In the end, he pitched to UK-based entrepreneur Peter Done, who runs a similar employment law consultancy, albeit on a larger scale.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Last month, Done agreed to invest $2.5 million into Employsure in order to push it forward.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI managed to get [Done\u2019s] number and give him a call. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, so I said, I just set up a business that looks a lot like yours,\u201d Mallet says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sort of picking Peter\u2019s brain and he turned around sometime after that and said, I\u2019ll invest some money in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As a result, Employsure has grown from a team of eight advisors to 20 staff, including 12 salespeople. According to Mallet, the headcount could be as high as 35 by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you start a start-up, you\u2019re often submerged in the business when you should be working on the business,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI can now take myself out of the business and look at it strategically now, rather than running around trying to build a client portfolio and service those clients personally.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The business turned over more than $1 million in its first year, and is looking to turn over close to $5 million this year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mallet says while the start-up phase was challenging, he couldn\u2019t have approached Done with quite the same gusto had the experience been mistake-free.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is always a great keenness to do everything at a million miles an hour. Everyone hears these wonderful start-up stories where people retire and sit on a beach after three years,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you need to go through that teething process,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get pretty bloody overwhelmed, quite frankly, when you\u2019re working every hour and every weekend, and you\u2019re not paying yourself an income, and you\u2019re not taking holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel you need to do that in order to know your business inside and out.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to be able to get your hands dirty, from a starting point, to really understand what your business does. Then go to someone like Peter and say, I\u2019ve got this great business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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