Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Scott Swedberg, founder, and CEO of The Job Sauce, located in Denver, CO, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We're a high-touch recruiting firm for start-ups specializing in technical, leadership, and go-to-market roles. Most of our customers are Seed to Series D companies backed by the biggest names in venture capital.
Tell us about yourself
I've been curious about people's jobs and how they ended up in them ever since a 6th-grade project where I was supposed to say what I wanted to be when I grew up. I helped college friends land their first jobs, and my first management role was for a rotational program where post-rotation job placement was a key metric. I loved helping people figure out what would be a good career move and how to "work the system" to land those jobs.
When I started working at LinkedIn in 2014, more friends and acquaintances began reaching out for career support. I was already good at it, and I liked doing it a lot more than my actual job, so I quit to start The Job Sauce as a career services firm.
I believe that career fulfillment is integral to a person's happiness in today's society. How you spend your working hours and the money you earn has a huge impact on your life, and I'm passionate about helping people optimize that.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
The Job Sauce started as a career services firm, so we saw what "bad recruiters" looked like through our clients. It made me never want to do recruiting because I assumed treating candidates poorly (leading them on, lying about comp, not responding, etc.) was just part of the business. Once COVID-related layoffs began, our resume service was decimated due to changes at LinkedIn and tons of recruiters offering free resume support. It was a beautiful thing to see, but this was the top of our funnel, so it crushed our business. I reluctantly agreed with my business partner that we needed to pivot. We'd had many former clients ask us to help them with recruiting, so we finally agreed to try it out on our terms. I was wrong about recruiting. Not only can you run a successful recruiting business by treating candidates with kindness and respect, but it's also a competitive advantage. This successful pivot is our biggest accomplishment to date.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
As a business owner, the buck stops with you. You bear the ultimate responsibility for everything that happens in the business. There's something you could have done about everything that doesn't go to plan, and all you can do is learn from your mistakes and do better next time (or remember what worked so you can do it again).
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good (especially when the matter at hand isn't a top priority). Define your standards for what's acceptable, get to that point, then move on- for everything except those things that are integral to your business. For example, don't spend days trying to pick the perfect accounting software to use. But I'll spend a long time crafting the perfect email sequence to recruit a VP of Engineering.
- What gets measured gets managed. If you're not measuring the things that are most important to your business's success, you won't know if you're on track for growth. Take the time to ensure accurate measurement, then assess those metrics on a regular basis.
- Learn to delegate or outsource, and know what to keep for yourself. At a certain point, you will be the bottleneck to your business' growth, and you'll need to let other people handle some responsibilities. There are certain crucial responsibilities you need to keep, but you'll find you can make processes more efficient through the right software, virtual assistants, or hires. Assess what will be the next bottleneck and how soon you'll get there, then find a way to address it.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://thejobsauce.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottswedberg/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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