How to Finance a Staffing Agency

Running a staffing agency requires a combination of good sales skills along with solid organizational skills. As an owner (or manager) you need to make sure that you are signing on new clients who will use your staff. At the same time, you need to recruit quality staff that will ensure that you meet your client’s expectations. And while you do this, you also need to make sure that payroll is handled so that your team is always paid on time.

For many staffing agency owners, this last point can be a real problem, especially if the company is starting up or growing too quickly. Most commercial clients will be happy to use your staff for a contract, but they will pay their invoices in 45 to 60 days. In the meantime, your company needs to cover all employee payroll. You have to pay salaries, retain taxes and cover any benefits you offer. Many agencies just can’t afford to wait that long to get paid.

Most agency owners will opt for a line of credit, if they can qualify for this form of business financing. But qualifying for a line of credit, or a business loan for that matter, can be very difficult. This is especially true for staffing agencies that have no hard collateral. As it’s well known, most institutions provide business loans to companies that have both, the earning ability to pay the loan back and enough collateral to cover the loan if they can’t pay it back. Because of this, only staffing agencies with good track records, solid customers and seasoned management teams get institutional financing.

Unless you manage to get external funding, your staffing agency’s growth will always be limited by your capital. However, there is one funding alternative that will help solve your problem. If you look at the situation, you’ll see that the problem is one of timing. You need to pay employees now, but your clients want to pay later. And the way to bridge this gap is to get an advance on your client invoice. This provides you with the funds to meet your current obligations and handle new projects.

This solution is called invoice factoring and is offered by factoring companies. A factoring company considers your accounts receivable (invoices) from good clients to great collateral. Because of that, they are willing to advance you funds against those invoices. One advantage of factoring is that it helps you meet your current liabilities. A bigger – and often ignored – advantage is that it can help your company to bid for bigger contracts. How is that? Many staffing agencies have been able to win very large contracts and then arranged to factor their invoices before their payroll is due. The potential of this strategy is obvious. When done correctly – and it does take good organizational skills - it can help grow your company very quickly. Because of this, accounts receivable factoring can be a great tool for staffing agencies with good growth potential.