When Michelle and Connie met in the workplace in 1994, a lovely friendship was formed. Fast forward to 2023, and you’ll see that friendship has flourished into a 15-year successful journey in business together, solidified by knowing when and how to respond to economic rollercoasters.

March 2023 welcomes the opportunity to celebrate their latest milestone of reaching 15 years as TurnerFox recruitment. Coinciding with the annual International Women’s Day, we sat them both down to understand the journey from day one till now to gain some insight into what makes a successful friendship and work partnership and how they have responded to bumps in the roads along the way but even more importantly how they celebrate the successes.

How It Began

 We’ve all had those conversations during drinks on a Friday night after a tough week, feeling we could be doing this so well for ourselves if we had our own business. Just over 15 years ago, Connie and Michelle had that moment and boy, were they right! 

Although it was a very exciting idea it was scary at the time, Michelle left the recruitment company they had both worked for and needed a change. Connie had already decided to break from the industry momentarily. But the idea of merging Turner and Fox to make their own recruitment company was an idea that felt right, and the time was now or never.

Diving straight in and not going in half-heartedly, they signed a 6-year lease for offices in Mansfield Town centre. They rolled their sleeves up and started from the ground upward.

Start up pain points
and economy rollercoaster number one

When their 6 year lease was up in Albert Street, Mansfield, they needed bigger premises to house their growing team members and moved to the railway in Mansfield. They won new business contracts, entered new sectors, won tender bids, knew when to spot when something wasn’t working, and dared to draw a line and move on.

In 2018 they gathered together friends, family, staff and clients to celebrate their 10 years in business together and hired out the Riverside, Nottingham, to acknowledge and thank those who believed in their vision, supported the bad times and celebrated the good times.

Second-highest economic rollercoaster to overcome

The rainbow opened doors to balance

The rainbow for TurnerFox recruitment appeared in the form of delivering a spontaneous work/life balance they had long desired, but the work-from-home culture inspired them to work differently, become flexible and have the freedom to enjoy motherhood while running a successful business. Instead of daily 2 hours commutes, they are present at home, and along with others, they have adapted to the new norm of no longer working like we don’t have kids.

Recruitment will never be a 9 to 5 job with an early morning phone calls and late-night de-briefs but when you can fit in school runs and doggy walks in between after 15 years of getting to that point, it’s delivered a family and work-life balance that empowers Michelle and Connie to be the best version of themselves with both hats on.

Let’s inspire the now and future

Advice to anyone who may find themselves finishing the work week on a job they are no longer passionate about and feels like becoming a business owner is just a pipe dream or waiting until the moment is right then be inspired by Michelle and Connie’s journey.

Michelle became a first-time mum within 3 years of starting the business and now has two beautiful children and an established business. Connie became a first-time mum during the most challenging time any mum can experience – August 2020 in isolation and no sign of how and when the world would recover from the pandemic. Fast forward 3 years, and she has the beautiful Billie and a business model that allows her to balance work more than ever before.

So in honour of their 15-year anniversary and International Women’s day please allow us to conclude with an insightful takeaway – there will always be situations when you are immediately underestimated and coming together for events like International Women’s Day will empower equality and embrace equity amongst us all that the next generation will benefit from.

Time will pass anyway, so why not create the future you envisage and make it happen today regardless of the news headlines? There will always be obstacles in the way. How you manage it and who holds your hand during the journey will solidify success, and only you can measure your success.