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Luck led Lucy into top career
SERENDIPITY played a large part in helping Lucy Bristow to set up in business as a recruitment consultant.
After leaving University College, London, where she studied German, she did not “have a clue as to what to do for a career”.
It was, she admits, “trial and error in defining where my career path lay”.
She tried numerous jobs including working for a publisher and being personal assistant to a potato merchant in Ledbury.
At one stage Lucy , the daughter of a Herefordshire farmer, thought she might follow in her father’s footsteps. But she didn’t toy with that idea for long.
“The thought of getting up at six o’clock on a cold winter’s morning didn’t really appeal,” she laughs.
“I had so many jobs. I kept leaving, knowing that it was not the job for me. The jobs lasted for weeks not months or years.
“Eventually the employment agency I was using gave up placing me with firms. Instead they asked if I would like to be a trainee employment consultant.
“That was at the age of 22. That was my lucky break. I found something I really enjoyed. I was getting pleasure from helping people find the right job. I’ve never looked back.”
It led to Lucy moving to Bristol and founding her own recruitment consultancy.
Next year, she will celebrate the 21st anniversary of the business.
Lucy , who is winner of the Lifetime Achiever category in the Evening Post Recruitment Awards, now has two offices, one in the centre of Bristol and the other at Aztec West.
“I chose Bristol because it was a booming city and it’s moving forward with lots of head offices now based here,” she said.
“When I arrived I rented what can only be described as a cupboard in a business centre at the bottom of Small Street. just off the city centre.
“There literally wasn’t room to swing a cat in there. I remember the rent was £54 a square foot to rent. I couldn’t afford any more.
“I couldn’t even afford to rent a flat in Bristol so I had to commute from Herefordshire. That was three hours each day.
“To set up the business I begged £5,000 from the bank and started work using a secondhand typewriter along with a copy of the Yellow Pages. Those were my only assets.
“It was a bit daunting at first. I had a window which looked out on to Colston Avenue and all I could see were employment agencies everywhere. There were lots of them.
“I must have been naive in starting up a recruitment business in a city I didn’t know.”
She quickly found employment recruitment was a highly competitive business.
“I did as much networking as I could by going to lunches, conferences, awards ceremonies and presentations, anywhere that I might meet people who were responsible for recruiting for their companies” she said.
Lucy’s first client was a long-established Bristol firm of solicitors in Marsh Street which was looking for a receptionist.
“It was boom time and there were loads of jobs going in Bristol but this firm was desperate to find a good quality candidate. So I went all out to find the perfect person for them,” she said.
“When the firm accepted my candidate I was jumping up and down with joy.” in my cupboard. You can imagine it, can’t you? Just me jumping up and down! “That candidate stayed with them for nine months. My second placement was an administrator with a bank”.
The business grew and Lucy took on staff. Her first appointment was six months after starting up the business, followed by a second employee six months later. In her first year of trading, Lucy was able to report a profit of £40,000.
“That was pretty good going in a city I didn’t know” said Lucy , who now employs 17 staff and has become a single mother with two daughters and a son.whose ages range from seven to 14 years.
Away from the business, Lucy relaxes by windsurfing and sailing off the Exmouth and Pembrokeshire coasts. She also ran in this year’s Bristol half marathon, clocking in a time of under two hours. |
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