Season 9 | Ep29 Charlie Saffro: What Nobody Tells You About Selling Your Recruitment Business

About this episode

Charlie Saffro discusses her journey of building and selling her recruitment business, CS Recruiting, and the personal challenges that followed.

Charlie Saffro started CS Recruiting by accident. Pregnant with her third child, out of a job overnight, doing free matchmaking from the school carpool line in Chicago. Her first placement fee was $1,200 with a year-long guarantee. Sixteen years later, she had built a $5 million logistics and supply chain recruitment firm with 48 employees at its peak. Inc. Best Workplaces honouree. TEDx speaker. A brand built entirely on the idea that business is personal. Then the market turned. Three brutal years, 2022 to 2024, forced her to halve the team. On Thanksgiving 2024, she took a walk with her husband and said the words out loud for the first time: "I'm done." She sold CS Recruiting on December 1st 2025. The same year her oldest son left for college. Within weeks, the woman who had been needed by everyone suddenly wasn't needed by anyone. "Who am I without these titles? Who am I if I'm not in charge of my kids, if I'm not in charge of my team?" This week on The RAG Podcast, Charlie opens up about the reality of selling a recruitment business and what comes after. We cover: How an advertising career in downtown Chicago accidentally led to a logistics recruitment firm Why her first big…

People in this episode

Host: Sean Anderson

Guest: Charlie Saffro

Topics covered

• selling a recruitment business
• personal branding
• career transitions
• business challenges
• logistics recruitment
• work-life balance

Keywords

• recruitment business
• personal branding
• career change
• business sale
• logistics recruitment
• work-life balance
• entrepreneurship

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CS Recruiting

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