Medical entrepreneur sets sights high

BY FIONA ROTHERHAM

After an accident which left Dr Sam Hazeldine in a coma for two days, he was told he would never ski or work as a top-level doctor again.

But he had other ideas,  graduating from medical school and then winning a national freeski title.

He founded Medrecruit, which recruits doctors into hospitals, and has a predicted revenue of $20 million this year.

What was your first entrepreneurial act?

I was eight  and   I crushed up my grandmother's roses and made a perfume that I sold at the bottom of the road to  family friends who went past. When my grandparents told me off, I said I was going to be a millionaire one day and not to worry  I would look after them then.

What makes someone an entrepreneur?

You have to have the courage to take action and make it a reality. There are a lot of people with great ideas, but the difference with an entrepreneur is they get out and do it.

What have been the biggest obstacles in  business?

Keeping myself in check and making sure the company focuses on core business, and not jumping on every opportunity that comes my way.

What is your company's unique selling proposition?

A lot of agencies are just about placement  putting doctors in jobs. But we find out what is important to them for their career and lifestyle goals and put together solutions that will help them meet those goals,  so if you want to surf and work in emergency, you can look online with us and see what is available.

Who in business do you admire the most?

Richard Branson.   At the start, he took risks, was smart about it and created a worldwide empire, and he had a lot of fun doing it.

What do you do to attract and retain staff?

I think the key is employing the right people from the start. We get a lot of applicants when we advertise, so we make the process really hard  it weeds people out. We then hire people for their personality and attitude rather than skills.

Our multi-step application process asks them to send in a CV and leave a voice message, and it's surprising how many only do one step rather than both.

If you can't follow a simple two-step instruction, that rules you out. Once we have whittled down the applicants, we interview all of them at once to see how they deal with pressure, and then we get down to the final two.

How do you sustain growth?

We use a lot of direct marketing, such as webinars (web conferences), newsletters and other things. It's a multi-pronged approach.

We're also constantly improving the back-end systems, because if you computerise the parts of the business that only require a methodical approach, your people can spend more personal time with doctors and in the hospitals.

We're also creating new markets  into Australia, into recruiting GPs, and we will be going into senior doctors this year.

Describe a mistake you learnt from in business.

My biggest learning experience was waiting too long  - a year  - to hire other people.  It really limited how much growth we experienced. I immediately doubled the business by hiring a couple of people who did those jobs a lot better than me.

Describe your best triumph.

I entered a market, where a lot of people told me someone else had a monopoly and there was no room for anyone else. Within three years, I have grown my company to a similar size as that competitor, and within a year, I hope to be bigger.

What are your business and personal goals?

My business goal is to have the biggest medical recruitment agency in New Zealand by the end of 2010 and in Australasia by the end of 2011.

My personal goals are to be a good dad and husband and to win a gold-medal in skier cross in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

How do you balance work life and home?

I work from 7am solidly until 6pm, and when I go home, I don't take my computer or have emails sent to my phone. I like skiing, mountain-biking and water skiing, but unless I schedule time to do that, it won't happen.

Do you have any tips for budding entrepreneurs?

Be clear about what you want and set clearly defined goals. Then you need to take actions on those goals every  day and regularly measure your progress. You may need to adjust the process,   because you rarely get it right first time.

- © Fairfax NZ News