Episode Details

This is not a typical RAG episode.

Christian Mather is not a recruiter. He has never filled a role, run a desk, or managed a team. He is a wealth planner. And since niching into recruitment founders about two and a half years ago, he has become one of the most in-demand advisors in the industry.

Since January alone, he has had over 100 enquiries and spoken to 60 founders about the same thing: how to turn business success into personal financial freedom. Not through selling the business. Not through scaling to 50 heads. Through understanding one number.

He calls it your freedom number. The amount you need in assets to cover your lifestyle for the rest of your life. And most founders massively overestimate what that number is.

His simple formula gives you your starting point. In this episode Christian walked through real examples of his clients goals and challenges.

A founder who thought he needed £5 million but actually needed £1.2 million. A 29-year-old woman billing half a million on her own, working 20 hours a week, about to hire staff she didn't need. A business doing 1.6 million net fee income with 16 staff but only £150K EBITDA because the founders were doing 80% of the work.

Only 0.3% of recruitment agencies ever successfully sell. That number comes from the REC, and Christian has built his entire practice around the other 99.7%. His argument is simple: your business should fund your wealth, not be your wealth.

We cover:

• Why 0.3% of recruitment agencies sell and what that means for your retirement plan
• How to calculate your freedom number using the monthly spend x 300 rule
• The real cost of treating your business as your pension
• Why founders between 40 and 45 are the ones making the call
• The financial mistakes costing recruitment founders the most money
• How co-founders can align on what they actually want from the business
• Why property is not the passive investment most founders think it is
• The post-exit identity crisis that nobody prepares for

Christian and I also get into our own stories and share our personal strategies for wealth creation.

If you have ever wondered what your number actually is, or whether you are closer to freedom than you think, this episode has the blueprint.

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Episode Sponsor: Hoxo

Every recruitment founder is investing in LinkedIn. Spending thousands on Recruiter licences. Building connections. Posting content. Growing networks.

But here's the question almost no one can answer:

- How much revenue is LinkedIn actually bringing into your business?

- Most founders