Insights
A lot of recruitment businesses spend their first year chasing growth.
More clients. More jobs. More consultants.
When we launched DMC in August 2025, that wasn't really the plan.
The goal was to build a boutique recruitment business that focused on relationships over volume. A business that gave clients honest advice, treated candidates properly, and concentrated on doing a small number of things exceptionally well.
Twelve months later, we're pleased to say that's still exactly what we're doing.
The business has grown. The team has grown. Our client base has expanded. But the fundamentals haven't changed.
And frankly, that's probably the biggest win.
One thing we've learned over the past year is that growth isn't always about adding people. It's about adding the right people.
Early on, Dylan and Harry joined the business and helped establish the standards we wanted DMC to be known for. More recently, Luke Garvin came on board to lead our Digital Sales & Marketing practice, bringing specialist expertise to an area of the market that's seeing significant demand.
Like any growing business, we've also had to invest in training, manage performance, and make sure expectations are clear.
That's not particularly exciting, but it's reality.
Culture isn't created by putting a few values on a website. It's built through the standards people are expected to uphold every day.
Over the last twelve months we've partnered with organisations across infrastructure, renewables, education, financial services, FMCG and med tech.
Some engagements have been retained searches. Others have evolved into ongoing panel relationships.
What matters to us isn't the variety of sectors. It's the quality of the relationships.
A recruitment partnership should get stronger over time. The client should gain a better understanding of how you work, and you should develop a better understanding of their business.
That's where the best hiring outcomes come from.
Not a database. Not a job board. Not a clever piece of marketing.
Just consistent delivery and a relationship built on trust.
Looking back over year one, a few milestones stand out.
We've established retained search partnerships across financial services and commercial markets.
We've continued building our specialist offering across three practice areas:
And perhaps most importantly, we've helped people make career moves they're genuinely happy with.
That last point matters more than anything on this list.
Recruitment is still ultimately about people. If candidates are landing in the right businesses and clients are building stronger teams, then the model is working.
One thing that often gets overlooked when people talk about growing a business is the systems behind it.
A boutique firm without strong processes can only grow so far before things start breaking.
Over the past year we've invested heavily in the technology supporting the business, including JobAdder, Xero, Astute Payroll, Referoo and Copilot automation.
None of those investments make for particularly exciting LinkedIn posts.
What they do create is consistency.
Better communication. Faster delivery. Less administration. Fewer things falling through the cracks.
The reality is that good systems allow you to stay boutique while operating professionally at scale.
If there's one theme that's emerged throughout year one, it's that most of the things that work in recruitment aren't particularly complicated.
People respond well to honesty.
Clients value good communication.
Candidates appreciate transparency.
And relationships matter more than most businesses realise.
We've seen this repeatedly. Candidates remember being given straightforward feedback, even when they didn't get the role. Clients remember recruiters who challenge assumptions when something doesn't look right.
Neither approach always makes you popular in the moment. But both tend to produce better outcomes.
As we move into our second year, the priorities are fairly clear.
We'll continue growing DMC and expanding our consulting and contracting capability. We'll invest further in our retained search partnerships and continue building long-term relationships with clients. We'll keep growing our Digital Sales & Marketing practice. And we'll continue focusing on specialist markets where we can genuinely add value.
There's always pressure in recruitment to broaden your offering.
Our view is slightly different.
We'd rather be known for depth than breadth.
Starting a business is one thing. Building a sustainable one is another.
The past twelve months wouldn't have been possible without the clients who trusted us, the candidates who partnered with us, and the broader network that has supported DMC along the way.
We're grateful for all of it.
Year one has reinforced something we already suspected: recruitment works best when relationships come first.
So that's what we'll keep doing.