Have you ever considered a new business idea or consulting
career into uncharted territory? Perhaps starting a staffing company? The mere thought of taking the plunge
can often feel very intimidating particularly start a temp agency from home and
you’re unsure of where the whole idea might land. The entrepreneurship world is
packed with endless unknowns, particularly if it is your first time in that
specific industry or sector—it can scare you enough to even hinder you from
taking that important first business step.
The goal of employment and recruitment consulting firms is to
help match employers who have job openings with qualified employees who are
available. Going by different names such as recruitment agencies or staffing
agencies, this type of business or industry can be found in big cities and
small towns giving support to lots of different industries or organizations.
The objective of this comprehensive guide is to bring to
the fore in a transparent manner what and how to start a staffing agency or consulting business entails when you are completely new to the consulting industry and fully in charge of the staffing venture. This is your ultimate guide
to creating and starting a recruiting and staffing consulting firm.
To
start a staffing company may appear to be a straightforward transaction or business
undertaking. You need just a couple of employees, there’s no huge inventory to
acquire, and you could even start your staffing consulting business from the
convenience! There are, however, plenty of things and steps to be
considered before your staffing and consulting business is ready to take
staffing orders from clients or even face your first candidate.
This article is designed to guide you if you are thinking about how to start a
staffing agency online or establishing a brick and mortar recruitment consulting company.
Starting
a Staffing consulting Agency – What Do You Need
So, you are determined in terms of starting your own
staffing consulting and recruiting agency – excellent business idea. Remember
that entrepreneurship in any industry comes with lots of ups and downs, many
quite unexpected and the same is true of staffing agencies. Even when you have
a great love for what you are intending to do, your consulting business won’t
succeed with passion alone. You not only need to be fully committed for the
long-haul but also have an in-depth understanding of every possible staffing situation, business downturn, or even points of frustration
which you could be transformed into a growth opportunity. And that is what this
article intends to equip and guide you with as you enter this potentially
lucrative consulting agencies industry.
As
you embark on starting this
momentous business journey,
remember that many recruiters have walked down this same route of starting a
staffing business or recruiting employees and you are certainly not alone in
the industry. Even the largest of the global
staffing consulting companies were at one
time small and started just like you before becoming big names in the consulting industry.
Let’s first look at the basic staffing and consulting business requirements and areas that you will
need to focus on when starting your consulting and recruiting agency in your
new industry.
Get
your Staffing Business Registered and Licensed
Perhaps
you have explored the business plan or ideas on running agencies, or may be
actively considering taking the plunge from your modest in-house temp
recruiting to starting full
consulting. Step one is obviously to get your
staffing business registered. Before starting, learn all the relevant local
requirements for that appertain to getting the appropriate business licenses,
contact your local business bureau or check online. Then proceed to register the
name of your staffing recruiting agency at the designated office, file your business
articles of incorporation, and pay all fees.
Some of the key staffing business
registration requirements for this consulting
and recruiting agencies industry before starting include:
- A
business name
- A
qualified accountant
- Money
for fees
- Business
Banking account
- Insurance cover
- A
place to work
- Website.
You may, in addition, need to obtain
extra staffing licensing
to place employees legally in select specialized sectors or an industry like
health care. Before you start the staffing or recruitment consulting agency, it
is prudent to consult your local business bureau or licensing office regarding special
staffing licensing information. They can also advise and guide you on ideas, business
and industry approach strategies.
Obtain
Legal Counsel that Understands How to Open a Staffing Agency
A larger portion of investment when starting
recruitment agencies will go into
getting suitable legal counsel to ensure proper due diligence on clients and
employees. It is important to make sure that the legal counsel you employ understands
staffing and the consulting business as well as all the relevant national and
provincial legislation dealing with the staffing and recruiting agencies industry.
This way, you are sure of them giving good guide tips.
Such legal counsel will assist you
in terms of the requisite staffing consulting business documentation before starting operations in this
industry. Some these will include:
·
Employment Agreements
·
Workplace Violence and Harassment
Policy
·
Termination & Layoff Clauses
·
Disciplinary Policy
·
Health & Safety Policy
·
Client Service Agreements.
Secure
Staffing and Recruitment Consulting Business
Insurance
Most clients will want to see proof that
your staffing agency has in place some insurance in case one of your temp
workers cause damage as they work for their company, industry or site. Getting affordable insurance capable of meeting
the needs of your clients is imperative. Talk to a reputable insurance company
that understands your staffing, recruiting and consulting operations to
ensure you remain covered for all manner of possible insurance situations
before starting any consulting or recruiting agency or agencies as they can
guide you.
Finding Your Staffing Consulting Business Niche
Staffing and recruiting services have traditionally been operating across all
employment sectors. However, increasingly staffing consulting services can now
be seen operating within a single niche market. The growing number of
specializations existing today in the staffing industry is making the staffing
industry more complex.
Also, beware
of special niches existing within a single staffing or recruiting sector. If for example, you plan to start
staffing agency that focuses on clerical and office positions, you will
discover that it's possible to even specialize further. For example, you may
decide to only provide midlevel administrative support staffing needs to only
select Fortune 500 companies. Other examples worth looking into
include recruiting for finance or legal personnel staffing if your location
has many accounting or legal firms.
As you plan and look into the above staffing
and recruiting business niche possibilities, take some time before
starting and consider the following important staffing and recruiting factors as they can guide your choices and
strategies in the recruiting industry:
Past Consulting and Recruiting Experience
If you happen to have a background
or previous experience in a specific field or sector, this could turn out to be
a greatly advantageous. You will not only be able to assess job applicants
better in that particular field, but the experience also lends much credibility
to your recruitment business. The other great benefit is that you will be
feeling more comfortable because you are doing business in an industry that you
understand well or have sufficient experience in. You will still need to carry
out your staffing market and
industry research prior to starting out in this employee recruiting industry.
Understand the employees and clients industry well to be successful.
Staffing Demographics and Psychographics
The
most common structure when it comes to starting a staffing agencies
or recruitment consulting business is to
acquire a small office staffed by a handful of employees who do the recruitment
of candidates and selling employment services to businesses operating in the
local area. The composition of your staffing or
recruiting consulting services agency should be determined by the demographic and
psychographics of the area you intend to specialize in. In general, staffing
agencies should make sure they are adhering to the country’s labor laws.
Competition in the Staffing Consulting Services Industry
The competition level in this industry will by a large degree
depends on the location of your business and of course your chosen staffing
consulting niche. If for instance, you start your own staffing agency and it is
the only one dealing with recruiting nurses for the home care industry in the whole
location, you can be sure of monopolizing that staffing aspect right from when
you are starting.
Whatever the case, it pays to be prepared and have ready
strategies to face all manner of competition, either as you set up or later as
you begin recruiting. For instance, across the Unites States, you will find
numerous staffing consulting agencies scattered all over the country. There are
also larger recruitment firms that generally set the industry trends and you ought
to be well-prepared to compete for clients with them.
Local Staffing Industry
Demand and Supply
Staffing and consulting agencies need
both clients and temporary employees to survive. Before choosing your niche, ensure
you know what types of jobs opportunities are available in your location as
well as the supply of potential staffing labor. If for example your town 10
factories, you cannot afford to rule out the potential for industrial
placements.
Before you start a staffing company or recruiting services, plan a visit to your location’s chamber of
commerce website so that you may get to know more about the top companies and industries
in the area. You may, for example, be living in a city with a relatively high
number of legal firms, finance companies, many technological companies or
hospitals.
Economic Feasibility
Occasionally, a staffing consulting market niche that would appear to be the natural option
given your background may not be feasible due to the financial implications.
For example, you might be a medical professional with experience in clinical
services but choose not to set up a medical staffing business because of its rather
steep start-up financial demands. In addition, nursing homes, hospitals, and
other medical facilities generally tend to pay after 1 to 3 months. In that
case, you may decide to try your hand in higher-end clerical recruitment instead.
Different Types of Staffing Consulting
Agencies
Also known as staffing or
recruitment agencies they identify candidates to work on a specific work
assignment, project or industry. The most
common type of recruitment agency is the temporary staffing firm. If the
work is temporary, it is the responsibility of the agency to screen, induct
checks and recruiting and supervise the assigned employee. The payment to the agency is in the form
of a fee typically a set percentage that is added to the worker’s pay or hourly
rate.
Having covered a staffing agency or
consulting business in its broadest sense, here are the different types to help
you plan your recruiting strategies.
·
Temporary staffing agencies -They make the largest portion of the industry and generally
supplying companies with short-term basis workers. These either supplement
existing workers during times of need or to fill in for someone who is absent.
·
Long-term staffing agencies – Also referred to as "facilities
staffing" these specialize in having employees placed in long-term
assignments that can run for indefinitely.
·
Temp-to-perm staffing agencies – This type of staffing service provides clients and
companies chance of trying out a new worker on a temp basis and then hire him
or her later if the client desires to do that.
·
Contingency Search Firms - These are staffing agencies which get paid a fee when and if
a right candidate is identified for the particular position. These consulting services are at times employed on top of internal
recruitment and staffing efforts towards broadening the search scope for candidates
with specific niche skill sets.
·
Executive Search Firms – These are often introduced so as to broaden the search scope
and are typically employed when hiring into senior management and administrator
positions.
While it's important and helpful to
understand the existing distinctions among these different types of staffing consulting services, you can now easily start a staffing agency from
home that offers all these services combined under one roof.
Starting
a Temp Agency from Home
A temporary agency employs
individuals who are trained in specific fields to work for other businesses through
short-term contracts or assignments. This is a very hands-on type of
environment as clients and employees may contact you any hour of the night or
day throughout for a variety of reasons. When starting
a temp recruiting and staffing consulting agency
from your home, it is important that the staffing
or consulting business is structured in such as to maintain your home’s
privacy while still keeping in contact with your consulting clients.
On
the average, in terms of how to start a
temp agency, you need nothing special such as complicated
equipment or even the latest technology to successfully manage a consulting setup except for suitable recruiting software business applications.
In terms of choosing whether to rent or lease staffing recruitment
office space, what should guide all your strategies is your business budget.
Important steps in setting up staffing/consulting
business include:
·
Visiting your local zoning office.
·
Get insurance coverage and all vital staffing business licenses employees!
·
Obtain worker's compensation and important consulting
and business tax details even for employees.
·
Acquire a dedicated or private phone line for
your staffing agency.
·
Plan on purchasing ads in the local radio
stations or local paper for promoting your new consulting agency to find new or
additional employees or consulting clients.
·
Consider accepting online applications from
potential employees. This helps in keeping employees and clients away from your
private home and offers security.
·
Organize meetings with human resources managers
and executives; explain the working of your staffing consulting business and
the benefits that come with temp employees.
·
Keep yourself accessible so that staffing
consulting clients and employees can inform you in case of no-show employees or
any other staffing or recruiting incidents
that need your immediate action.
If you want to run a staff consulting and recruiting firm of
medium scale, experts suggest that you will need at least 10 key staff when
starting. Of course, there may be times when you may need to go further and
engage experts to assist you in recruiting high profile employees.
In all probability, when you are just starting consulting,
finances may be limited or your staffing consulting
business structure still growing and unable to retain all the recruitment
professionals full-time hence why it is important to partner with other
recruiting experts operating as freelancers. Locate your staffing consulting office near where potential clients are operating and identify
a convenient spot for interviewing temporary workers or future external
employees.
Start recruiting external employees towards building a
potential staffing client database. This can easily be done for free for
example by placing job ads on free online job boards. To find prospective consulting
clients free of charge, start cold calling prospective organizations from the
phone directory or prospecting large office buildings. Screen potential clients
by getting to know whether they even utilize external recruiting or staffing consulting services.
Get Latest Applicant Tracking & Payroll
Processing Systems
Once
your staffing business
is rolling, you will need to plan how to begin paying your contract workers employees
on a regular basis: weekly, bi-weekly or every month. On top of that, you have
to regularly remit both the employer and employee taxes. Options to
handle all these technical consulting
aspects include either outsourcing a professional business payroll
processing provider or hiring an in-house payroll administrator.
It
is possible to use Microsoft Office as you are starting out but soon you are
going to need some more robust staffing and recruiting tools geared to boosting
the efficiency of your staffing agency. Ensure that you research the available
tools as well as technical support, functionality, and cost.
Staffing Client
Credit Checks
Clients
credit checking is perhaps one of the most important components of the entire
process of your taking on all your new clients. A credit check on clients informs
you how long it takes a particular client to clear invoices on average and whether
they could be experiencing financial stress. Don’t unintentionally plan to
be part of those waiting to be paid or those that never saw their money after
offering consulting or legal services.
Give your Expertise and Consulting Time
There
is a very reason why recruiters are referred to as ‘Consultants’. Some of the
leading recruiters end up developing lots of industry expertise and knowledge
which they openly share that openly with many of their clients. Hiring managers
and industry owners
need access to experts they can easily contact to seek guidance and discuss the
latest trends in salary rates, resources, legal issues on recruiting, consulting,
employee availability and so on. Become that person to whom your clients can
confidently turn to consulting, and remember to do that for free – you will
reap the benefits in the long-run. You will be amazed at the referral this
approach can bring to your brand, especially if you are starting a recruitment agency or
consulting firm in an area that is untapped.
Develop
Relationships
As you prepare on how to start an
online staffing agency, remember that when it comes to recruitment, developing
personal relationships is everything. Spend time off-net getting to personally
know your key clients. When funds allow, take potential clients for lunch as
you sell your staffing business ideas to them, call them weekly just to say
hello, invite them to a game of golf, share useful information with them even
before thy ask. While these business tactics may appear obvious, the art of building
relationships is disappearing slowly in many recruitment sectors as it becomes
too automated.
Experiment and be Flexible with your Consulting Terms
When starting a temp agency from
home, it is important that during the initial period you don’t become too
fixated with your business Terms and Costs. Of course, this necessarily doesn’t
mean you should go giving discounts everywhere, but it’s good to become creative
and try experimenting with different arrangements in attempts at finding what
works best for your clients and yourself. Engage clients in discussions on retainers, fixed
fee arrangements, exclusivity, etc. You will be pleasantly amazed at the kind
of deals or ideas that you can get by offering a more personalized kind of
staffing service, each customized to the needs of individual clients.
Starting a Recruitment Consulting Agency from Scratch or to
Buy a Franchise
In terms of starting a staffing company, it pays you to
begin from the scratch as opposed buying a running franchise. First of all, even
before you win the first recruitment consulting job, you will be under
scrutiny, your profile being keenly studied even if the franchise you are
operating on is a successful staffing brand.
It
is true that a staffing business franchise
will provide you with ready business infrastructure and other forms of
technical support. However, the starting or entry cost is usually very high and
remember that you will be paying monthly franchise cost or fees typically in
the range of 5 to 9% of your business gross revenue. Leaving the franchise can
not only be difficult if it’s not working out well for your staffing business.
A staffing consulting
and recruiting business franchise also potentially limits the autonomy of the
business owner. However, if you like the corporate business model that covers lots
of training, then a legal franchise could be an excellent option.
If you are thinking of how to start a temp
agency with no money, the best strategy is to go it alone. Employ bare-bones approaches like a simple laptop, the
Internet, and your own knowledge when starting a staffing agency. This is a staffing
consulting option that allows you to use all your entrepreneurial skills and if
you are worried about how to start a
staffing agency with no money, it requires the least upfront cash
amounts.
Remember that the majority of successful and huge staffing
consulting business firms
you see today started small, from the scratch and were able to create a solid recruiting
and staffing business brand. It takes hard work, dedication, and determination
if you want to achieve business success. Of course, it is possible to build
your own staffing brand to become one of the successful ones your chosen
staffing niche or area of specialization. You can even become a recruitment
brand recognized nationwide.
Steps on How to Start a Employment
Agency from Home
Starting a
staffing business that cost much money may appear to
be an intimidating undertaking, but the key lies in staying organized. By following
the simple guidelines described below on how to start a staffing agency from
home or in a leased office, you’ll
be positioning yourself for success.
1.
Gain some
experience: Lots
of people launch a staffing business
with very little or zero experience in this competitive industry. Try and gain
some experience or basic knowledge about the industry before you start.
2.
Research all
governmental requirements: plan for and look into aspects like areas licenses, taxes as well as workers’
compensation.
3.
Have a
viable cash flow analysis: During the
first year of your consulting, put into place a realistic estimation of your cash
flow needs. Take into account all staffing business overheads to avoid potential pitfalls towards the
close of the year. It is important to determine your staffing business income
and expenses, from there calculate the amount of much cash needed to operate your
operations on a daily basis.
4.
Consult
industry and business experts: Free
counsel is always available. Talk to others who have also started a staffing firm.
Talk to business owners not operating in your geographic area or the chosen recruiting
niche to avoid unnecessary competition.
5.
Develop a
niche: This allows you to stay updated on
current staffing consulting trends
and needs in the chosen niche and also limits levels of competition.
6.
Hit the
streets. Use all the contacts you have
to bring in employees and clients and if you lack these, hit the streets and
knock on doors.
Locating
your Staffing Agency
‘Location,
Location, Location’ – You may be forgiven for thinking
that this is something only found in the real estate business sector. It is,
however, equally true when applied to the staffing and recruitment consulting industry.
Office location matters a lot, and generally speaking, operating from home is
the best idea except when you are grappling with how to start a staffing agency
with no money or at low cost. Ideally, you need a professional atmosphere to
conduct your consulting business
like testing applicants, interviewing and training candidates as well as for holding
business meetings with clients.
So when looking for a suitable location for your new
staffing consulting firm, make sure it’s located in an area that is easily
accessible and visible, probably in the business hub of your city. Your
applicant ought to easily locate your staffing office when seeking to submit
their CVs, or coming for background checks. Your staffing clients should easily
locate you and drive there with no difficulty.
As you work out how to open a
staffing agency and scope out possible locations, consider all of the following
business-related factors:
·
Image: Depending on the clientele you want to serve, location can
be very important. For instance, for the legal consulting profession, image is everything and you may want to
locate your staffing office in an upscale area. You also want to project the
image of professionalism in tour staffing consulting business.
·
Proximity
to client: Often choosing your business office
location on the basis of the clientele you wish to attract pays. If you want to
serve McDonald's, placing your office close by may be a good idea!
·
Accessibility: Your consulting business location must be easily accessible to your potential staffing
employees and clients. It makes no sense locating your business where those who
want plan to reach your office must hire a taxi cab.
·
Economic Feasibility: Your staffing office location must make economic sense. Go for a location that contributes to
minimizing business overhead.
·
Possibility
for expansion: Always consider and hope that your
consulting business and brand
will grow. Therefore choose a location that has room for potential expansion as
moving is expensive. To plan ahead is to be successful
·
Lease
flexibility: When starting small, it's an
excellent idea to consider taking up temporary space for an initial couple of
months. If you feel the decision to start a staffing business is not your idea,
then you won’t find yourself locked into a binding long lease.
Starting
a Staffing Agency – Promotion Strategies
Marketing is vital for any business,
especially a new consulting startup.
Here are several advertising strategies that you can adopt or modify to suit
your specific promotion goals and the cost you are ready to incur:
·
Brochures – This is a recognized staffing brand advertising vehicle.
·
Direct
mailing – Choose your list in such a way
that it focuses on those organizations and companies whose industry sector and
size make them potential staffing clients.
·
The Internet – Well-crafted electronic business ads place on select bulletin
boards are an effective method, especially when they are industry-specific.
·
Newspapers. This traditional tool is useful for select staffing
industry sectors.
·
Specialty
publications. Helpful when you’re staffing consulting agency is targeting
specific types of organizations or brands.
·
Telephone – Your consulting and staffing business can use this to get
in touch with existing clients to alert them about available applicants. An
effective business tool
of generating additional business.
·
Select Business &Trade
Journals/Publications - Effective for targeting professional clients and
technical sectors.
·
Word-of-mouth – Perhaps the best method of brand advertising, most
credible and certainly one of the least expensive.
·
Yellow
Pages - Ads placed on Yellow Pages are
effective when you want to recruit employees though not very good for
attracting clients.
Financing
a Recruitment Agency Business
An
obvious question that you are likely to face is how much does it cost to start a staffing agency? Starting
a recruiting business can be cost effective particularly if you opt to run the
service from your home. You can also look into how to start a staffing agency online (virtual office) or share
the office space with others on a cost-sharing basis. What would normally take up
a relatively big chunk of your business money is securing a standard size office. However, if you opt
to start your staffing agency on a smaller scale, it may not even be necessary
to go source for external business funding.
The most important and greatest
expense for a recruitment consulting
agency goes to employee payroll. Employees have to be paid on time and
regularly otherwise they may seek employment elsewhere. Your staffing agency business
will, in addition, need to have funds that are sufficient to pay for relevant
employment taxes as well as other employee associated expenses. Tax compliance
is another issue that a staffing business has to deal with and to fail can cost
you much money and could even put you out of work besides having to pay
penalties.
Without
a shred of doubt in term of how to
start a staffing agency from home and the cost implications, your
initial should be to develop a viable business plan. With a good business plan,
how to start a staffing agency
with no money may not be such a big issue. You may not even
have to go through the rigors of convincing investors, banks, or your friends
to place their funds and resources in your startup business because they can
easily the potential ROI on their investment.
Starting
Recruiting Agencies - Financing Options
When
starting a recruitment agency, much needs to be done and you cannot afford to
relax. To get suitable financing will require perseverance, diligence, and
great wisdom in identifying the best financing option for your new staffing
business. Today, however, securing business credit can be easier than many
would assume.
Assuming you have now fully registered
your staffing business, obtained licenses, have ready employees, and secured
all applicable insurance certificates, you are now ready to roll. However,
before you proceed to apply for all available business loans, sit down and
carefully go through your business plan. Take a detailed look at the projected business
operating costs over the initial 6 to 12 months including how long you are expecting
to be operating before you begin turning a profit.
Of
course, your business location and the professionals staffing your office will
both largely determine the kind of resources available although there are several
financing options that are typically accessible for nearly every kind of
staffing agency start-up.
Here
are some of the options on how to start
a staffing company when it comes sourcing for business financing.
Small Business Loan
If you are
considering how to start a temp agency with no money or limited
saved funds, the Small Business Administration is
implementing strategies designed to make loans available for wider range of small
businesses. However, similar to any standard loan, the process of small
business loan underwriting can take anything from a couple of weeks to several
months. It might also entail pledging collateral – something that might not be
possible for a new staffing agency. While some of the application and approval criteria
have recently been relaxed, it remains it is incredibly difficult for new businesses
or those with less than perfect credit rating to qualify for this type of loan.
The main drawback associated with
small business loan is that even if you qualify you are not guaranteed that what
will get approved is the amount you need to comfortably operate your staffing
business. In addition, there is no way of ensuring that interest rate is going
to be low enough as to justify the debt appearing on your new business balance
sheet.
Unsecured Business Loan
Also referred to as a business cash
advance, an unsecured business loan is basically a short-term financing option
that gives you the financial cushion you need to get the staffing agency started.
Unsecured business loans don’t demand any form of collateral, although they require
business bank statements of at least 3 months. While this may not be the best
option for new business, if your recruitment agency can supply those needed
bank statements, they offer a reasonable financing option.
Private/Angel Investor
Private investment may typically
assume several forms such as stock options or a friend or family member contribution.
It is always tricky business navigating money contributions coming from a
family member or friend, particularly when you consider the risk of your
business not succeeding and them losing their contribution. This avenue of
financing should be approached with care and very candid communication.
Another mode of private business investment
that gaining popularity is financing from an ‘angel investor’. This is a person who gets sufficiently
motivated by the business concept and plans you have and is ready to contribute
some hard cash into the business.
In their own standing, angel
investors are tricky enough, though also advantageous. Usually, there is no
pre-existing connection with them on a personal level, which a useful angel when
it comes to negotiating agreements and contracts. Typically, these categories
of investors also have access to more funds compared to your typical relative
or friend. However, the trick comes in terms of convincing an unknown angel
investor to trust you and take their chances with their money on your business.
This certainly calls for a well-drafted business plan along with convincing financial
projections that guarantee near-future success.
Consulting Business
Growth Impossible Without Funds
Once you start a
recruitment agency, one of the biggest challenges you are likely to face is ensuring
that your employees get paid on time and accurately. The consequences for your brand
and business are sadly understandable if this fails to happen. As a new startup,
what you need the least is to constantly worry about having to pay your
employees (and other overheads). You need financial freedom so that you can
concentrate on building other aspects of the new business.
The majority of government and
commercial clients generally clear their invoices after a month or even 60
days. For most agencies, this time frame could pose a serious business and financial
challenge. Remember you need to pay your corporate business overheads during
that period before the invoices are cleared by your respective clients.
The only way your business will grow
is if you got adequate money sources or reserves capable of meeting all your
corporate expenses. It goes without saying that when you have larger contracts
you are going to need a reserve that is larger. Without a
reserve, you certainly will not be in a position to take up any new
contracts. When you cannot take on board new contracts, your growth will
be stifled.
Include in your overall financial plan and budget extra
start-up cash that you will utilize in paying your external employees. Most
likely, you will have to arrange how to pay your employees before you get paid
by the clients. In your business financial forecast, establish your payment
plan overall pricing, including details such as hourly pay rates in case you
have engaged external employees, the markup percentages to be charged to
clients as well as your gross margin target percentages.
Starting
a staffing agency from home - Possible
Threats and Challenges
To start a temp staffing agency requires
hard work but is well worth your effort and time if you love the recruitment industry.
Among the major challenges likely to be faced when setting up a new staffing
business is the possibility of competing with well – established consulting
firms offering similar staffing services like yours. The only route to avoid or
overcome this type of business challenge
is by creating your own niche market; focus on providing services to start –
ups who may not be in a position of affording the high-end fees being charged
by the big and established forms.
The majority of start-up temp staffing agencies
don’t even realize they have to pay their temp workers out of pocket as they
wait for the clients to honor the invoices, something that can take even 60
days. Securing the adequate payroll financing is possibly your biggest single
challenge towards securing your staffing business startup success.
A healthy cash flow is critical for business survival.
Be Aware of All Relevant Laws
When looking into how to start a
temp agency from home options, it is up to you to ensure your staffing
company follows both national and local labor laws. While knowing the
national laws on employment is important, some may become more complicated when
you apply them specifically to the staffing and recruitment industry.
Some business and labor laws related
to recruiting labor you may need to get familiar with include:
- Official Wage and Hour Rates
- Non-Discrimination Guidelines
- State/Provincial Law on
Workers’ Compensation and Unemployment Insurance
- Locality-Specific Labor
Laws
·
Business Taxation.
Final Thoughts
Whether you are looking into how to start an
online staffing agency or an office-based business, this is a
potentially very viable business option for those who love the task of
matching personnel to appropriate companies and jobs. Through opening a
recruiting agency, you are helping those seeking employment to get temporary or
permanent work in your area or elsewhere. You are also helping businesses to
get the right candidates suitable for job openings they have.
It's important, however,
to realize the degree of responsibility you are taking on towards businesses
and employees you are recruiting when you start your own staffing agency. You
must put in place appropriate staffing business measures
to not only streamline the entire hiring process but also ensure that everybody
is happy with the service being offered by your recruitment business. A happy client is the surest route to a good
Return-On-Investment on your staffing consulting business.
With the right tools, information and a good plan, there is
absolutely no reason why your small staffing consulting and recruiting business
can grow, thrive, be successful, and compete with other well-established
players in the industry. A good plan is all you require for a successful
consulting recruitment company that will be the envy of many in the recruiting
agencies industry.
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