Opening a staffing franchise could be one of the best opportunities you have this decade. If you’re the kind of person who likes to know absolutely everyone in town from the school teachers to the local business owners, then there might not be a better opportunity for you to do so than starting a staffing agency. You will help other business owners find talented employees and job seekers will come to you in order to be connected to the best local positions. You, in the middle, are a matchmaker everyone needs and when you love the job, making successful matches between employers and employees could be a fantastic experience.
Of course, like all small startup businesses, starting a staffing franchise won’t just be about fun and networking, it also needs to be run with a certain amount of strategy, especially in the first few months. If you’re just getting started in the staffing business or are considering buying a franchise soon, the five following tips can help you to start out on the right foot and kick off toward growth and innovation.
1) Choose Your Opening Niche
Many thriving staffing businesses have found that you might not want to start by offering all possible employment connection options, as this can get overwhelming before you have a thorough employee database or a well-established process. While you may eventually offer a full array of staffing services, start with a niche that works with your past experience and local community like helping people find accountants for tax season or specializing specifically in hiring technical engineers or IT professionals. This will make it clear to your first clients exactly what you have to offer and limit the variety resumes you’ll need to start filtering through.
2) Make Use of Your Technology
In the modern staffing industry, software is everything. Your team needs powerful business software to handle front office, back office, sales and marketing. If your franchise provides software, use it. And if you’re sourcing your own, make sure that it integrates well with the rest of the IT suite. At the same time, you want your services to be available online to all customers and clients through as many avenues as possible including your website, mobile app, and social media presence.
3) Start Building the Employee Database
The employee database of resumes and interview notes is by far one of the most valuable assets in any staffing business, and you want to start building yours quickly. This is what allows you to make perfect matches when you find the right fit for a customer or client and gives you an archive for repeat applicants. Keep your employee database backed up and on the cloud to keep it safe from natural disasters and malware attacks.
4) Listen to Your Clients
Being a good staffer is about matching job listings to resumes, but being a great staffer is about matching people and teams. When you’re working with a client to understand the kind of talent they’re looking for, make sure to really listen and take notes on the salient details. You need to know the kind of attitude the company culture has, what kind of team member the employer is looking for, and you can often gain a more in-depth understanding of the skills and abilities required simply by listening. This, in turn, will make your service unusually good at happy matches.
5) Stick To Your Guns
Finally, no matter how much your employees or family members might want it, do not start offering discounts or exceptions to your company policies as anything other than a promotional event or a negotiation with a highly valued client. If you start making exceptions, these can turn into a slippery slope and your tidy profit can quickly disappear into tiny discount losses. No matter how personally you know someone or how low their budget is, stick to your policies and hold the vast majority of your clients to identical standards. This will create a sense of equality and make those few special exceptions all the more special.
Are you ready to start your own staffing agency? With these five tips, you are at least five steps closer to having the perfect opening business plan. For more information about building and operating a staffing franchise, contact us today!
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