Finding Your Niche
Industry Focus for Staffing Agencies
Finding Your Niche: the Importance of Industry Focus as a Staffing Agency
July 24, 2017
We’d all love to be everything to everyone.
As a staffing agency, it would be wonderful if you could win any client from any industry. That would mean more contracts, more references and could mean drastically increasing chances of long-term success.
But in business, just like in life, we can’t be everything to everyone. In many cases, the most successful people are laser-focused on one specific skill or talent. Likewise, most successful businesses are focused on serving a specific industry, demographic or niche, and excelling in this role to beat out the competition.
For staffing agencies, it helps to have an industry focus. Whether it’s IT, marketing, manufacturing or office administration, having a focus or specialty can make you more successful for the reasons listed below.
The Importance of Industry Focus as a Staffing Agency
Industry focus makes your processes more efficient.
One of the main advantages of having a focus is that it allows you to streamline your processes and organization. Let’s say that you operate a staffing agency that doesn’t have a particular specialty or focus, and you just picked up a contract to fill temporary positions for an IT company. Because you have never served the IT industry, you must conduct initial research, learn about the market and develop a plan for finding, attracting and hiring the best IT talent. A month later, you sign a contract in the tool and die industry. Now you have to start over again, creating a ground-up plan to fill these positions.
Now let’s imagine you operate a staffing agency that focuses specifically on information technology. When you get an IT contract, you have a precise and well-established system for finding and hiring talent. In this scenario, you are more efficient for your clients, which leads to better results and superior profits.
Win specific clients through industry focus.
For your staffing agency, having an industry focus can eliminate spreading yourself too thin when it comes to strategy. When you focus on an industry, you can create a competitive advantage over other agencies.
Having an industry focus can also help to attract clients and get the best contracts possible. In many cases, companies like to see that the staffing agency they choose not only specializes in their industry, but also has a long-established track record of success.
If you find a profitable industry and serve this industry for many years, you have a leg up over general-needs staffing agencies. This can build your contracts and even allow you to charge more for every position you fill: if the client is confident you can do the job well, they may be happy to pay more for your proven services.
You can bring in better talent for your client.
If you can establish a reputation in a certain industry, you may find that talented people are coming to you with inquiries for work, making your recruitment a remarkably simple task. When people in the IT, manufacturing or administrative sector know that you specialize in finding quality positions for their field, you may discover that recruiting the right people is easier than ever.
How do you find your industry focus?
This topic, of course, begs a question: how can you find the right industry for your business? In some cases, you may discover your specialty by the simple progression of business. For example, over the years you might be contracted to fill many construction jobs; before you know it, you’re specializing in construction staffing.
In most cases, however, it will likely be an intentional choice. Consider your city, county and region and research the top industries in your area. Find out which industries need workers and what sectors of the local market are looking to fill large-Scale openings. Identifying the local need is likely the first step. You can then assess the industries in which you have personal experience or ones that appear to be profitable.
Make Your Staffing Agency a Success with Scale Funding
No matter what industry you serve, operating a staffing agency is a tough business. Profits can be slim and invoice payments can take weeks or even months to fill, hampering your ability to meet payroll.
With Scale Funding and payroll funding, your staffing agency will have a stronger financial base, making you more stable during lean times.
About Scale Funding
Scale Funding is an invoice factoring company serving businesses across the United States. For more information on factoring, call (800) 707-4845 for a free, no-obligation consultation and quote.
