If you’re a fan of the TV series The Apprentice, then Ricky should already be well known to you. Winner of series 8 and remembered for his professional wrestling outside of the business arena, Ricky has been successfully managing his new business Hyper Recruitment Solutions (HRS) since October 2012. Obviously his business partner, none other than Lord Sugar, has brought a lot to the table to kick start the business, but its Ricky’s hard work and dedication that has made his science & technology recruitment business thrive.

Along with a passion for science itself, and actively promoting the industry, Ricky wanted to differentiate
from the competition with a real knowledge base and understanding that others in the recruitment profession would not be able to demonstrate.

We talk to Ricky about life after The Apprentice, and how his fledgling business is faring:

1. How has HRS taken off since you started back in 2012?

The answer is quite simple really, very well! We have essentially gone from having nothing, no client base,
no infrastructure, to a fully operational company that’s doing remarkably well!

2. What has been your business strategy to compete in the recruitment market place?

Essentially it’s all been about keeping the business niche, we are not just recruiters, we understand our clients businesses because we have people here who have left the science industry to come and work for us. This enables us to offer a very unique service that not many others can compete with.

3. Is there anything you learnt specifically doing ‘The Apprentice’ that has helped you in your day to day activities?

I learnt a lot of things that helped me; it was a 12 week process where I had to take part in 11 different business concepts. So with a wide range of business techniques to learn and products to try and sell, you had to keep coming up with fresh new ideas every week. The main thing I learnt was thatyou can make something happen if you try hard enough; you have to get stuck in and stop making excuses of ‘one day’
and ‘what ifs’.

4. How crucial do you feel social media is to your industry now, and has it helped generate new business?

It’s becoming more important to recruitment, you can get your brand out there of course, but it’s all about the engagement with your customers. People want that kind of platform of social interaction with the companies they deal with, and it generates a lot of interest and gets people talking about you. Something simple like our recent technology focused giveaway (a unique peanut butter maker) has generated 900 retweets in just a few
days, and the respective audience from that can be huge. All the team can put relevant content on our sites to ensure it’s not just about tweeting jobs and our key messages, but anything science & tech related. We don’t want to put people off by spamming but providing interesting and topical content to our market place.
Using these powers of social media significantly helps to build your online presence and in turn helps us to help more people.

5. What’s an average day for you?

If there was an average day for me it would involve very early starts and getting home late in the evening pretty much every night. It’s a long day, but that’s what it takes to get your business up and running. This is my baby and I have to do what it takes to make it work. It’s also about supporting my consultants, my customers and my business and this does take time. Particularly my consultants who need to know I’m right here alongside them doing everything I can.

6. How much input does Lord Sugar have into the running of the business?

I set up the company out of his office; he’s about a 5 second walk away if I need him. It was intentional, he’s not a silent partner as everyone seems to think, he comes to me and asks if there is anything we need for the business, and I can go to him if I need to. He’s hands on when he needs to be, but he’s let me get on with it and trusts me to run the business. I am a scientist and spent a large number of years in recruitment before setting up Hyper Recruitment Solutions. So our relationship of me driving the business forward using my expertise and Lord Sugar supporting this works perfectly.

7. What do you look for in a broker?

Credibility is the first thing. Do they have a track record? Are they interested in my business and understands how it runs? They need to care about my business and what we do. I wanted a broker who were more interested in helping me make a success of my company and not just how much they can get out of me. And Jelf care about my business.

8. What are the biggest risks/threats you face in your industry?

There are a number of risks to any recruitment companies with one of the more obvious being clients who aren’t paying their bills on time. I feel any recruitment company needs to have a robust financial assessment process in place particularly when dealing with contract labour as cash-flow is king after all. Another risk is always the competition of course, other agencies that maybe specialise more than you do, but I think in this market our strategy has meant we should be the main threat with the expertise and knowledge base of our consultants.

9. Any business plans for the next 12 months?

We’re currently in the process of taking on 3 new consultants who start next week, which is around a 25% increase on the current staff we have now! We have more plans to recruit again over the next 12 months, due to the fact we have such a high demand to get involved with additional projects from retained business. Our European presence will also be increasing, more and more we are finding international business is a growth area for us.

10. Which science fiction film would you consider your favourite and why?

There’s so many, I’m kind of a film buff, but if pushed I think it would have to be The Matrix. It’s one of my favourite films, I can watch it over and over again; the technology for the time and cinematography are just fantastic. This film brings together state of the art cinema with futuristic technology and science – similar to what my business is doing for our market in recruitment!

Hyper Recruitment Solutions have been a client of Jelf since it opened in 2012 and has continued to enjoy a
successful working relationship with Peter Stoll, Director at Jelf Manson, as the company has evolved.

Follow Ricky on twitter: @rickymartin247 or @Hyperec_HRS or visit the HRS website here.