left my 95k agency job to recruit independently, here's month 18

I was a technical recruiter at a mid-size agency for 4 years. Good at my job, consistently hit quota, but watching the company take 85% of my placements was killing me. I was generating maybe 400k in fees annually and taking home 60k plus a 35k bonus. Decided to go independent in late 2023. Scary as hell because i didn't have established clients and wasn't trying to start a whole agency with overhead and employees. Found a marketplace model where i could access companies that were already look...