Selling a recruitment business is not an easy game!

This week on the pod, we sat down with Matt Fox from Exitus Advisory.

His backstory is wild, starting as a rep selling bar crawls on the Malia strip to completely accidentally falling into recruitment.

But the real eye opener of this episode is his journey as an agency founder. Matt built a 30 person agency and could smell the finish line of selling it.

The heads of terms were signed. The deal was done. And then...

Boris Johnson went on TV to announce the first national COVID lockdown. The deal collapsed, jobs vanished overnight, and he was forced to go back to the drawing board.

Matt talks through the brutal reality of dealing with toxic staff, the mental toll of managing a business through a crisis, and how he eventually rebuilt the company to secure a successful exit on his own terms.

It takes some serious grit to be so close to the finish, have it all pulled away and then go back round and have another crack.

After going through all of that, he helps other recruitment founders prepare their businesses for sale, and he dropped some incredible advice on what makes an agency actually valuable, which is super useful for anyone who's got their eye on selling.

In this episode we cover:

• Working on the Malia strip and how it doesn't quite prepare you for management.

• The brutal story of a multi-million-pound exit collapsing overnight.

• The emotional and mental toll of managing toxic staff and bad behavior.

• What actually makes a recruitment agency sellable (and how to increase your valuation).

• Why you need to step away from billing if you want to sell.

• Our most thoughtful gift to date.

• Lee's Lunchbox: If you had to start again tomorrow with no network and no brand, would you still build a recruitment business?