Start Your Own Staffing Service: Your Step-By-Step Guide to Success (StartUp Series)

I recommend renaming this book to “How to Start an Old School Staffing Service.” Much of the information is so outdated that I checked the copyright several times to ensure it indeed said 2013 and not 2003 (or earlier). The people interviewed began their firms many years ago, so they may have actually started in this old school way. But the world has changed, and this book is not a good guide for how to compete in that world.For example, the authors spend many pages describing the physical office: how much space, how desks should be positioned, what types of phone calls you’ll receive, remember to buy office supplies. They only offered one example of a firm that started in their own kitchen. What about co-office spaces, renting rooms for training, and virtual offices?The section on software actually made me laugh. “Every owner we talked to has access to the internet.” In 2013. Wow! And, “Make sure your website is worded so that it can be ‘matched’ by search engines like Yahoo!” They go into detail about how much RAM you should have on your computers, yet there is not even a mention of SAAS.The majority of the book is less relevant to staffing industry and more for a basic how-to-start-a-business guide, and not a very good one at that. Even the staffing service information was not helpful. The advertising strategies are very passive (brochures, direct mail, trade journals) - nothing innovative or particularly specific to the staffing industry. Nothing about social media.I picked up this book looking for specific information in the staffing industry: temporary employees vs. contractors, insurance requirements, how to determine billing rates. The book did not discuss temporary employees vs. contractors - it assumes that all of your workers will be employees. The book discussed insurance requirements, but nothing different than what I had already found on the Internet. The section on billing rates wasn’t helpful - just that the markup rates will vary from 25-75% depending on your market.The gross and even dangerous omission is how to run an ROI analysis. The book shouldn’t present a comical list of office supplies but instead should walk you through how many temporary employees you need to meet those expenses. A quick example: if you have a temporary employee who makes X per hour and has Y markup, subtract Z estimated amount in taxes and any benefits, and the remaining is your profit per hour on that employee. Now, figure out how many temporary employees you need and how many hours they should work to cover your basic expenses. They could have spent a whole chapter covering these types of scenarios. They felt the need to include “Take the time to proofread” your brochures, but not to include an ROI analysis of whether or not you can make ends meet in the first place.I would not recommend this book to anyone who has basic knowledge about starting a business. The staffing business information is not helpful enough to justify it, either, if you (also) have access to the Internet.

Great material for anyone interested in starting a recruitment and staffing business. I felt confused before reading this book. I feel more prepared to step into the role with the knowledge, tips and resources gathered after reading this step-by-step guide. I highly recommend this for anyone looking to jumpstart this business

Arrived today, I haven’t started to read the book yet. That’s because as soon as I opened it, the pages began to fall out of the book.

The book arrived in excellent condition.

I was reading page four of chapter 1 and all of this sudden I'm at chapter 4...it is missing 40 pages of content

great item and service

Good and succinct material. Very helpful as I embark on this new journey.They need to create a HR consultant book next!

As described