In this episode of the ‘Making It Count’ podcast, we sit down with Steve Grace from The Nudge Group.
Steve Grace has successfully built and sold two profitable businesses from the ground up so he knows a thing (or a thousand) about what makes a business successful. His new venture, The Nudge Group, was born from a genuine desire to help businesses grow from start-ups, to unicorns. Steve is also the founder and host of the Podcast, ‘Give It A Nudge’.
Passion for start-ups, for Steve, came from watching his father create start-ups to survive. ‘He just made things work. He was one of the first people to bring Rap music into the UK from the states because he saw an opportunity.’ Steve has always had quite bad dyslexia but, with the encouragement from his father, he found himself in the area of recruitment. ‘I don’t think you’ll find any successful recruiters who left their schooling and decided to become a recruiter – it’s very much one of those careers which you fall into’ says Steve. He learnt to create an opportunity and then just make it happen.
So, what is the key when it comes to recruiting for a start-up? ‘I like start-ups because of the energy’ says Steve, ‘but the recruitment process for start-ups is expensive – anywhere between 10-30k- which is the first problem’ says Steve. Then, recruiters didn’t understand the differences between start-ups. People are being put into the wrong jobs and, the roles are always evolving. ‘So, we set-out a business that dealt with those problems.’ The language around recruitment for start-ups needs to change. Steve has developed a new and original recruitment model that gives early stage and rapid growth businesses direct access to top-tier talent and specialist expertise without the traditional price tag. ‘For me, you have to love that start-up space and it is so fun’.
The culture in any business is huge. ‘To be successful at anything, you have got to be willing to do more than the average person’ says Steve, ‘however, those who have been the most successful know how to look after themselves. You have to balance it with freedom, looking after your health and sleeping well.’ Again, it comes back to the language used in this space. ‘There is a lot of vibrato that gets thrown around in this space that is not realistic. You have to try cut through that’ says Steve. This is why he created Balance the Grind, work-life balance publication.
There is a lot of chatter about scalability for a start-up. ‘Employees need systems and structure’ says Steve, ‘they need to know what is expected of them and how they can achieve it. The teams that succeed are the ones where everyone plays their roles successfully.’ If you can identify your weakness’ before you recognise your strengths it will put you in a great position.
And finally, Steve shares with us how we too can become high performers in our field. ‘Habits are important’ says Steve, ‘You have to spend time identifying what makes you function well and what makes you function badly. Exercise, diet and sleep all have an impact on your mental health. ‘Take the time to look at your health. This should be the number one priority for anyone running a business.’
So, sit back and enjoy this episode as Steve Grace Makes It Count for start-ups.
Links:
Making It Count
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The Nudge Group
Balance the Grind
Connect with Steve on LinkedIn
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