What if your growth path wasn’t adding more clients, but working fewer, higher-quality roles with people who genuinely value your service?
In this episode, we explore how Allicia Birch, founder of 4tify Recruitment, built a six-figure recruitment firm in her first year — without cold calls, without compromising on fees, and without chasing every job. Her success came down to discipline: working to a structured 12-hour day in 15-minute blocks, building a reputation-based BD strategy, and walking away from bad-fit clients.
You’ll hear how she transformed underperformance into consistent high billings, created multi-division revenue from single clients, and productised her approach to business development — including how she sells high-ticket projects, runs invite-only roundtables, and uses market intelligence to position herself as a trusted partner, not just a vendor.
Allicia is the Managing Director of 4tify, a specialist recruitment company in the construction industry based in Manchester. She founded the business in May 2024. After 8 years in the industry, Allicia has become a leading voice in the residential new build market.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [03:20] How Allicia got into recruiting and how she struggled during the first three years with plenty of lessons.
- [14:11] Breakdown to Breakthrough – unlocking success by turning things around from 250k to 350k billings.
- [20:25] What inspired Allicia to launch 4tify?
- [26:10] Key success factors in the first 12 months of business.
- [35:19] Allicia’s idea of a cold call – how she does BD without ‘cold calling’.
- [44:26] Sharing best practices on being organized and creating a Day Plan.
- [48:30] How market intelligence helps Allicia’s team to provide custom-fit solutions to their clients.
- [58:21] What is the round-table engagement strategy?
- [1:03:04] What is next for Allicia and her team?
Why Structured Coaching and Onboarding Make a Difference
During the first three years of Allicia’s career in recruitment, she struggled in terms of billing and revenue, and she felt like she was doing something that she hated. She is great when it comes to dealing with people, but somehow, something doesn’t click, and she finds it difficult to thrive in the recruitment space. In retrospect, we agreed that what she was missing all along was proper training and onboarding. This made a huge difference when she transferred to another firm, and it turned things around.
When she joined Anderson James, the consistent, scheduled training sessions allowed her to thrive—something she realized had been missing earlier in her journey. A particularly pivotal moment came during a training session with a coach named Baram, where an emotional “breakdown” turned into a “breakthrough.” Through this process, she gained practical tools to handle challenging situations, sharpened her business development focus, and learned to value the small insights over immediate wins.
Key shifts included:
- Learning to value relationship-building and long-term intelligence gathering over securing a job on every call.
- Moving away from surface-level tactics (like bringing biscuits to meetings) and instead positioning herself as a serious, respected professional.
- She shifted her mindset from being subservient to clients to viewing herself as a true partner and expert.
- These changes directly contributed to her jump from struggling to billing £ 250,000–£ 350,000 per year, a testament to the impact of the right training and environment.
Partnering with the Right Clients as a Growth Strategy
One of the core drivers of Allicia’s rapid success is her firm stance on only working with clients who respect her values. That means turning down roles with low fees, refusing to be squeezed in negotiations, and walking away from companies that don’t align with her values. By saying no more often — and being crystal clear on who she wants to work with — she’s grown a more profitable and predictable business.
In her words, “If you’re trying to beat me down to 10%, I’m not your recruiter. I don’t get out of bed for that.”
This mindset didn’t just protect her margins — it built a brand of authority, confidence, and quality that attracts better clients. It helped her firm to thrive in its first 12 months, which not many startup recruitment firms can achieve.
Consistent Business Development and Being Organized Daily
Allicia also shared two key success factors when it comes to her day-to-day operation: consistent client acquisition and daily planning. “I’m not a reactive recruiter. Every day has a structure. Every job has a process. If something doesn’t fit into that, I won’t take it on.”
These are the takeaways:
- Speaks to 30 people per day (150 per week) – all warm calls through referrals
- Plan the day in 15-minute increments the night before at 9 PM
- Day is structured in 4 quarters: early morning, mid-morning, early afternoon, mid-afternoon
- Works closest to money first: live processes, then candidates, then client development, then outreach
- Uses an Excel spreadsheet with checkboxes and color coordination
You will also be interested in hearing how they utilize market intelligence via reputational analysis – a unique approach that enables her team to provide custom-fit solutions to each client.
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