace to a vendor management solution. This required careful consideration to ensure the user journey and commercial model was right.
“The shift from a success-only model to a licence fee model not only meant we turned on recurring revenue, we also had greater visibility of where our revenue was coming from.”
Caffery advises: “Have a realistic and robust business plan that can be broken down into bite-size steps, rather than one overly aspirational vision and roadmap that requires extensive funding and takes a long time to achieve.”
Founded in 2010, the company has invested significantly into its platform over the last decade to ensure scalability through automation. It recently expanded beyond Europe and the UK, now covering all regions across the world.
In January, it raised $1 million to scale up software development and product capacity.
“We have two main objectives: continued global client expansion and rapidly scale up our product development to include more integrations,” says Caffery. “My personal focus is to expand and onboard new global customers onto the platform.
“The tech and product teams’ key objective is to integrate with more HR technologies to make our platform even more connected and seamless for clients.”
Over the last year, it has doubled headcount to reach 25 employees, while growing its ecosystem of recruitment agencies from 16,000 to 23,000.
“To ensure we can deliver these objectives, we are looking to double the size of our team over the next 12 months,” the CEO adds.
Caffery also advises fellow entrepreneurs to ensure they have the right support system in place, for example identifying a co-founder or strategic advisors who can provide expertise and knowledge in areas you need help. “They will keep you motivated in the earliest stages and more challenging times,” he explains.
“Finally, financial prudence and commercial acumen is crucial at every stage of your journey. It’s not enough to have a great idea and buckets of energy; you need a strong understanding of numbers on a daily basis to ensure you deploy funds wisely and make informed decisions.
“Investing time and effort early on into understanding the financials and commercials of your business is essential to be successful as an entrepreneur.”