About this episode

Jon Woolley shares his journey from a senior recruiter to a solo founder who billed over $1 million in two years while maintaining a balanced family life.

Jon Woolley spent nearly a decade at Vantage Consulting. He opened their US arm, built a team of eight, and scaled it to $1.6 million. Then, three weeks before his third child was born, he walked away. No team. No clients. No pipeline. Just £30,000 in savings and a niche most recruiters have never heard of: industrial automation. The people who programme the machines that make the stuff, from pharmaceuticals to Amazon warehouses. Average fees of $20,000 to $22,000 a placement. Year one at Candid Talent he billed £112,000. Year two, $500,000. And then Q1 of year three: over $350,000 in a single quarter. Solo. From a farmhouse in Staffordshire. Three kids under seven. 25 hours a week. Almost all inbound from LinkedIn. "Honestly, it's wild. Compared to the stress of year one... coming into year three with that kind of quarter. It's awesome." This week on The RAG Podcast, Jon breaks down how he went from employed recruiter to solo founder billing over $1 million in just two years, whilst being more present for his family than he ever was in agency life. We Cover: How Jon built a $1.6M US desk for someone else before going solo Why he left a senior role three weeks before his third…

People in this episode

Host: Sean Anderson

Guest: Jon Woolley

Topics covered

• recruitment
• entrepreneurship
• industrial automation
• work-life balance
• business growth

Keywords

• recruitment
• solo founder
• industrial automation
• LinkedIn
• business growth
• work-life balance
• agency life

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Vantage Consulting, Candid Talent

Places: Staffordshire, US, UK

More episodes of The RAG Podcast - Recruitment Agency Growth Podcast

• Season 9 | Ep25 Christian Mather: The Wealth Planner Recruitment Founders Are Calling First · April 7, 2026 · 1h 3m
• Season 9 | Ep24 How David Bloxham Flipped a 130-Person Agency to 95% Contract Revenue · March 31, 2026 · 1h 5m
• Season 9 | Ep23 Ben Richardson & Mike Bott: Why LHi Group appointed two CEOs · March 24, 2026 · 1h 16m
• Season 9 | Ep22 Lucy Robinson: Fired from her job, now running a £650k global search firm · March 17, 2026 · 1h 3m
• Season 9 | Ep21 Jory Humphreys & Sam Hope: How they built $25M in 25 months using offshore leverage · March 10, 2026 · 1h 16m
• Season 9 | Ep20 Emma Storey: How 2 part-time working mums billed £500K in their first 2 years! · March 3, 2026 · 1h 18m

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