Jonathan Field on building a super profitable recruitment business where everyone has a responsibility to drive business

On this week’s show, I am joined by Jonathan Field, who is the co-CEO of SSQ. 

SSQ is a niche legal search firm headquartered in London with over a hundred staff across 11 offices all over the globe.

They’ve got offices in Europe and Asia, and they’ve just opened one up in the USA. 

I absolutely loved this episode because Jonathan spoke about things I honestly don’t think I’ve ever covered in four years of hosting the show. 

We talked about his journey from leaving a law firm after two years as a practicing lawyer to join the recruitment industry, and then working his way up to CEO.

We also talked about the legal recruitment sector and its high-profit nature, and the way in which they’ve run their business. 

We covered a number of things: 

1️⃣ How they maintain profit margins of over 30% with over a hundred people

2️⃣ How every single person in their business, apart from pure back-office individuals, has a fee-earning responsibility. 

3️⃣ The employee ownership trust. Last year, SSQ sold 100% of the business to an employee-owned trust, which effectively means that everyone in the business owns the company and will gain incredible rewards from this structure. 

Scaling to a hundred people, 30% profit without ridiculous management structures, and then an amazing ownership exit strategy that I’ve never heard about before!

In this episode, we’re gonna cover it all, and you’re gonna learn so much from one of the most well-spoken smart founders I’ve ever worked with.