Branding your staffing agency is one of the most important and effective ways to make your firm successful. While it may take some time to popularize your brand, having a solid identity in the staffing world is essential. Ultimately, a strong company brand allows a staffing agency to attract the best talent and portrays it as a credible business. If your staffing agency is looking to attract more candidates or clients, branding is the way to do it.

These 3 steps will get your staffing agency on its way to successful branding:

Define Your Brand

• If you’re wondering why defining your brand is important, here’s three reasons: It sets you apart from your competition, it increases your chances of referrals, and it grows your business. Defining your brand is the most essential step in the branding process because it sets the foundation for the rest of your strategy. When creating your brand’s identity, consider your specialty, your employees, and the demographic you hope to attract. These three factors should be the main influences of your brand because they contribute the most to creating and upholding your image. Think about what your company’s goals are and how your company will work to stay aligned with them. Consider what your company already does very well, and what you could learn from your competitors. Develop a list of adjectives that you want your brand to convey when a consumer or employee sees an advertisement or logo. Once your brand is decided upon, your employees will be responsible for representing it in public interactions (meetings, interviews, etc).

Create a Logo

• Think of your logo as the face of your company. This is what people are going to think of when they hear your company’s name, so it’s important to take the time to make it good. The font and colors you use in your logo should be used consistently to represent your brand. Keep your logo simple, timeless, easily recognizable, and appropriate for your brand. Overly-extravagant or irrelevant logos will confuse your audience, or worse, make you forgettable. If you think of the most famous and memorable brand logos, you will notice that they keep their design choices simple, yet distinct. Need proof? Think of the Nike Swoosh. The design is simple, recognizable without the name defining it, and has been branding the company since 1971. Make sure your logo can stand alone, but also complements your company’s name. Don’t be an imitator. Your logo should be entirely specific to your company. Think outside the box, but don’t stray too far from your brand’s voice. Need some more help? Check out Creative Bloq’s logo design tips.

Introduce Your Brand

• Now that you have figured out which direction you want your brand to go, it’s time to introduce it to your audience. Remember that everything you’ve developed in the steps above must remain consistent throughout your branding efforts. Try different platforms to introduce your brand. A website, for example, is extremely necessary, but having a business account on every mode of social media is not. Pick a couple social media pages that you commit to updating constantly and stick to them. Don’t be discouraged if your content is going unnoticed at first; the more you post, the more people will see it. Try video content marketing. Videos attract readers because many people are visual learners who appreciate explanations that are paired with graphics and fewer words. Email marketing, community outreach, and old fashioned billboard advertising are methods to experiment with to introduce your name in many different environments. If something you’re doing now isn’t working, don’t keep doing it. Evaluate your current marketing methods and adjust them to make them more effective. Remember that adaptability is a huge part of branding!

Branding is the first step to a recognizable and trustworthy business. Following these 3 steps will get your staffing agency’s branding strategy up and running. Soon, you will have a brand you, your customers, and your employees are confident in.

Don’t let slow paying customers hold you back from showing off your new brand. Find out how factoring can help provide your company money for payroll so you can move forward.

App-based companies provide us with the power to order a taxi, a new wardrobe, a maintenance man, or a burrito (with guacamole) all in the palm of our hand. The impact and popularity of these companies have even produced an entirely new string of economic strategy known as the gig economy.

Comprised entirely of independent contractors, these “gig companies” hardly ever use full-time employees, and instead, hire temporary workers who are in charge of their own hours and work spaces. Interested workers and gig companies work together to find jobs that suits their locations and their skill sets.

The services that these companies offer are considered “on-demand:” quick, convenient, and cheap for users. As such, freelancers, contract workers, and temp agencies have thrived from the creation of these apps because gig companies are attracted to the short-term aspect of their employee pool.

By pulling employees from temp agencies, companies like Uber are able to act like an employer without actually paying for the benefits that come with hiring full-time workers. Instead, temp agencies provide high quality workers with little effort under independent contracts, which allow employees freedom with their hours while still earning above-minimum wages.

At the same time, people are able to work for these companies even if they are not trained in a particular skill set. Postmates, a food ordering and delivering service, for example, only requires workers to have a driver’s license in order to adequately do the job.

This flexibility allows employees to balance more than one job because they are not bogged down by strict contracts or schedules. They can use their jobs at gig companies strictly for extra cash without having to worry about giving up time they don’t have.

Although these employment opportunities seem convenient and worthwhile, Uber and Lyft have experienced much turmoil regarding their employment strategies. According to the Seattle Times, by classifying its drivers as independent contractors, Uber avoids paying millions of dollars in taxes and prevents its workers from accessing employment protections, such as wage and hour standards, safety requirements, anti-discrimination laws and the right to form a labor union.

People who sought employment at these gig companies feel ripped off if they find that they are working an extensive number of hours per week without the benefits that come with a “normal” job. Additionally, the fine print within the independent contracts proves to be far stricter than one expects.

Fast Company reported of two women filing law suits against the cleaning company Handy after they were misinformed of their responsibilities and were misclassified as independent contractors. Yet, gig companies argue that their initial flexibility is what attracted applicants to the job in the first place.

The unique model of gig companies allows them to hire employees of all different backgrounds and skill sets. Retirees, students, and parents find that these jobs work perfectly with their busy—or lax for retirees—lifestyles because they aren’t under any obligation to stick to a regular job schedule.

Because certain demographics within their employee pool are hired because of the very fact that they need a balance of freedom and money, gig companies find it hard to change their standards strictly for those who actually need part-time or full-time paid benefits.

While gig companies are currently dealing with some bumps in the road, their business model will not cease in popularity. In fact, 40 percent of Americans are projected to be independent contractors by 2020—a number that would not be possible without the help of temp agencies and freelancers.

Your unique pool of employees does a lot to keep the gig economy running. But, you shouldn’t have to worry about funding them. See how factoring can help you get payroll funding fast!

Staffing agency owners know better than anybody that succeeding in the industry is no easy task. The ever-changing economy, legal red tape and tax regulations all make administering a staffing company a tricky venture.

But did you know that it is a tougher venture in some states than in others?

It is true—there are certain states where running a staffing firm is easier, both economically and legally. Check out this list of the top three states to own a staffing agency.

1. Texas

As they say, everything is bigger in Texas—including the benefits of owning a staffing agency. Firstly, due to the sheer size and robustness of the Texan economy, the staffing agency has a huge presence in the workforce. According to the American Staffing Association (ASA), the Lone Star State employs over one million temp workers per year, each average nearly $35,000 as an annual salary. The staffing industry itself garners just over $12 billion per year. Texas has a very influential Staffing Association that lobbies in the interests of staffing firms very efficiently, assuring that legal impediments do not hinder staffing companies from expanding.

2. Georgia

Georgia has a slew of veteran staffing company owners currently participating in the state legislature, and accordingly, there are few laws in effect that hurt the staffing industry. The Peach State, despite being mid-sized compared to Texas, often exceeds $5 billion dollars in annual sales, according to ASA.

3. Florida

The Sunshine State places few restrictions on the staffing industry and also have skillful lobbyists that have prevented unfriendly legislation from being passed, according to Staffing Industry Analysts. Florida ranks in third, however, because their temp staffing employees rake in slightly less on average than workers in other states. Nonetheless, with little red tape, Florida is not a bad place to own a staffing agency.

Texas, Georgia and Florida, for both their economies and their laws, make up our list of the top three states for staffing company owners. Are you looking for the top method of alternative finance in order to help your staffing company up its cash flow and expand? If so, talk to us—we serve tons of different types of staffing firms and can help your agency fix its financial situation.