Originally Posted on ideamensch.com
Always reassess your position. As an entrepreneur, you are always learning about your business, capabilities and the broader market. Be ready to pivot from a previous direction to stay nimble to your customers’ needs.
Amy has been in the search and placement industry since 1994. With over 25 years of experience, Amy brings a broad understanding of the Recruitment Industry with a full spectrum of learnings from her time starting as a Staffing Consultant in a permanent placement agency to working as a key member of the executive recruiting team at SAP, a $30B enterprise software company.
In 2004 Amy started her first search and placement business specializing in recruiting software sales Account Executives. Among the multiple software companies she served, Amy landed a lucrative long-term retained recruiting contract with SAP America, a multi-billion dollar enterprise software company.
Due to the high demand for her services, Amy founded Concero in 2010 to increase resources and improve capacity to better accommodate her many clients. Concero specializes in recruiting sales talent for high-growth, private and publicly listed technology companies and helps clients streamline recruiting efforts to reduce costs, hire quickly and competitively, and attract world-class sales talent. Concero’s uniquely designed service offerings, singular focus on technology sales, and team of highly experienced recruiters combine to seamlessly integrate with their clients’ recruiting efforts and to ensure their success.
Where did the idea for Concero come from?
I had been working in the software industry recruiting for over 15 years and had worked with many different agencies. I always saw a gap in the services they provided and decided to start my own business, Concero, to fill the need for companies to have a true consultative partner to team up with.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
I start with getting my day organized and prioritizing any urgent matters. Once I put out the “burning fires” I try to carve out my afternoon to work on strategic projects. It’s always a challenge because there is always someone who thinks their issue should be on top of the list!
How do you bring ideas to life?
I am very lucky to have a great management team that is really able to execute new concepts. We can brainstorm a great new project in one meeting and my team will come to me with an implementation plan a week or two later. I trust them to drive the process and make our ideas into reality.
What’s one trend that excites you?
Data-driven decisions! Intuition and experience can only take you so far. With the landscape of any business constantly changing with innovation, data is that solid objective quantifiable measurement that can help you make a decision when faced with the unknown.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
Multi-tasking. I’ve always got 10 plates spinning at once. It really gives me the ability to keep my finger on the pulse of everything new that is happening.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Breathe. I used to run a million miles an hour and all the things I needed to do seemed so overwhelming. By taking a few minutes to breathe, assess the situation, then get back into it, I can solve problems in a much more planned way instead of attacking things haphazardly.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Saying ‘no’ can actually help your business grow. We have been very transparent with our prospective clients about our capabilities as recruiting consultants. We play in a niche market and are experts there. We are not a jack-of-all-trades. We have turned down business because it didn’t fit into our expertise. Funny enough, that reputation of turning down business has attracted even more clients where we are an exact fit!
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Always reassess your position. As an entrepreneur, you are always learning about your business, capabilities and the broader market. Be ready to pivot from a previous direction to stay nimble to your customers’ needs.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
Transparency. We are extremely open about our process, our capabilities and honestly sometimes our shortcomings. Our strategy includes truly partnering with our clients and you can’t do that if you hold your cards too tight. This approach seems to be so unique to our clients that they rave about our service. It’s been incredible for organic growth.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
One of my greatest early failures was thinking we were ‘lucky’ to have someone come to work for us. When we started off small, I always thought someone was taking a chance on us so I may have underestimated the talent we could attract. In hindsight, I should have been proud of our idea and hired people who believed as much as I did that would be willing to help evangelize our solution.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Virtual reality-based skills assessment (e.g., an employer could test a candidate’s ability to stock shelves or pack boxes quickly)
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
I bought a few bottles of champagne for my local team to celebrate with. There was no special occasion, I just wanted to thank them for running so hard and fast and wanted to take a break to acknowledge that. We took time at the end of the day, popped some bubbles and ended up laughing telling “war stories” of the recent past. Really helped us bond.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?
I run my life on Google (email, schedule, files, chat, you name it!). It’s got EVERYTHING and ties my professional and personal life together in one neat package.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
“Girl, Stop Apologizing” by Rachel Hollis. Although targeted at women, I think the concepts are universal. As entrepreneurs, we really hang ourselves out there and this book really talks about how to believe in yourself and not to worry about those that would judge you.
What is your favorite quote?
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” -Neale Donald Walsch
