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HOW TO START YOUR OWN MILLION DOLLAR TEMPORARY HELP SERVICE
This is a service business with excellent growth potential, indications of strong stability, a nationwide market with a growing demand and a risk factor that's rated average or less than most new business ideas. Temporary Help Services are well suited to absentee ownership situations; require no experience or technical knowledge on the part of the entrepreneur; and have only minimal equipment needs. Net profits before taxes for some established temporary help services have been reported as high as $500,000 per year. There's a difference between regular, private employment agencies and a temporary help service. The employment agency is a "brokerage" office that matches unemployed persons with available jobs. The temporary help service hires people onto its own payroll, sends them out on contract jobs, and pays them accordingly. Temporary help services make money "off the top." They send out temporary workers on one-or-two-day-only jobs paying $15 an hour to the worker, and collecting $20 an hour for the time the worker spends on the assignment. More and more, businesses are willing to pay the premium costs for a trained person for just a few days at a time, than to accept the burden of a 40-hours per week payroll obligation and the task of finding enough work to keep such a person busy enough to justify a full-time salary and the attendant support costs. Businesses everywhere are finding it easier to pay more for "temporaries" than hired 40-hours per week "permanents." That's the secret of success with this kind of business, and the point to keep in mind when selling your services. The successful temporary help service recruits as many skilled and qualified workers as possible. These workers differ from the regular job-seekers in that they're looking for "temporary" work only. For any number of reasons, they're only willing to work on jobs lasting from one to five days, or perhaps two to three weeks, on any one job assignment. Related Sites These persons are ideal for the employers needing help
but not wanting to hire and train full-time employees. Your task will be to
find and attract top people and to maintain complete files on them. What kind
of jobs they specialize in, their attitudes about work, and when or how often
they're willing to work would be essential information to have in our file.
Each person should be tested in your office, sent out on a few assignments to
build a favorable reputation as a good worker, and then offered a permanent
listing on your roster of available specialists. Work hard to build your roster of available workers.
Within ninety days of start-up, you want to be able to send someone out to
fill any employer's needs, regardless of the job requirements. Job assignments
will range from loading dock and light clerical work to word processing and
even master-of-ceremonies work. Depending on the size of your market, you could
conceivably specialize in temporary help for data-processing, the medical or
legal professions, or perhaps the retail trade; and you'd still make a lot of
money. Generally though, we are going to show you here how to start a "full-service" temporary
help agency. You'll need a good mix of employers in your area for
best chances of real success. Your area can be one of high unemployment or
one with relatively few unemployed. Whichever the case, the thinking of the
business community and the work force available should be non-traditional;
there should be an undercurrent of thought toward the idea of calling in
specialists to handle a job quicker, and more efficiently, than the full-time
worker. The people wanting to affiliate with you as workers will
be housewives, college students, retired people and a large number of people
who like to work, but don't want to be tied down to a regular job. When you
explain the concept of your service, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the
number of traditionalists you'll convert to temporary workers. First, you should visit your local Chamber of Commerce
office. Explain the philosophy of your service, meet the chamber officers and
ask for their help. You'll find that they have a listing of all the major
businesses in the area, plus the names of the 'right' people to talk to in selling your service. If
you request, you might be invited to Chamber meetings and be introduced to the
business leaders in your community. The only kind of information it is not likely they will be able
to help you with is a listing of doctors, lawyers and small, home-based,
one-person enterprises. However, don't neglect contacting these people; they
have a need for varied specialized help just as the larger, more widely known
firms in your community. You can locate your offices just about anywhere. You'll
find, however, that your greatest success will come if you locate in a modern
office building housing professionals such as lawyers, accountants, investment
counselors, insurance company offices, etc. Project a professional image.
Locate in a downtown or business section of your town when you are able to do
so. Basically, you'll need 600 to 700 square feet of office
space. You should have a reception area, two offices and a room to store
supplies. The more prestigious your business address and office, the better
caliber clientele you'll attract. People looking for temporary work, and employers considering using your
services, will doubt your abilities if they aren't favorably impressed with
your image. It is possible to start this business in your home, but
make sure you have the space for a reception area, and at least a semi-private
interview area. Most of your selling efforts will be conducted by mail, phone
and personal visits to the employer's place of business, so you won't have any
problem there. However, you may run into zoning problems if your city zoning
people discover a large number of cars parked at your house every day. It
certainly always helps to be on good terms with your neighbors, and further,
working by appointment will help keep traffic under control. So, practically speaking, starting your business from
home will require a much smaller initial investment. In this particular
business, rent and advertising will be your largest expense, so beginning the
business from your home is definitely worth considering if your start-up funds
are limited. In actual operation, you could have the applicants
interested in your services contact you by phone. You would then set up
appointments either in their homes or your own, thereby eliminating congestion
of cars in front of your home, as mentioned above. If you began on a part-time
basis, you could have a family member or friend answer your phone and set up
appointments for you. If you do begin part-time, and working out of your home,
you might look into the advantages of a professional telephone answering
service. Another idea for saving on costs might be to rent unused
space from a business already established. These businesses might be sales and
distribution offices, suburban insurance agencies, quick print or copy shops,
and repair service shops. Look around; many businesses have had to take what
was available at the time, and would be more than happy to lease or share
their vacant space. Keep in mind though, that you'll do much better with an
office of your own, and you should move into one just as soon as you can afford one. Proper facilities that convey a professional
image should be number one on your list of priorities. Your business image is projected by your address and the
appearance of the building in which you locate. Your reception area will set
the mood of professionalism and efficiency. The reception area should be
inviting - walls painted in light pastel colors, wall prints, floor lamps and wall-to-wall carpeting. It
should also feel comfortable while being functional. Comfortable modern chairs
and sofa; perhaps a floor planter or two, reception desk and ash trays all
help to achieve this effect. The main office need have only a desk and a comfortable
chair, facing the door, a chair beside or in front of the desk, and a file
cabinet. A print or two on the walls, and perhaps a bookcase are the only
"extras" you might use to dress up your office. Your second office equipment will be for testing your
applicants. You can inexpensively build a table along the length of two walls,
partition into cubicles and have an electric typewriter, an adding machine and
make a headset connected to a dictaphone/recorder, and another set up for
testing short hand capabilities. Later on, you'll probably want to have a word
processor and a computer. Ideally, you should also have a sales office and a
storage room. The sales office will be where you greet and talk with employers
who drop in to look you over to find out more about your business. Mainly,
this office will be where your people will work from when calling prospective
clients and selling your services by phone. The storage room needs only
shelves to hold various forms, mailing pieces, envelopes and business records. One way to hold your start-up costs to a minimum is by
leasing your office furnishings and equipment. Whatever you do, remember that
you're projecting an image, so don't settle for less than the best. This is
absolutely imperative in regard to any equipment used for testing your
applicants. You might be able to work out an arrangement with the business
department of a local college, or business school, to send your applicants to
them for testing on their machines. Such an arrangement, even at a cost of $5
to $10 per test, could save you several thousand dollars in start-up costs. The first person you hire should be either an
experienced manager or someone you can quickly train to assume those duties.
It's best to hold out for a person with at least one year experience as a bona
fide personnel manager. This person should be outgoing, detail-minded,
people-oriented and able to work well under pressure without losing his sense
of humor. You don't want someone likely to blow his cool when confronted with
a difficult situation. Your manager will be responsible for organizing the
interview and testing systems, for setting up your sales solicitation program,
and for supervising the temporary workers, as well as your office staff. It's
a highly responsible and demanding position, so don't be reluctant to spend
the money necessary to get the best. You will need to research to determine
what salary such a top manager receives in your area. Related Sites The next member of your staff should be an enthusiastic,
hustling sales person. This employee should be experienced and adept at
selling by phone as well as in person. Unless you can afford to pay a good
direct mail advertising copywriter to create your mailing pieces for you, it
would be wise to look for direct mail advertising or copyrighting experience
in the background of the sales person you expect to hire. Your sales person should spend the mornings calling
prospective employers on the phone, and the afternoons making in person sales
calls. With this kind of work routine in mind, look for sales people with high
ambition and energy levels. Try to pick the kind who will come in early and
stay late to work on his direct mail efforts, clearing the decks so that he
uses his time during regular business hours to close sales by phone and in
person. You need and want a "closer" - not an order taker. Be as
selective as you have to be in choosing this salesperson. In addition to the going rate which a sales person of
this type should be paid, you should also consider paying a 5 percent bonus
for each new account brought in. When you find the right person, it will be
worth it, so make it worthwhile to join your staff. Not all sales people will
necessarily develop into good sales managers, so try to find one who fits all
your requirements. The sales manager would recruit, organize, develop,
motivate and supervise your sales staff. With those responsibilities, you'd
want to offer a salary plus override on the sales production of his staff of
sales people. You'll need an efficient and foolproof bookkeeping
system to keep track of your payroll, client billing, income taxes, work
schedule, hours worked and all the money that comes in. For this chore, I
suggest that you contract with a company that handles this type of work for a
number of independent small businesses. Explain to them everything you think
you need; ask them to set up a system, and then instruct your receptionist on
how to keep it up to date on a weekly or monthly basis. You'll save money in the long run if you will consult
with an accounting firm and have them set up a system that not only works, but
can be interpreted and computerized from the beginning. Later on, you may want
or need to hire a full-time bookkeeper just to keep up with the daily entries. If so, check out
salaries paid in your area for that kind of work. The last member of your staff will be your receptionist.
This person should be a lady of better than average good looks, a lot of
empathy for people in general, and an easy smile. She should dress stylishly,
but not provocatively. When she isn't answering the phone or greeting
customers, she can be administering tests, doing miscellaneous typing, making
folders for the records of your workers, and general office filing. And if you
have an accounting system set up, she could also assist with the daily
bookkeeping. The kind of temporary workers you'll want to attract
will fit into several general categories, and can be recruited in a number of
different ways. Good places to look first will be in the business, secretarial
and technical schools in your area, and perhaps also the colleges. To sustain
your efforts, have a brochure about your company made up, and make sure the
placement directors or counselors always have an ample supply on hand. Many
schools stage "career days," when employers are invited to set up
booths on campus and talk to the students, pass out literature, and invite the
students to visit their companies. Make sure that you know about these, and
that your firm is represented. Another group will be housewives who perhaps held
regular jobs before marriage or the birth of a baby, and now want to get back
into the job market. You can bring these people in by posting bulletin board
notices, arranging announcements at meetings, or with guest speaking
engagements. And of course you can try for guest appearances on local radio or
television talk shows. Another group to recruit will be the "bored with
life" people. These are in the 45-to-55 age group, not satisfied with the
future where they are, and looking for a better opportunity. It is imperative
that you begin recruiting and signing workers as soon as possible; at least a
month before you open for business is not too early. According to industry
surveys, the most common reason for the failure of temporary help services is
not enough workers lined up to fill the client demand. When you get a request
for help, you should be able to send out a qualified person. Each market area differs in the number of different
types of workers a temporary help service should have available, but in every
case, it's best to have more than you figure to be a basic need. You must
establish a maximum number of people within any one occupational field that
you'll sign up, or else you won't be able to keep everyone busy. Unless you
keep the workers you have registered working pretty much as often as they want
to work, you'll begin to lose them. It's not hard to determine when a person is losing
interest in temporary job assignments through your firm. Whenever you call to
give an assignment and you can't reach the person you're calling, try several
follow-up calls. It should become obvious to you that he's no longer
interested if you still can't reach him with your follow-up calls. It's a good
practice to ask for notification of vacation or other plans that will affect
their availability for work. If you call and a job assignment is refused with a lame
excuse, come right to the point and ask if he wants to change his availability
status, or if you should drop him from your list of available temporary
workers altogether. Never coddle a temporary worker. If he's not available
when you call to give an assignment, or he gives you a less than valid excuse
for not accepting, flag his "call assignment" card and move on to
your next available worker. You might call a couple of days later to check his
availability and interest in continuing to work, but don't waste too much
time. You can always reinstate such a worker, but it is probably better to
spend the time recruiting a replacement. As mentioned earlier, one of your major expenses will be
for advertising. Your manager and sales people should keep you advised on your
current advertising impact and results, and from this you should have a good
understanding of how to use your advertising budget most effectively. Your
advertising should be "double-barreled," aimed at both the employer
and the worker. Generally, your efforts to add new employers to your
client list should focus on direct mail. Advertising efforts to recruit new
temporary workers should be almost exclusively devoted to newspapers. Years
ago, some radio stations sold sixty-second commercials to a few temporary help agencies. The
agencies talked to prospective employers, playing up the fact that they had
skilled workers to handle overload and deadline situations. These commercials
were broadcast in the mornings before 8 o'clock. Then they followed up during
the afternoon hours with commercials inviting people seeking temporary help to
come in and sign up. Everything worked well except that not enough prospective
employers called often enough to justify the expense. This advertising method is being followed on a small scale in some areas
even now, so watch for it. For really professional results, you should get a
free-lance advertising copywriter to do your direct mail piece. This should be
a 4-page brochure making these points: 1. All employers have sudden work overloads; face
deadline situations; or are suddenly left with a mountain of work for specially trained
employees just when they are home sick, on vacation, or off for an emergency. 2. Your company understands these work load problems,
and has available skilled professional replacement workers who can quickly step in
and get the job done. 3. Your company thoroughly tests each of the specialists
hired for these special staffing crisis situations, and can assure the employer that they
are tops in their individual areas of expertise. 4. Your company is well aware that many businesses would
like to save the expense and headaches of hiring a full-time specialist of the same
caliber of your people on a "temporary" or "on-call" basis. Your
people cannot be hired by the prospective employer because they already work for you; but if and
when a temporary worker is needed, your company stands ready to fill the need,
regardless of the job specialty required. 5. Even if he doesn't need one of your people today, the
need could arise at any time, and suddenly. So he should just keep the brochure and your
telephone number handy, and don't hesitate to call you personally for whatever
temporary help is needed. Once you have the copy written, decide on the layout and
type style you want to use; if and what color will be used; and take it to a
quality printer. Your brochure should be printed on 60-pound coated paper, and
folded to suit your needs by the printer. Your complete mailing should consist of a short cover
letter inviting the recipient to avail himself of your services; a brochure
explaining your services in greater detail; postage paid business reply card.
The mailing envelope and the cover letter should be addressed to each business
owner or personnel manager by name. Pay the cost of a bulk rate third class postage permit;
have your permit indicia imprinted on your mailing envelopes; and organize
your mailings to get between 200 and 500 letters into the mail three days a
week, every single week. Don't skimp on your direct mail advertising efforts,
because this will be the lifeblood of your success. Your newspaper ads for qualified workers looking for
temporary assignments should be display ads in the "Help Wanted"
section. Most such ads are one column wide by 3 to 6 inches deep. Be sure you
have an ad running in the Sunday paper, and at least one more on Wednesday or
Thursday. Before you even start soliciting accounts, you could run an ad one
column by 6 inches deep every day for a month. These ads should invite the readers to come in and
register with your company. Work with your free-lance copywriter to say what
you want to say. Overall, though, these ads should explain that you have
plenty of jobs going begging; that the worker sets his own days to work, and
can take jobs as often or as seldom as he likes. Stress the real advantage of
"paychecks on your terms" - an impossibility with a nine-to-five
job. (We have had reports of employed persons coming in to interview, going
back and quitting regular jobs, and becoming great "temporaries.") Don't forget to send out news releases to all the media
in your area when you open for business. Leave yourself open for broadcast
talk show interviews, and when you promote someone, pass special mile-stones,
or become involved in unusual stories in connection with your business, at least telephone the
media and give them this information. The most important requisite for success, however, is
consistent advertising. In a city of 100,000 population, you should budget
$10,000 for your first year advertising. Plus, get involved in as many
promotions and as much public relations contact and publicity coverage as
possible. Once you're beyond the "break-even" point in your
business, you will allocate funds for advertising based on your gross income. In day-to-day operations, your manager will interview
applicants; do testing; talk with clients; solve problems; take orders from
employers; and make job assignments. Usually, his busiest time will be right
after lunch when job orders start to come in. With this in mind, you might
want to arrange for him to take an early lunch period. While your manager is "running the show" your
sales person will be making telephone calls in the mornings, and in person
during the afternoons. It's a very good idea to send out your direct mail
advertising one week, and then call on these same people, either by phone or
in person, the next week. Remember that your sales calls should be relaxed
visits, allowing the prospect to learn more of your business and the kinds of
people you have available. During each sales call, the prospect
should be left with the feeling that your company can save him money, solve a
lot of production and scheduling problems, and take the exasperation out of
his personnel requirements. As a rule, you'll find that most jobs are called in
during the afternoon hours. With this in mind, it would be wise to have set
procedure for your specialists to call you each afternoon to let you know
where they can be reached through 5:00 p.m. if they are available for a job
assignment the next day. You might want to set a policy of "No call from
you - No assignment for you." Most temporary help agencies give their workers a supply
of a 3-part time card when they're hired by the agency. When the request for a
worker comes in, the most qualified in the required category is called. Job,
name of company, location, approximate length of job, and salary are all explained. If they
agree to take the offer, they fill in the time card for the day the work
begins. When they report for work, they have the time card signed by the
employer to verify starting time, and finishing time. One copy of the time
card stays with the employer; the temporary worker keeps a copy; and the other
copy is mailed to your office. Smooth and simple, but make sure you've got
everything worked out before you begin. Your bookkeeper notes the proper information on the
ledger for that employee, files the time card, and sends a ledger duplicate to
accounting for billing. Of course a reminder call should be made first, but as
a rule, any account that hasn't paid within thirty days should receive a personal visit. As to the
hard-core delinquent account, no more employees furnished, and a collection
agency to clear up the account will be your policy. You may want to look into
the advantages of selling your accounts receivable to a factoring company. Unlike the brokerage type employment agencies, your
temporary help agency will not require licenses other than those required by
any other business in your area. You should, however, bond each of your
employees in order to protect yourself from any possible liability or other
legal entanglements. And of course you'll need to carry a standard business
insurance policy. It's then - the HOW, WHAT, WHY and WHERE - of getting
started with your own profitable temporary help service! Remember, it takes
solid and consistent advertising, earnest recruiting, and selling. So don't
stop or let up until you have everyone in your area registered, and every
possible employer as a client, aware of your business. It's a big job with
lots of challenging work involved, and you'll need good people to help. It is worthwhile to search out these people with care,
to be sure you have good, reliable employees - the rewards will be well worth
it! Organize your business for success, and get with it. The WHEN is NOW!!! Home
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