If you worked in the temporary employment sector for a while, you probably know you can make good money if you're able to find good workers and place these temps in organizations. If you're able to match the right temps to the right organizations, you'll have happy customers! If you're good at this, you might want to start your own temporary staffing firm, so you're your own boss and you make your own money. But working in an existing firm is totally different from starting your own temporary employment agency. In this article, we give you three tips that are super important to be off to a good start!

Tip 1: focus on a certain niche

Of course it is possible to find and place temps in multiple sectors, from the catering industry to the healthcare sector. But most temporary employment agencies focus on only one niche. There are a few benefits to focusing on only IT, for instance: first of all, you know the skills needed for temps in this niche, so you can source your temps way better and find better matches. Secondly, it's easier to get your name out there and make contacts if you focus on just one sector.

Which niche you choose is totally up to you. Maybe you've found out through your years of working in temporary staffing agencies, that you're particularly good at staffing for hospitals. Or at finding blueberry pickers. Or maybe you've always been able to recruit the best tech staff.

Make sure it's something you're good at and we also recommend you to take a look at which other agencies are also operating in that niche. For instance, there's a lot of money to be made in IT staffing, but the competition is ruthless. Maybe you can make just as much by focusing on the staffing of marketeers? By writing out a business plan with goals, it's easier to make choices.

Tip 2: make sure all the practicalities are fixed

If you're an employee at a staffing agency, you probably never had to wonder about the taxes or the name of the business. Or how much renting an office is. But now you're responsible!

To start up a temporary employment agency (Dutch: uitzendbureau beginnen), you have to take care of a few things. You have to create a legal business entity (e.g. a corporation, LLC or DBA), choose a business name and check if that name also has an 'open' domain name that you can use and register that business name. Also double check that no one has trademarked the name so you won't get sued!

Furthermore it's important to get all your licenses and permits. This depends on where you're located, so make sure you research this enough. You also need to take care of your insurance, set money aside to have a website and maybe even rent an office.

Tip 3: choose the best temporary staffing software

Once all the practicalities have been taken care of, you're almost ready to go. You still need to find the best temporary staffing software (Dutch: uitzendsoftware) that suits your needs. This might just be the software you're used to using in your previous job(s), but it might also be another one! Make sure to pick good software that will allow your business to grow in the following years!

Good luck with your temporary staffing agency!