Melissa Morris, 27 years old, left her high-flying job in the city three years ago to develop an innovative website after spotting a gap in the market which could help the NHS to save money in the long run. Shocked at the huge expense that locum staffing was costing small GP practices and the NHS, Melissa joined forces with William Hoyer Millars and so came up with the idea of Network Locum
What led you to the point of creating the business?
During my time as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co, I worked on a number of projects across the NHS. From my work, I realised just how inefficient the NHS was, especially in the area of workforce management, and I believed that I could make a change. Being able to leverage a flexible workforce is the key to making primary care work. During one of my projects I spoke to GPs who were complaining that agencies were too expensive to do this. I knew then what I wanted to do.
To help think of a solution, I looked at other models in different industries and realised that locum staffing could all be done online, which would lead to considerable cost savings. This model would also make locum staffing more transparent. With traditionally agencies, GP practices are often given the nearest available candidate but I wanted to give them a choice in the matter. Network Locum provides them with a choice of candidates so they can make the right selection for them and their patients.
I also wanted to give GPs an option to give recommendations on locums. This is a completely unique feature – there is nothing else like this in the market but I felt it was an important step in giving practices confidence and control over the locums they use.
After two years of research, I decided to leave McKinsey and go and work in the NHS to get a first-hand experience of how everything worked, before setting up Network Locum.
For those thinking of ditching their job, what are you three top tips for an easy transition?
Firstly, if you don’t already work in the industry that you want to start your business in, you should go and try it out. This will help you to get some experience of the kinds of trends and issues that are happening in that sector, and provide some insight into how your business could help.
It’s also a good idea to connect with people that inspire you, namely entrepreneurs who have a success story. They can be really helpful and will take time to meet with you or speak on the phone. I spoke to a host of successful entrepreneurs, from Martha Lane Fox, founder of Lastminute.com, to Will Reeve who founded LOVEFiLM as well as the CEO of Innocent Smoothies. It was extremely valuable.
My final tip would be to validate the idea as much as possible before you quit your job. Maybe even take some time off work to really get your head around it. Interviewing people in the industry and even releasing a pilot project to see if it works can both be really beneficial. This worked for me – we had a free version of the service that we launched whilst I was still working for the NHS. I didn’t quit my job until people started to use it to be really sure it was the right thing to do.
What does it take to succeed in business?
The ability to be humble enough to take advice from people who might know better than you is key. Entrepreneurs often have a passion for what they think is right, but I feel that it’s important to learn from other people’s mistakes otherwise you’ll keep making similar errors.
I have tried to get advice from as many people as possible, even though sometimes it can get confusing. There are times when I haven’t taken well-meant advice on board and regretted it.
Any final advice?
I would say, don’t be afraid to delegate to other people. People confuse this with telling people what to do; actually it is about empowering people to make big decisions. It not only makes your colleagues feel valued, but it really fosters a level of creativity that leads the business to succeed.
