Wow… another year has just passed by. I mentioned for some colleagues a few weeks ago that it felt like this year has had just an even steady business flow, but when we take a closer look and summarize what we have been doing, the progression and development has been crazy.
Started the year with three internal business units and ended the year with six different teams sharing the budget, delivery and client follow up.
More teams also mean that you can split the risk in your business, it means that the success can be compensated from month to month or quarter to quarter. The brand Nordic Jobs Worldwide is built up with Team Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark delivering by language and local knowledge and culture. It also means more internal ownership, competition (hopefully healthy), unique niche recruitment and some patriotism. We also have a specialist team working with unique roles and positions.
One fun thing that the colleagues implemented is the “local” breakfasts where every team make breakfast for the other teams with some local dishes and favorites from their home countries.
The colleagues in the Multilingual Jobs Worldwide brand are today working as one team with native speakers from Belgium, Netherlands, France and Germany. When we look at the growth, the Multilingual brand has the highest potential for the upcoming years and hopefully, in the near future, we have 3-4 teams based on different languages. Because we are still growing a lot!
It is also worth mentioning that we are growing ORGANICALLY. No investors, no loans, no sold invoices. All the money we earn is invested in the next colleague, next candidate source, next client visits etc. We are building our business the old school way of doing it. It feels good to know that you have sustainability and earn money on what you do when you are taking the next step all the time.
Did you know that 3 out of 4 start-up companies in Norway go bankrupt within 5 years? Many people want to run their own business, but they don’t know what it takes to do it.
Running a business is all about sales, delivery, leadership, staying humble and taking care of your colleagues. Without a vision you won’t reach your results and without results you don’t have a business.
So, what happened in 2019?
70% Revenue growth
Around 10% profit margin
25 new clients onboarded
3 new countries to work with
Company 2.0 was implemented in August
1000 people got new jobs through us during 2018-2019
Business units with Delivery Managers were established
Visiting clients in Barcelona, Helsinki, Tallinn, Athens, Lisbon, Dublin, Limassol, Malta and Manila.
Moved to our new offices in December 2019 with a fantastic view over Oslo with our own 200 m2 terrace.
What have we learned?
That you always need to take one step back to move two steps forward. We moved the Multilingual brand back to Oslo from Barcelona. It was necessary to keep the culture, delivery and routines that this company is built on. We also learned that 80% is good enough to get things done and move forward, to continue the company growth and development. We are working with clients in so many different countries and cultures every day, so we need to adapt daily to meet our partners’ demands and ways of working.
Imagine yourself starting the day talking with someone in Manila that is 7 hours ahead and used to working in the Asian business culture, after which you go into an internal meeting with colleagues from Finland, Denmark and France. After the meeting, you run a sales meeting with someone in Budapest, Hungary. During that meeting, someone from Cyprus tried to call you. Repeat that the next 5-6 hours with people from Greece, Malta, Ireland, Spain, Estonia, Netherlands before you end the day talking with someone that is 1 hour behind in Portugal.
You have been in contact with people from 10 different countries the same day and at the same time, you have been coaching and communicating with 10 different nationalities internally. What a rollercoaster, right? Super fun but not always the easiest.
The best thing in this whole story is that you know that you have fantastic colleagues that are sharing the vision and doing their part in this puzzle every day. Without the amazing people at our office, me and Björn, my partner, would be nothing. We have them to thank for everything.
Let´s see what 2020 can bring. First, you need to reach the same results you did last year and that doesn’t come for free in recruitment. You are never better than your last month because you always start on zero. The goal is to continue the growth with another 50-100%, we have 3 different “budgets” that we will analyze every month and quarter to stay focused and make the right priorities based on the order book and forecast.
But we can promise you this! We are more ready and hungry than ever. Our organization is one year older, processes and routines have developed, more internal responsibilities are shared, more companies all over the world are asking for our services and our new office is giving us the castle we need to feel like queens and kings every day when we come to work.
P.S. Before you go, watch our latest video about who we are and what we do here: Youtube
