How to Launch a Staffing Business: A Step-By-Step Guide

You've come to the perfect spot if you're planning to start a staffing business, as we'll tackle how to do it in detail. We'll begin by discussing the basics of the employment agency market, including its size, its major categories, and how revenues and profits are generated.

The development of your business plan is the most important step in opening a staffing agency. So, without further ado, here is our comprehensive guide on how to launch a staffing agency so you can get started soon.

The Basics of a Staffing Agency

A staffing agency is often referred to as a search business or recruiting company. Its primary goal is to meet employers' hiring needs and match job prospects with specific requirements. You can get in contact with numerous hiring managers that are searching for suitable talent to fit the roles of certain open positions.

Customers can use staffing agencies to locate jobs they wouldn't have been able to find while saving money and time. The employees of these businesses, also profit from them. They are free to choose where they work and how they get paid. They may be able to get full-time or long-term employment.

How to Start a Staffing Agency? 

Without further ado, here are the steps to starting a staffing agency.

Step 1: Assess Your Skill Sets

If you want to be successful in your staffing firm, there are four key skill sets you should develop. They are the following: 

• Source staff

• Attract clients

• Match excellent talent with client demands

• Oversee and educate personnel

These are all important factors you shouldn't overlook. The likelihood of failure is inevitable if you miss a single one of them. You must, therefore, evaluate yourself. See whether there are any loopholes that need to be fixed right away. 

By using your own resources or forming alliances with trusted partners who share your values, you can bridge the gap.

Step 2: Select the Most Suitable Industry

Supporting the right industry to work with is one of the deciding factors for your success. You must, in other words, be capable to identify your area of expertise. 

To do this, learn more about your target market and make sure you can meet their demands. Understand the dynamics of supply and demand in the industry you've chosen. 

Looking from a local's perspective, see what types of careers are there.  What are the requirements for these roles? You may choose the right industry to work in by asking yourself this question.

Step 3: Set up Expenditures in Advance

It goes without saying that money is necessary if you want to start your own business. In addition,  starting expenses are categorized into two groups: establishment expenses and operational costs. 

Establishment costs are the basic needs of your business. Usually one-time expenses, these should be acquired before you start your business. Meanwhile, operational costs are the expenses you pay to source customers and employees to provide work for the first few months. 

Knowing your business inside and out will make it simpler to evaluate and plan your startup expenses.

Step 4: Keep Tabs on Your Company’s Cash Flow

Unfamiliarity with cash flow is one of the most common mistakes made by newly established agencies. 

Employees for staffing agencies must be paid weekly, bimonthly, or monthly. In contrast, you must get payments from your clients every month or every two months. All parties involved may have serious problems if there is any delay in this matter.

In order to prevent cash flow issues, missed payrolls, and tax liabilities, you must handle the situation properly. Otherwise, your company will suffer significantly.

Step 5: Manage Your Company’s Legal Aspects

Creating a legal business entity prevents your business from being personally liable when sued. This directly affects your business operations, including your company name, taxes, liabilities, and other factors. Therefore, choosing an appropriate company name is yet another significant criterion.

Make sure the name you've selected isn't taken or a trademark. Afterward, start registering your domain and company name. Obtaining the necessary licences and permits necessary to operate your business should come next. Take note that the laws differ by state depending on where you are. Make sure to research everything that pertains to your company and exercise due diligence.

Photo by: Karolina Grabowska | Pexels

Step 6: Build a Unique Website

It's time to launch your website after securing a domain name and registering your company name. 

It puts you at an advantage over rivals with a website that's visually appealing and has a user-friendly interface. It's vital to take note of this because if your website is sluggish or isn't easy to use, it's highly likely that your customers will leave. 

Step 7: Know Where to Look For Top Talents 

It's truly difficult to find the best staff. Therefore, before you start looking for applicants, ask yourself first: "Why would they want to work for me? What makes my business stand out above the rest?"

Take a step back and reevaluate your entire plan if you can't come up with a good answer to them. You won't be able to confidently identify the right talents to join you unless you have a brilliant and sensible response. 

When it comes to hiring real talents, the usual channels you get to recruit individuals are through job boards, referrals, LinkedIn, and personal connections. However, everybody seems to be doing the same thing, which is the only downside to this. Except if your business operates in a highly skilled sector, you will face intense competition.

Therefore, you should be resourceful and apply modern hiring tactics. Depending on the sector you work in, different strategies are used. A wider audience can be reached through social media. 

More so, knowing what you can offer to these people and getting to know them better during an interview are the two key components of finding the right talent for the job. Both of these will provide a plethora of data and can set you apart from other staffing companies.

Step 8: Look for Clients 

Finding clients might be just as difficult as finding employees. People can view your business as being simply another one on the list, and this is a concern.

Ask yourself why clients should work with you and what makes you distinct. This is similar to our point above. You are more than capable if you can provide effective answers to these. 

Provide clients with services or products that your competitors won't be able to match. Doing so will significantly increase your chances.

Step 9: Make Use of Modern Technology 

Considering that tasks can be done manually is yet another mistake that businesses make. Using spreadsheets, sending emails individually, managing your employees and business using outdated methods—the list goes on. 

At the end of the day, these will only cause disorder and instability as they'll become difficult to track the moment they start to rack up. For this reason, you should incorporate technology into your daily business activities. An all-inclusive employee management solution is a great option for your staffing business.

Solution: RosterElf. It is the all-in-one employee management tool that provides you with complete control and simplifies the way you do business every day.

Step 10: Get an Insurance

One of the costs of your business that is highlighted is insurance, yet this expense alone merits a point. What for? It is necessary for your protection. Make sure to remember this because you can never be too careful.

We are not experts in this matter, therefore we encourage you to speak with an insurance agent who is familiar with your industry and can propose the best policies to get you insured. 

Step 11: Develop a Successful Marketing Strategy

Launch your staffing company's online and offline marketing promotions. And to get your name across different marketing platforms and attract the right candidates and clients, be sure to build a compelling campaign.

Establish a well-organised marketing strategy and make sure you adhere to it down to the core. By doing this, highly likely people are aware of your brand and will pick it first when looking for a hiring agency. 

When you launch your staffing agency, RosterElf can help with the following:

• Provide you with effective work scheduling and real-time access to the schedules of your employees.

• Receive updates if an employee logs in declines the shift, or doesn't arrive at all.

• Receive updated data on the number of hours worked by your employees, so you won't have to worry about any payroll mistakes.

The best part of RosterElf is that it requires no additional training, is incredibly affordable, and can be installed in about two minutes. It also has a dozen more features designed to help your staffing agency run seamlessly across operations, clients, and employees.

Key Takeaway

While staffing agencies have tons of moving elements, starting one is easy peasy if you have your ducks in straight from the beginning. The methods outlined above are a great way to start your very own staffing agency, yet do your homework to stay on top of the competition.

Last but not least, be firm in your pricing. Offering free or low-cost services as favours to friends and family can be simple and may even seem like the best course of action. However, it soon inevitably leads to a pattern where everyone receives a discount. 

The issue with this approach is that it merely devalues the products and services you offer. Your business will grow when you put your attention on clients that value your brand, and that is something you should think about.

RosterElf: Rostering Made Easy 

RosterElf’s cloud-based payroll and rostering software truly is a game-changer. Say goodbye to roster conflicts and chase employees for their availability to work. Instead, employees can easily update their availability to work and notify managers about it through a smartphone app. 

Staff set the times and days they can work, and RosterElf does the rest. Our software then automatically suggests available employees to fill shifts. 

What are you waiting for? Time to take your rostering and payroll game to the next level and boost your business’ performance. Call us now at 1300 353 000, and our team will be more than happy to assist you. 

To get a clearer view of how our app works, enjoy 30-day access to our tool for free!

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