Twenty years later, Blueprint Recruitment Solutions has grown into an established specialist recruitment business, built around long-standing relationships, specialist market knowledge and a team that has grown alongside it.

As part of our 20 for 20 series, we sat down with Founder and Managing Director Mark and Director of Sales Luke to look back at where Blueprint began, the decisions that shaped the company and what two decades in business have taught them.

Where it all began

When Mark founded Blueprint in 2006, he saw an opportunity to do recruitment differently: to offer clients a more personal, tailored service built around genuine relationships rather than simply filling a vacancy and moving on.

The beginnings were modest. Blueprint started in a small space in Gosport, offered to Mark for free by a friend.

“It was me, a laptop and a telephone, and that is how the company started.”

The first six months brought plenty of uncertainty. Mark had a mortgage to pay, little money coming in and no guarantee the idea would work. But relationships began to build, the business gained momentum and, two years later, it was time to bring someone else on board.

That person was Luke, although recruitment had never been part of his plan.

From behind the bar to Blueprint

Mark first got to know Luke while he was working behind the bar at his local pub.

What stood out was his work ethic. When the pub was quiet, Luke would clean glasses, clear tables or find something else that needed doing while others stood around.

Mark saw something that could translate into recruitment.

“The work ethic I had seen in Luke at the pub was exactly what we needed to springboard the business.”

Luke had trained as a teacher before deciding it was not for him and spending two years travelling. When Mark approached him about an opportunity, he knew very little about recruitment.

They met at Blueprint’s small office in Gosport. Luke remembers it as less of a formal interview and more of a conversation about what the opportunity could become.

He took the chance and joined Blueprint in July 2008.

It was Luke’s first office job. He did not drive, so his mum would drop him at work in the mornings, and Mark would often give him a lift home.

Neither could have known quite where that decision would lead.

Building the Blueprint team

The early culture was straightforward: work hard, be available and build relationships.

Mark and Luke regularly started early and worked into the evening, knowing that a young business competing with established agencies had to earn its place in the market.

That mentality became part of Blueprint’s foundations.

As the company grew, so did the team. Rebecca joined in 2009, followed by Rob in 2010 and Scott in 2012, forming the early core of the leadership team that would help shape Blueprint over the years that followed.

The business itself was evolving too. Mark and Luke had initially managed both client and candidate relationships, but as more people joined, Blueprint began developing the specialist structure it is known for today.

Consultants could focus on developing client relationships while specialist recruiters concentrated on the candidate market. Rebecca played a pivotal role in developing the candidate-focused side of the business, while the team gradually expanded beyond its Building Services foundations into new specialist markets.

None of it happened overnight. Blueprint’s growth came from years of building reputations, recognising opportunities and investing in people.

Growing through challenging markets

Blueprint was still a young business when the 2008 financial crisis hit.

Rather than retreat, the company continued strengthening its client relationships and investing in its team. Blueprint performed strongly during the recession, something Mark attributes to work ethic, operating in resilient markets, taking calculated risks and having clients who trusted the business.

It established an approach that would prove important throughout Blueprint’s history: difficult markets could also be an opportunity to strengthen relationships.

By the middle of the following decade, years of consistent work were beginning to show.

Luke identifies 2015 as a turning point, followed by sustained growth between 2016 and 2019. For Mark, 2018 and 2019 stand out as the years when Blueprint truly felt established.

Major organisations knew the Blueprint name, clients were returning with repeat business, and the company was increasingly recognised within its specialist markets.

Then came 2020.

A defining decision during COVID

COVID-19 brought enormous uncertainty to businesses across the UK, and recruitment was no exception.

Blueprint made a deliberate decision: no one would be furloughed.

There was a business case for remaining active, but for Mark, it was also about responsibility to the team.

Keeping people working provided routine, connection and financial stability during an incredibly uncertain period. It also meant Blueprint could continue supporting the clients and candidates with whom it had spent years building relationships.

Luke remembers consultants spending 30 or 45 minutes speaking to candidates who were isolated at home, sometimes simply having a conversation.

Recruitment, after all, is about relationships.

Blueprint did not want to disappear when the market became difficult and return only when business picked up again. The team remained present, continued those conversations and maintained the relationships it had worked so hard to build.

Blueprint ultimately emerged from COVID as a larger business than it had been going into it, with its team intact and many relationships strengthened.

Keeping the culture as the company grows

The Blueprint of today naturally looks very different from the company Mark started in 2006.

But some of its traditions can be traced back surprisingly far.

In the early years, Mark and Luke would celebrate a hard quarter with a few drinks. As the company grew, those celebrations evolved into Blueprint’s end-of-quarter events, alongside summer events, Christmas parties and a wider programme of benefits and activities.

Behind them is the same principle: people should work hard and perform, but they should also feel valued and able to enjoy the success they help create.

Mark never wanted Blueprint to become what he describes as a “soulless corporation”.

At the same time, Luke is clear that maintaining a close culture cannot mean compromising on standards. Blueprint remains a performance-driven business, with service to clients and candidates at the heart of what it does.

The belief is simple: look after the people within Blueprint, and they are better positioned to look after everyone Blueprint works with.

Twenty years measured in people

After two decades, Blueprint can point to growth, major clients, new markets and countless company milestones.

Yet when Mark and Luke are asked what makes them proudest, neither begins with numbers.

For Mark, it is seeing people arrive with little or no recruitment experience, build successful careers and create good lives for themselves outside work.

Luke feels much the same. Over the years, he has watched colleagues buy their first homes, get married, start families and reach milestones far beyond the office.

“It has never been about me; it is about everyone else.”

Perhaps that says more about Blueprint’s first twenty years than any statistic could.

The broom cupboard has gone. The team has grown. New sectors have been established, new leaders have emerged and the business has navigated a financial crisis, a global pandemic and an ever-changing recruitment market.

But the principles behind it remain remarkably familiar: work hard, build genuine relationships, deliver a service people remember and give good people the opportunity to succeed.

Twenty years on, those principles continue to shape what comes next.