Portsmouth mums set up business to help recruiters get ‘the best of both worlds’ as they take the leap into going out on their own

TWO friends from Portsmouth have teamed up to start a business helping recruiters find freedom and flexibility in their work.
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Sarah Roads and Anna Smith joined forces to create The Middle Group, a business which supports experienced recruitment consultants as they start their own business.

The Middle Group offers recruiters resources such as job boards, email accounts, IT and admin support, and the full support and backing of Anna and Sarah.

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Sarah said: ‘We give them everything but a phone and a laptop. It will really allow people to get the best of both worlds, while having the freedom of working for themselves and earning more money.’

Sarah Roads and Anna Smith, co-founders of The Middle Group, a new recruitment business in PortsmouthSarah Roads and Anna Smith, co-founders of The Middle Group, a new recruitment business in Portsmouth
Sarah Roads and Anna Smith, co-founders of The Middle Group, a new recruitment business in Portsmouth
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Fellow recruitment experts and mums Sarah and Anna respectively run SLR Recruit and ALS Recruitment, but launched this new concept to allow people who work in recruitment to access tools, resources and support they need to strike out on their own.

Sarah added: ‘The way our consultants work is that they get all of the benefits of being their own boss, such as a better work-life balance, more freedom and flexibility, but with the benefits of additional support, such as, a resourcing and administration team around them and access to the logistics and management structure they need to get going.’

Sarah and Anna have a combined 23 years experience in recruitment, and The Middle Group already has two consultants and a resourcer.

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Anna said: ‘When Sarah and I started out, we had to work hard and faced a lot of challenges. But we had the support of each other, and that got us thinking that a lot of people don’t always have that, and we could provide it with our business model.

‘In recruitment it is thought that to be good at your job you must be the first one in the office and the last one to leave – often late at night. People have realised now that they are able to do their job from home and they don’t need to work every hour under the sun to do their job well.

‘We’re seeing a lot of people taking the leap, which is amazing, but we want to make it straightforward, taking the stress out of it for them and giving them that support they need, so they can be as successful as possible.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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