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Michelle

Celebrating 13 years at Bridge!

Today marks the 13th anniversary of Bridge Recruitment and to celebrate we sat down with Director, Michelle Brightly, and this is what she had to say:

In 2005, Michelle started the business in the back room of her home, following the birth of her first set of twins. 13 years later, Bridge Recruitment is now one of the leading Facilities Management recruitment agencies in the UK.

How did your recruitment career begin?

At the age of 19, I began working for a leading Security Consultancy and this is where my career in the Facilities Management Industry first started. I immediately loved the tight network and was inspired by the scope of the Industry.

I started by making management appointments and decided shortly after joining that I wanted my own division and began to take the company in a different direction, the Contract Cleaning market. I have always seen hygiene services as a crucial and immediate representation of a business and something that has a natural presence in our everyday lives. I was inspired by the business world and the standards it represented.

What challenges did you face?

The most difficult part about getting my career off the ground was combining my work and family life. It was undoubtedly a juggle and it had its struggles.  I was adamant my career/love for the Industry would support my expanding family and began toying with the idea of starting my own business.

In 2005, Bridge Recruitment was created.

From the back room of my home, I started reconnecting with some of my old clients, under the name Bridge Recruitment - a brand of my own, which represented me and everything I had worked so hard to achieve.

Watching your business grow in reputation is one of the best feelings you could have but I totally underestimated what it took to build a strong platform for ongoing success. You must believe in yourself, the service you offer and always have the end goal in sight, regardless of the hurdles you come across.

Where do you stand 13 years later?

I now have 6 children and a business which I can honestly say I love getting up for. Although I would welcome there being 48-hour days sometimes, I get huge satisfaction in knowing Bridge offers a service totally different to our competitors which is recognised and trusted. Our values are core and represented by our current team.

Successfully managing family life with work life is incredibly difficult. Every working family will understand this.  I honestly do not know how we do it. We simply take each day as it comes, working our hardest to ensure we can provide everyone with the best possible opportunities.

I find it empowering that my children understand what we are trying to achieve in our business life. I have always used the motto “You get what you settle for” and by embedding this into my everyday life, I hope this will hold them in good stead in the future.

Thank you to everyone who has been apart of Bridge Recruitments journey so far. Here’s too many more!