Business models / Staffing Agency / Own a franchise

A staffing agency franchise, or your own?

Five franchise brands run a staffing agency. Here they are beside the independent version of the same business, with each brand’s fees as it publishes them and worked out in dollars. A brand can bring customers an independent has to earn one by one. The question is whether it brings in more than it costs.

Typical for a staffing agency: $1M to $10M in sales, and the owner keeps 8% to 15% after paying for its own marketing. Change either to your own numbers.

Work each brand out at

How the two sides are counted

  • Sales. A brand’s name brings customers an independent wins one at a time, so each brand is worked out at the sales it reports where we have them, and at yours where we don’t.
  • Marketing. On your own you pay for all of it, about 3% of sales here (the SBA’s usual range for ongoing marketing). The ad fund does part of that job, so it is counted once, not twice.
  • Survival. New franchised businesses were about 5 to 6 points more likely to make it through their first two years in Census data, and about half of all new businesses close within five years. It is not in the dollars; each brand’s details give the sources.

Your own staffing agency and each brand, side by side

The independent version

Your own staffing agency

Built and run under your own name

Cost to open
$37k to $241k
Annual sales
$3.2Mtypical
Franchise fee
None
Royalty + ad fund
Noneall marketing is yours
$379,200
The owner keeps in a year, after about $95k of marketing
Taking new owners

HireQuest Direct

Day labor and temporary staffing

Total investment
$45k to $146k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$3k
Royalty + ad fund
7% + 1% of sales
$158k
The owner keeps in a year at $3.2M in sales (your sales), after $253k to the brand
$221k less a year than on your own
Taking new owners

AtWork

Staffing

Total investment
$95k to $250k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$40k
Royalty + ad fund
7% to 10% + 0.5% of sales
$63k to $158k
The owner keeps in a year at $3.2M in sales (your sales), after $237k to $332k to the brand
$221k to $316k less a year than on your own
Taking new owners

Express Employment Professionals

Staffing

Total investment
$131k to $288k
Avg. annual sales
$6M
Franchise fee
$40k
Royalty + ad fund
8% + 2% of sales
$239k
The owner keeps in a year at $6M in sales (what it reports), after $598k to the brand
$140k less a year than on your own
Taking new owners

Labor Finders

Industrial and construction staffing

Total investment
$179k to $304k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$20k
Royalty + ad fund
3.5% of sales, no ad fund
$269k
The owner keeps in a year at $3.2M in sales (your sales), after $111k to the brand
$111k less a year than on your own
Taking new owners

Spherion Staffing

Staffing

Total investment
$212k to $424k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$30k
Royalty + ad fund
In the details
The fee is not a simple share of sales, so it is not worked out in dollars. The details show it as the brand words it.
Free account

See all 5 staffing agency brands side by side

  • Every brand’s investment and fees, and what the owner keeps against running your own
  • The yearly sales the first 3 report, and a plus to add brands to your comparison and benchmark them in your account
  • Members see the sales every franchisor reports, for every brand

Free, no card. A new account accepts the Terms and the Privacy Policy. smbnest is a self-assessment tool and never takes a cut of your deal or a fee from a franchisor.

Before you sign: what to read in the disclosure document

Every franchisor must give you its Franchise Disclosure Document at least 14 days before you sign or pay. These are the parts that answer the questions above.

  • Items 5 to 7, the fees and the investment. The franchise fee, every other fee (technology, training, transfer, renewal), and the full opening budget, including working capital.
  • Item 19, what owners earn. Whether the brand states owner sales or earnings at all, and for which units. Put its figures in the boxes above in place of the typical ones.
  • Item 20, units opened, closed and sold. How many owners left in each of the last three years, and a list of current and former owners you can call.
  • Item 12, the territory. Whether you get a protected area, and what the brand can open or sell inside it.
  • Item 21, the franchisor’s own finances. Whether the company behind the brand is in good health.

smbnest is a self-assessment tool, not individualized advice. Fees are as each brand publishes them on its franchising page and in its disclosure document, reviewed in the month shown, and change; the figures in dollars are worked out at the sales you enter and are not a forecast. We never take a cut of your deal or a fee from a franchisor. Before you sign, speak with a franchise attorney and a qualified financial adviser, and call owners from the disclosure document.