Ever thought about jumping ship from the corporate structure and going out on your own? You’re not alone; it’s a common theme that keeps coming up in our many chats with the TA Community. People are sick of the Merry-Go-Round and being overworked. And of course there’s the ever-present threat of redundancy that seems to constantly loom overhead in many organisations.
So what does it actually look like to go out on your own? And how do you turn your Talent Passion Project Side-gig into your 9-5? In our From TA Leader to Founder we chat with ex-TA leaders about how and why they took the leap to go out on their own, and what it looks like to be an entrepreneur in the Talent world.
We sat down with Rebecca Houghton, former Head of People Experience at Australia Post and former Head of Recruitment at Bupa to talk to her about transitioning from life in Talent at major corporate organisations to running her own business, BoldHR.
What ignited your decision to move out of an Internal/Employee role and start your own business?
For my last 3 years of corporate life, I was mapping my ideal job – this one. For me, it was almost inevitable – I’d been a company director at 29 and the pull of that experience had stayed very strongly with me for my entire career – I was always going to go back. Corporate life didn’t burn me out, it grew me up. I worry when people tell me they are setting up on their own because they’ve had enough of the rat race. The rat race is what pays most of us even when we’re on our own. My advice is to be motivated by what you are moving TOWARDS rather than AWAY from. What turned me on to my particular path was what I was learning in corporate life – I could clearly see a niche that no-one was servicing, and one that mattered to both employers and employees. The perfect balance of value, capability and competition.
Did you have varying ideas on what the business might be or did you know from the start?
When I first started BoldHR I thought I was going to continue being a talent consultant, but today I’m the authority on middle management, building B-Suite Leaders with C-Suite impact! Talent consulting was at the heart of what I had always done and thought I would always do, but someone very wise said something profound to me which locked me to the B-Suite. She said ‘it’s not what you’ve done that matters – lots of people have done something similar. It’s how you do it. If you could bottle your ‘how’ that would be truly unique’. So that was my big learning – how do you codify your experience so others can learn from it? If you’re considering going out as a consultant, then you’ll need to codify your methods and processes – or people won’t trust you to get the job done. The only way of working where you don’t have to do that, and you can rely on your CV alone is contracting – but that approach means you’re not in as much control – as you don’t have the IP to fall back on so you’re entirely at the whim of the markets.
What was the most surprising and challenging thing about going out on your own?
The most surprising thing was that you are so much more strategic when you’re working for yourself!!! You have to have a marketing, sales and business strategy. You’ll need to get clear on your unique brand and easily understood product offerings really quickly. You need to listen to the market to make sure you’re relevant, research to make sure you’re ahead, and watch the economy so you don’t fall behind. You also have to be incredibly tactical at the same time – you will become your own IT, marketing, legal and compliance department overnight! That can be pretty exhausting.
The biggest stressor is the constant balancing of cashflow – that stress manifests as being well planned most of the time, but sometimes it manifests as sheer panic (like, “what when no-one pays their invoices over the holidays so now they’re all 50 days late and you’ve still got to pay your bills, shit, take it out of the mortgage” – kind of panic). It took me a while to work out exactly what I needed to break even each month and to ensure that amount of money is always in the bank. It also took me a while to get over the shock of being taxed twice – once as a company and again as an employee. It tickles a bit, I won’t lie.
What have you found most rewarding or what has been your biggest achievement
Wow where do I start? My biggest achievement is the results I get for others – the promotions, pay rises and performance of others make me feel a million dollars, so as long as I’m getting those results, I’m happy. Otherwise, my biggest achievement changes every year! In 2019 it was launching Level Up 1.0, in 2020 it was my best-seller, IMPACT: 10 Ways to Level Up your Leadership. In 2023 it was launching Level Up 2.0 via our new digital platform. In 2024 it’s our B-Suite Benchmarks Assessment suite and the Annual Report (coming soon).
Through all this, my greatest reward has been the long-term relationships I have with so many clients – individual leaders who I am proud to continue coaching for a third year, and corporate clients who have been with me since day 1. 80% of my business is repeat customers and almost all of the rest is word of mouth – that literally blows me away.
How long did it take for you to find the right offer and rhythm?
About 2 years! I invested heavily in working out what I wanted to be when I grew up – learning how to develop and document my IP, wrote a book, built assessment tools, a digital platform – B-SuiteLeader.com and rebranded BoldHR before everything truly came together. And it’s continually evolving. I think about high performance as a shark – keep moving or die!
Where can you find her?
Rebecca is Australia’s leading authority on middle managers and works with individuals, teams and organisations to help them have more impact, more easily. You can find her on www.boldhr.com.
