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Toronto
Star,
Ontario ed.
Thursday, May 17, 2001
Self-starter, 25, builds recruitment firm from scratch
When Reema Rafay was
featured in Maclean's as part of the magazine's Millennium 100 Faces of
the Future edition last year, she had a dream that one day she would run
her own business.
"In a way that
article spurred me on to prove myself and six months later, I opened my
own company," explains Rafay, 25.
That company, Innovative
Staffing Solutions, is a recruitment firm that was formed last year with
an investment of $50,000 from Rafay's cash savings and $30,000 on a
credit line. The company just passed the $1 million revenue mark.
At the time of the
Macleans article on Jan. 1, 2000, Rafay had been working as a partner
since 1998 with EWC Employment Services, an industrial recruitment firm.
The article explained how Rafay helped to build the company from scratch
when it was merely a registered name. This she accomplished without any
formal recruitment training and with the help of its owner, Bob Garewal,
a successful businessman. Garewal "was simply impressed with
Rafay's work ethic," said the article, which also mentioned that
"Rafay pays extra attention to those who struggle most: young
students
and new immigrants."
People skills have always
been important to the young businesswoman, who lives in Mississauga
and has won various awards for public speaking and writing. She obtained
her Bachelor's degree in psychology from Carleton University and is
currently working on a degree in human resources through York
University.
"I always wanted to
work with people, especially youth. This is why I chose psychology as a
major. I worked in sales with Estée Lauder for a while and then went
into broadcasting. It was the need to reach out to people," she
explains.
After a course in
broadcasting in 1998, Rafay did a couple of voice commercials for the
Talking Yellow Pages with The East-West Connection Business Directory (EWC)
and soon joined the company.
"I started recording
news, weather and sports for the EWC and would get up at 5 a.m. to get
to work, which I really enjoyed. I guess I did well, so the owner (who
had a variety of businesses) offered me an investment-free partnership
in his employment agency.
"My agreement with
him was that I would not take any salary until I showed profit, so he
handed me a pile of résumés and left me to deal with them."
Rafay became a partner in
EWC Employment Services at the end of 1998 and has no hesitation in
confessing that she is mostly self-taught. "I spent my first six
months as partner in the business by learning about human
resources." Visiting about 60 employment agencies both as employee
and employer, Rafay learned how the system operates.
"Then through
extensive research and studying at home, I learned the technical and
operational aspects of the business. My first client came along after
six months but by this time I knew how to put him through screening and
testing."
Within 18 months, the
company had an annual revenue of $1.5 million, 250 employees in the
database and 30
prospective employers.
Running the business on
her own was a great experience. But Rafay was restless to do her own
thing so she left EWC, taking only her experience with her. "In all
fairness to EWC, I didn't touch any of their clients because I was
confident I could build my own contacts from scratch."
Last June after a
three-month search, she rented an office at the Kipling Plaza in
Etobicoke, a location she chose for its easy access. She took it on a
five-year lease and was initially the only person running the business.
"It was a tough
start, getting up at 5 a.m. and putting in an 18-hour day, seven days a
week." But she says she had to prove she had something different to
offer: "Totally personalized service."
"I look upon ISS as
an extension of the human resources department of a company, but I work
one-on-one with the client. Although I now have staff (four employees),
I always meet the client myself because I never want to lose sight of
the fact that the client is foremost and needs personalized care."
Her personalized service
gets her good referrals and most of her business comes from word of
mouth.
The path to success was
not always easy. "When I walk into an office and they see a young
woman, it's like two strikes against me. More than once, I've had to
show my portfolio to get access. One vice-president asked me which
company I was the representative for ... his face changed colour when I
told him I was owner!
"But once I can talk
to them, I usually get the account because I can be an aggressive
businesswoman when I have to."
As a result, among her
clients she lists a leading designer clothing company and a plastics
company that actually dismissed their other, older and more experienced
consultants in favour of Rafay.
At ISS, Rafay offers
mandatory WHMIS training (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information
Systems) to all industrial workers and QUIZ to office workers (the
latter a software used to train candidates for administrative work and
data entry).
"I have a special
seminar room, which I use for in-house training, and will use any tests
that an employer asks for."
Rafay started off with
industrial staffing due to her expertise in that area, but has now
branched into administrative areas including data entry, bookkeeping,
reception, managerial and occasional IT.
She now offers health
care staffing with help from her father. Late last year Tahir Rafay
joined ISS, bringing his extensive experience in the field of health
care.
A microbiologist, Tahir
Rafay, 56, is retired from his job as technical director of a hospital
lab and instructor in Granada.
"Starting a
health-care staffing division for ISS has been a great incentive to work
in my field again," says Tahir Rafay, director
of that division.
"My father's been a
great asset bringing experience in medicine and staffing," says
Rafay. "He's helped recruit over 100 people and (set up) a booth at
the University of Toronto job fair. Since he's joined me, business has
boomed.
"Within six months I
had a revenue of over a quarter-million." She's now reached the $1
million mark.
But again her youth
proved to be an impediment when she applied for the $30,000 line of
credit from the bank. "It was tough to get a credit line because
I'm young and I don't own anything," she says. "I had to be
very convincing, bring testimonials from previous clients, get
supporting paperwork and also had to use the Maclean's article to get
credit."
Rafay started off with
industrial staffing due to her expertise in that area, but has now
branched into administrative areas including data entry, bookkeeping,
reception, managerial and occasional IT.
She now offers health
care staffing with help from her father. Late last year Tahir Rafay
joined ISS, bringing his extensive experience in the field of health
care.
A microbiologist, Tahir
Rafay, 56, is retired from his job as technical director of a hospital
lab and instructor in Granada.
"Starting a
health-care staffing division for ISS has been a great incentive to work
in my field again," says Tahir Rafay, director of that division.
"My father's been a
great asset bringing experience in medicine and staffing," says
Rafay. "He's helped recruit over 100 people and (set up) a booth at
the University of Toronto job fair. Since he's joined me, business has
boomed.
"Within six months I
had a revenue of over a quarter-million." She's now reached the $1
million mark.
But again her youth
proved to be an impediment when she applied for the $30,000 line of
credit from the bank. "It was tough to get a credit line because
I'm young and I don't own anything," she says. "I had to be
very convincing, bring testimonials from previous clients, get
supporting paperwork and also had to use the Maclean's article to get
credit."
She cites competitive
rates as one reason for her success. "Most companies have a
placement fee of about 15 to 20 per cent- I have a lower rate for the
same service, and am always open to discussion with my clients,"
she explains.'When I walk into an office and they see a young woman,
it's like two strikes against me. One vice-president asked me which
company I was the representative for ... his face changed colour when I
told him I was owner'
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© 2001 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved.
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