Launching a Search Firm Takes a Host of Contacts

I thought this article gives insight on what search firms are, and how we operates. Unlike other resources on Wall Street, this is actuall free.

Question: I'm interested in the medical-recruiting field, but haven't had much experience in health care. My experience has been in administration, management and personnel recruiting. Can you recommend any courses or seminars or other suggestions? -- Leon, East Meadow, N.Y.

Leon: Executive recruiting is the sort of low-capital business that one might imagine would be easy enough to launch with a phone and a pot of coffee. Some folks have started exactly that way and achieved fantastic success.

But it's a business of relationships. It requires a sprawling, thriving network in the industry you serve, and that makes it tough to start from a standstill, no matter what courses you take or seminars you attend.

Still, it can be done. Bob Douglas started Chase Hunter Group in Chicago nine years ago, after several years working for another executive-search firm. He left his former employer with a noncompetitive agreement, and so began with an utterly blank slate of clients.

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