The standard recruiting agency fee is 15–25% of the hired candidate's first-year salary. On a $70,000 role, that's $10,500 to $17,500. On a senior engineer at $130,000, it's $19,500 to $32,500.
For early-stage startups and small businesses, that fee is often more than a month of runway. And the pitch — "we handle it all for you" — sounds appealing until you realize that handling hiring yourself is genuinely achievable with the right process. You don't need a recruiter to make a great hire. You need a process.
When to Use a Recruiter (and When Not To)
To be fair: recruiters add real value in specific situations. Use one if you're hiring for a very senior role where your network doesn't reach, if you need to move extremely fast and have no bandwidth to run a search, or if you're hiring in a specialized technical area where you can't evaluate candidates yourself.
But for most small business hiring — generalist roles, early team members, operations, customer success, marketing, junior technical roles — you can run the process yourself more cheaply and with better results, because you know your culture and needs better than any third party.
Step 1: Write a Focused Job Description
Most job descriptions fail because they list everything a candidate could possibly do instead of what the role actually requires in the first 90 days. Write your job description around two things: what the person will own, and what success looks like at 3 months.
Keep it under 600 words. Include: the role in one sentence, the top 3–4 responsibilities, the 3–4 must-have qualifications, and what makes this opportunity compelling. Skip the generic culture boilerplate — it reads as filler and filters out nobody.
Step 2: Build a Shareable Application Form
The fastest path from "posted the job" to "reviewing applicants" is a clean application form with a shareable link. You get a URL you can drop anywhere — your website, LinkedIn, Reddit, Slack communities, your newsletter. Candidates click the link, apply through a guided form, and everything lands in one place.
Add 2–3 custom screening questions. "What drew you to this role specifically?" and "Describe your most relevant experience in 2–3 sentences" will immediately separate thoughtful applicants from spray-and-pray applications.
Step 3: Distribute Your Job Post
Recruiters charge for their network. You already have one. Start with:
- Your own LinkedIn: A personal post about who you're looking for reaches your direct network and often gets shared. Costs nothing.
- Community Slack groups: Most industries have active Slack or Discord communities. Post in the #jobs channel.
- Reddit: r/forhire, r/remotework, and niche subreddits for specific roles.
- Your company website: Add a /careers page or a link in your footer.
- Referrals: Ask your existing team, investors, advisors, and customers if they know anyone. Referrals still produce some of the best hires at every company size.
Paid distribution (Indeed, LinkedIn job slots) can supplement if organic channels don't generate enough volume, but start free. Most roles get enough applicants from organic channels alone.
Step 4: Screen Applications Efficiently
Set aside two hours to do your first-pass review. Look for: evidence of genuine interest in the role (not a generic application), relevant experience that maps to your requirements, and clarity in their written answers. You're not looking for perfection — you're filtering for fit.
Shortlist 5–8 candidates for phone screens. Reject the rest now, not later.
Step 5: Run the Interview Process
A simple process for most small business roles: 30-minute phone screen, followed by a 60-minute video interview with any relevant team members, optionally a short skills assessment for technical roles. Three rounds maximum. Move fast — good candidates are interviewing elsewhere simultaneously.
What This Costs vs. a Recruiter
| Approach | Cost on a $70k role | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Recruiting agency (20% fee) | $14,000 | Low (they run it) |
| DIY with job board only | $300–600 | High (manual process) |
| DIY with ApplyHere | $9 per post | Medium (2–4 hrs total) |
The time investment for DIY hiring is real but modest. Most founders spend 3–6 hours on a full hiring cycle — writing the description, reviewing applicants, running interviews, making a decision. That's well worth saving $14,000.