05/08/2026
Today, Permanent People turns 13.
Apparently, that means we’re now officially a teenager.
So, I’m expecting slightly more attitude, questionable fashion choices and for nobody to listen to a word I say.
When I started the business in 2013, I certainly didn’t have a detailed 13-year plan.
The aim was fairly simple: build a good recruitment business, work with people I liked and do things in a way that felt right.
Over the years, Permanent People has grown and changed more than I could have imagined.
We’ve gone from being predominantly UK-focused to placing recruiters across Europe, the USA, Australia, Asia, the Middle East and South Africa.
We’ve built relationships with more than hundreds of recruitment businesses.
We’ve helped recruiters move sectors, step into leadership roles, relocate across the world and, in some cases, completely change the direction of their lives.
We’ve also remained profitable in every year we’ve traded, including Covid and several recruitment markets that could politely be described as “character-building”.
And we’ve built a name and brand for ourselves beyond what I could ever imagined.
But the part I’m proudest of is the way we’ve grown.
We’re still a small, close-knit team.
We still care about getting the right outcome rather than simply making the quickest placement.
And we’ve never tried to become something we’re not.
A huge amount of the credit goes to Louise Cooper-Reid, Gemma Lyn and Beth Long who have helped shape Permanent People into the business it is today.
There have been brilliant years, difficult years and a few months when I’ve refreshed the company bank account more often than was probably healthy.
But 13 years later, I still genuinely enjoy what we do.
I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has worked with us, trusted us with their career, introduced us to somebody or simply supported the business along the way.
Permanent People is now entering its teenage years.
Wish me luck.
p.s. Just had a placement confirmed for a recruiter in Houston, if you’d told me that 13 years ago I’d of questioned what you were drinking!
