Today we’d like to introduce you to Trevor Blair.
Trevor, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m a San Diego native, and literally grew up in the staffing and recruiting business. My father and his best friend purchased a franchise of Manpower in 1977, which at the time was a tiny 2-person operation in Cortez Hill. Over the ensuing decades, they built Manpower into the largest staffing company in the San Diego area and began adding additional franchise territories in other counties and states as well. Growing up I spent many summers and school holidays working in the business. My first job was stuffing paychecks and fresh timecards into envelopes to be mailed out to all the temporary employees at the end of each week. From there I graduated to opening the mail and alphabetizing the hundreds of timecards that came in every day for processing.
After college on the east coast, I got a job with Manpower Inc., the corporate parent of the family franchise. That job took me down to Sydney, Australia for what was supposed to be a one-year assignment. However, the company went through several reorganizations, and new job opportunities kept opening up, so I stayed on for nearly 5 years with Manpower. After some serious consideration about becoming an Australian citizen, I decided to go back for an MBA at USC, and ultimately settle back in San Diego.
I returned to the San Diego franchise and worked for my Dad and his business partner for the next 10 years. Over the course of that time, plus my 5 years in Australia, I worked in every single area of the business. However, the role where I think I had the most impact was launching the workforce development division for Manpower in San Diego. My role was to create partnerships with local nonprofit organizations, to help individuals with barriers gain access to the job market. Together with our nonprofit partners, we would seek out funding sources and then manage these highly successful programs together.
It was a slow start the first few years, but by 2012 our little team was beginning to build some serious traction, expanding to 6 people. The workforce development practice is also what brought me closer and closer to the nonprofit world, as our partner organizations began sending us some of their executive search assignments. Fast-forward to 2016, and my position had evolved into a 1-person executive search firm. The entrepreneurial bug had been growing inside me since business school, and with the critical support of my wife, I took the plunge and launched Blair Search Partners in October of 2016.
I still pinch myself from time-to-time, as I can’t believe the growth we have experienced is real. When I launched the firm, I was working solo from home and coffee shops. Just 12 months later we built a team of 4 staff, soon to be five, and moved into a beautiful office Downtown. While the company’s trajectory has been incredible, my current challenge is to scale the company enough to support the infrastructure we need. My wife has been unbelievably accommodating, as it has been 12 hour days, 7 days a week since we launched the firm. We’re now expecting a daughter in early June, so if you were to ask me “what keeps me awake at night” it is 1) how to keep the company growing while I cut back these crazy hours and rebalance my life around family and 2) how will we prepare for the next recession.
What factors influenced my journey and the initial success of our startup? Far and away the most important is the example my father and his business partner (who is also my godfather) lived every day: the best way to support your business is to the support the community in which you do business. Phil Blair and Mel Katz are two of the most active volunteers and philanthropists in San Diego and have served on more boards, committees and commissions than I can even begin to remember. Growing up, I watched how they got involved in dozens of organizations, and the impact they were able to create. I follow their example every day and hope to pass the tradition on to my daughter someday.
The other factor would be the 15 years I spent racing triathlon and marathons, which I began during my time in Australia. I “retired” from endurance racing back in September, in order to focus on the company and our growing little family. After 10 Ironmans on 3 continents and another 10 marathons, including Boston in 2013, 2014 and 2015, it was tough to “hang it all up”. However, I think it was probably the second most important factor behind helping me launch the startup. Business, and especially entrepreneurship, is an endurance sport. My experience with Ironman taught me focus, discipline, and grit. It’s been one heck of a ride, and I can’t wait to see where we can take this business!
Has it been a smooth road?
The challenge of our business is that it will never be smooth. It’s nearly impossible for us to “see around the corner” and forecast future demand. A typical search engagement is anywhere from 1 to 3 months in duration. After the placement is made, we have no idea when the client will need us again. Even the largest nonprofit organizations, which is our specialty area, only conduct a few search engagements a year, so we need to maintain a very broad and diverse client base. And this is a referral business, so reputation is EVERYTHING!
My biggest heartache to-date was the month of August. Given that we are just now entering our second year of business, I had not experienced a full 12-month cycle at the time. The company was growing incredibly well – each month was busier than the previous… and then everything came to a screeching halt at the end of summer. I don’t think we had a single new order from the last week of July, until mid-to-late August. To make timing even worse, as we had just hired our second full-time employee and expanded into a larger office, so we now had real overhead and fixed costs to cover.
Thankfully my wife and I had dinner with some friends about this time, one of who founded her own successful talent consulting firm 5 years earlier. She encouraged me to have another glass of wine, and enjoy this dead spot as much as I can. Most of her clients go dark in August, taking a late summer vacation and spending time with their kids before they go back to school in the fall. The rubber band will snap back in September, and thankfully she was right!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Blair Search Partners – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are a retained executive search firm, with a unique focus on serving San Diego-based nonprofit organizations. Our firm is known for two things: 1) our deep knowledge of the local community and relationships and 2) our ability to bring new and talented professionals into the nonprofit sector. We pride ourselves in recruiting talented individuals with transferable skills and experience for our clients, as they bring a wealth of new energy and capabilities to the nonprofit sector.
What also sets us apart? We don’t stop working on an assignment until we have secured a candidate that our client is not only confident that they can DO the job, but that our client is also EXCITED to work with. I tell our clients: we spend more time with our coworkers than we do with our families, so it’s critical we genuinely like the people we work with.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
My favorite thing about San Diego is our size. This city is large enough that you will never stop meeting new and interesting people, or ever run out of things to do. Yet we are not so large as to have forgotten who we are. You can still walk the streets of Downtown on a lunch break and bump into people you know. San Diegans also pull together and help each other out. I think it’s easier to make friends and connections here because so many of us have moved here from other places. Those new San Diegans remember what that was like when they moved here, and feel compelled to “pay it forward”.
Least favorite things: suburban sprawl and traffic.
Contact Info:
- Address: 550 West B Street, 4th floor
San Diego, CA 92101 - Website: http://blairsearchpartners.com/
- Phone: 619 496 6093
- Email: trevor@blairsearchpartners.com
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