KIRSTY MacKenzie set up iMultiply in 2012 to change the way recruitment companies are run and perceived. Seven years later the company now has 20 employees across its offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast.
Name: Kirsty MacKenzie
Age: 35
Position: Founder
WHAT’S YOUR BUSINESS CALLED?
iMultiply
WHERE IS IT BASED?
Edinburgh and Glasgow
WHY DID YOU SET UP THE BUSINESS?
I HAVE grown up with business my whole life. My dad is a Glaswegian man from a low-income background – he was the first in his family to go to university and own his own home. He’s an inspiration to me. He made it in business through sheer hard work. He had a few businesses. He was instrumental in growing our family business – Hi-Fi Corner. I grew up around that and was taught at the age of three how to shake someone’s hand and we played negotiation games.
I made the decision as a teenager not to go into the family business. From an early age I had ambition to grow and run my own business. I did business studies at university and then picked one of the Times Top 100 companies to work for. I picked a recruitment company and realised I love recruitment, but the industry has a very mixed reputation.
When I was loving my job in my early twenties people would turn off when I told them about it.
I wondered why when you ask candidates or top employers about recruitment, they can only name one. I wrote a list of reasons why people don’t like recruitment companies.
People feel it is pushy sales – they’re trying to get a fee and don’t care about candidates.
I thought I could set up a business that challenges the competition to do better. I wanted to raise the game of the industry because it adds a huge amount of value to Scottish businesses and helps them to build their teams and improve candidates.
WHAT IS YOUR TARGET MARKET?
I WANTED to help Scottish businesses with ambition that also value people. We have ended up working with businesses that align with our values. A lot of the businesses are family-owned or entrepreneurial. All of them share our values and ambition. We are very values driven as a business and have done a lot with charities as well because they like our ethos.
HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM COMPETING BUSINESSES?
WE focus purely on the customer being the employer and the candidate – that’s quite different in recruitment. We have a head of customer relations who purely gets feedback from employers. We give the employers feedback about their interview process. We are managing to differentiate in a very competitive market. We have bonuses based on customer satisfaction, not internal things like the number of calls you make or how many CVs you have done. That’s the main difference. The competition has stepped up a bit. We want them to be better but it is hard for big multinationals to change at the pace we can.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT RUNNING THE BUSINESS?
I LOVE doing business in Scotland. There’s lots of growing companies here. Scotland has an amazing supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem. If you ask for help people will give you their time. I want to feed into that ecosystem too. Scotland has a strong investment community. There’s technology companies in Edinburgh and lots of family businesses. I read about Paul Atkinson who sets up and sells recruitment companies. He owns [investment firm] Par Equity. I phoned him up and he invested in us. He’s been a huge asset.
WHERE DO YOU HOPE THE BUSINESS WILL BE IN 10 YEARS’ TIME?
IN five years I would like to be chair of iMultiply but not working in it day to day. I would like to set up another business to prove I can do it again. In terms of iMultiply, even in three years we will have double the staff we have at the moment. We do a lot in the community as a business and have partnered with Project Scotland which helps young people get employment. We give them some of our revenue. The impact on that will be much bigger in 10 years – I’m hoping to dedicate more time to helping young people who are setting up a business. There are lots of free events for employers and candidates to help the wider Scottish community.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here