This is a long one today because I think a lot of people need to hear this. Not trying to be preachy or disrespectful, but I do want to shake (some of you) a little. Because you deserve better.
I’ve heard this sentence hundreds of times. Sometimes it’s said with conviction. But most often it’s wrapped in hope.
And lately I’m hearing it a lot more.
Either way, it’s the most expensive sentence a recruitment founder can repeat to themselves.
It comes from a genuine place, that very same optimism and resilience that drove someone to hang their shingle in the first place. But if your business is going sideways, it’s misplaced optimism.
So let’s talk about why “things will pick up next quarter” almost never comes true on its own and how you can change that.
Why We Believe It
The recruitment industry is cyclical by nature. It even has its own term – champagne and razor blades. When it happens enough, it becomes a belief.
There’s also the matter of sunk cost and identity. When you’ve built a business and invested in it with all your heart, it’s difficult to say “this approach isn’t working.” It’s much easier to say “the timing isn’t right yet.”
“The market is slow” is a story.
Of course there are good years and bad, but plenty of times I’ve coached founders in the same market, one’s winning at every turn, and the other is struggling and says “the market is flat”. So I think we need to be wary when we are quick to blame the market.
What “Next Quarter” Actually Looks Like in Practice
Here’s what I typically see when a recruitment founder is in the “next quarter” holding pattern:
- Business development and marketing activity is inconsistent. Busy when there’s no revenue, invisible when things pick up slightly.
- The client base is dangerously concentrated (often 1-3 clients driving most of the revenue).
- Or it’s the opposite. Too many clients and lost commitment all round.
- The team is either stretched thin or underutilised, depending on the week.
- The founder is spending time in the weeds rather than on the business.
- There’s no consistent pipeline.
- There’s ad hoc adoption of tech/AI systems.
- Chaos reigns supreme and the founder is busted.
This is what happens when a firm is built on momentum rather than systems.
Momentum is great when you have it. Systems are what you fall back on when you don’t.
The Quiet Danger of Waiting
There’s a particular kind of damage that happens when a recruitment firm idles. It’s not dramatic. It doesn’t feel like a crisis. It feels like patience.
But while founders wait for the market to turn, a few things are quietly happening:
- Competitors who didn’t wait are deepening their client relationships.
- Top billers get restless and start exploring other offers.
- The founder’s network cools. People feel less connected to someone they haven’t heard from.
- Cash reserves erode, which narrows the options available when the market does shift.
- The mental load of waiting compounds. Decision making becomes more reactive, less strategic.
By the time next quarter actually arrives, the business is often less equipped to capitalise on it than it was three months earlier.
Ok So What Actually Makes Things Pick Up
Here’s the uncomfortable truth, and the liberating one.
“The conditions you are waiting for don’t arrive – they get created”
The recruitment founders I’ve worked with who genuinely break through slow periods share a few consistent patterns:
1. They get brutally honest about their pipeline.
Not optimistic about it. Not hopeful about it. Honest. A pipeline isn’t warm leads, polite emails, or “someone who might have a role in a few months.”
A real pipeline has specific opportunities, clear next steps and real timelines. Most founders, when they audit their pipeline honestly, discover it’s much thinner than they thought.
2. They stop waiting for permission to go upmarket.
Many small recruitment firms stay stuck in the same tier of clients they started with, not because they can’t serve bigger ones, but because they haven’t deliberately positioned themselves to.
The slow quarter is often the best time to reframe your positioning, sharpen your niche, and start approaching clients you previously considered out of reach.
3. They make business development non-negotiable, not situational.
The firms that grow consistently aren’t just the ones with the best recruiters. They’re the ones where BD and marketing happens every single week, regardless of how busy they are. The founders who only do this when they’re desperate are always chasing their tail.
As they say:
“You don’t have to be the best, but you do have to be the best known”
4. They identify the actual constraint.
Is it lead generation? Conversion? Delivery capacity? Pricing? Repeat business? The answer to “why aren’t we growing” is almost never “the market.” It’s something specific, and???? the good news is it’s usually fixable.
But it requires the founder to stop looking outward at conditions and start looking inward at the business model.
5. They invest in visibility during the quiet periods.
The founders who are top of mind when the market turns are the ones who stayed visible when it didn’t.
Content, conversations, events, introductions, none of these require a hot market to execute. They just require consistency. And the ROI shows up exactly when you need it most.
A Reframe Worth Sitting With
“The market doesn’t owe you a good quarter. But a good quarter becomes much more likely when you’ve earned it.”
The founders who scale their firms don’t have better luck than the ones who don’t. They just have better systems, better habits, and a clearer view of what’s actually driving (or blocking) their growth.
The “next quarter” belief is seductive because it feels like optimism. And optimism is genuinely valuable in this industry. But optimism without a plan is just hope with good PR!
The question worth asking right now isn’t “when will things pick up for me?” It’s “what would I need to do differently for things to pick up?” And then doing that.
Where to Start
If this piece has landed, here are three things worth doing this week:
- Audit your pipeline with a critical eye. How many of those “warm leads” have a next action and a real date attached? Remove everything that doesn’t.
- Block time for business development that doesn’t move, no matter how busy things get. Even 10 minutes per day changes the compound effect over a quarter.
- Have an honest conversation about your biggest constraint. Not with your team, with someone who will push back. A peer, a mentor, a coach.
The quarter you’ve been waiting for doesn’t have a start date on the calendar. But it does have a starting point.
And that starting point is right now.
If this hits a nerve, please book a call with me and I’ll help you out.
Cheers,
BK
