Start a Full-Desk (360) Recruiting Business

1. 1

   Decide full-desk on purpose

   In a split-desk agency, account managers win clients and researchers source candidates. In a full-desk (360) model you do both on every deal. The upside is you keep the entire fee; the cost is you carry both workloads and both funnels alone. This is a real structural choice; pick it knowing what it demands.

2. 2

   Build both muscles

   Full-desk requires two distinct skill sets: selling to hiring companies (business development, negotiation) and finding and closing candidates (sourcing, screening, offer management). Most recruiters lean strong in one and weak in the other. Deliberately build the weaker side, because in a 360 model a gap on either side stalls the whole deal.

3. 3

   Pick a niche narrow enough to run solo

   Because you are doing everything yourself, a tight niche is essential: one industry, a few role types, a defined geography. Depth lets you reuse candidate relationships across clients and client relationships across roles, which is how a solo full-desk operator gets leverage without a team.

4. 4

   Run both funnels with tight systems

   You cannot let client development lapse while you source, or sourcing lapse while you sell. Use an ATS and a strict weekly rhythm that forces attention to both funnels. The full-desk operators who succeed protect time for business development even in busy placement weeks.

5. 5

   Price to reflect the full fee you keep

   Since no fee is split with an account manager or the house, your economics per placement are strong, but your volume ceiling is lower because you do everything. Track revenue per placement and per working hour, and decide when growth means hiring help on one side of the desk versus staying lean and keeping full fees.

6. 6

   Scale by cloning the desk, not diluting it

   If you grow, you can either add full-desk recruiters (each running their own 360) or split into account managers and sourcers. Both are valid; choose based on whether your niche has enough volume to specialize. Grow deliberately so you do not turn a high-margin solo desk into a low-margin agency by accident.

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