But that is exactly what Marc Linley and Dan Ware, co-founders of Pineapple Recruitment, have done. The Bournemouth-based agency launched on 14 April, before the UK had reached the peak of the pandemic crisis.

“It was an idea that we had a couple of months previously, and it was kind of building in the background well before the Covid-19 outbreak,” says Linley. “Every time I opened up an email it was someone, or a friend of mine, or a colleague that had been made redundant or just lost their job, so quite quickly we thought it might be the perfect time.”

Linley agrees there isn’t currently a massive demand for staff in the contact centre industry in which the new agency specialises, but he is confident that as the lockdown restrictions are eased and people get a better picture of what the next few months look like, demand will increase.

“We have been blown away by the number of people and businesses getting in touch with us,” he says. Although Linley says that in the current climate setting targets is difficult, “if we can launch successfully now, everything we do going forward is going to be a lot easier”.