ForumsAdvertising, Sales and Marketing

Welcome to this website. Been there, did it. 18 years ago opened a staffing company in northern N J.
Our goal ways to be different. At that time we specialized in fields that were "outside the norm" like Environmental
(today it is green), Engineering and Sales. Remember this was before the internet.
We also had a partner who was a Marketing person which helped.
Do you have a Business and Marketing Plan??
Good luck, LUCKIEST

First off what makes you unique. There are alot of staffing companies out there. Be able to articulate your mission and value proposition.
I would take the first number of steps:
Search the web for all the companies based out of Atlanta
Talk to their HR departments and see if they have a contract that you can sign to work on a contingency basis. Also, see what positions that they are hiring for that you may want to try and fill.
Talk to other recruiters in the area to seeif you can work out some type of partnership agreement where you split commissions on helping to find clients.A network like this is very important.
There are websites on for companies that just received series A,B or C funding. Usually,small companies get funding to expand which may mean resources. Focusing on small companies could be an excellent start.
What rates will you charge? The going rate now is 20% of first year salary for placement.Is that your plan?
Be aggressive with your searches on the web and selective where you place your hiring adds.

yes, sorry

Wow, what a great set of responses! My future state vision is to operate as a consultancy with a set of core employees, so I'm focusing on finding placement for talent that I already know about. I am trying to stay away from recruiting per se...so my goal is to stay local and provide specialized staff augmentation...more like an accenture model.

I'm only familiar with the Accenture model in a Knowledge Management context -- I didn't really know what you meant above. As for possible ideas:

Atlanta has one of the largest PMI (Project Management Institute) local chapters in the country -- about 3,700 members, and about three-fourths are listed as IT or telecommunications project managers. That's a lot of people who often have the authority to select and add IT staff (not always permanent jobs, but you said you're looking at staff augmentation anyway -- and that's what project staffing is all about).

In addition, the chapter has a mentoring program that includes career counseling -- and they have been cited as a model for other chapters to follow in the mentoring arena. They also have a professional growth and career development committee. So it seems like that chapter would be very fertile ground for you to make some worthy and highly valued contributions, and to build some key relationships. You don't have to be a certified Project Management Professional to join, but you do have to join PMI (dues are about $120 a year, plus whatever the local chapter dues are). That's one idea to work with maybe . . . hope it helps.

Great choice of markets.

You're going to love this one... I used to build staffing companies.

Here's what you're going to do: The Press. Oh yea. Talk about some of the most powerful stuff on the planet!

Then, if you combine that with some search engine optimization and a touch of Social media optimization...

The only reason I'm saying all this is because it's how I market my business.

When you get good at it, you can send 1 or 2 emails and pick up somtimes 50 newspaper headlines.

Here, this is a copy/paste form another post where somebody was asking the same sort of question. (I'd type it again but my hands are starting to hurt!)

****

With what you're doing I would strongly push you to look into what is called Social Media Optimization. SMO

SEO is the search engine optimization and that's also going to play a part in getting you traffic.

You see, it's not just about "posting" your stuff somewhere and hoping people see it. That's how the offline world works, and that's why regular advertising sucks so much.

If you're hurting for cash I'd say to go with FaceBook.com

Not only does this site get over 2x as many page views as Google every month, they also have a very cool Pay-Per-Click program that is dirt cheap.

You target your customers, not based on the keywords they're looking for, but on what they have indicated they're interested in. So when they log into their profile your ad will be right there.

This is much cheaper than adwords, and from what I can tell it is highly effective.

Non-Web would be media. Get some free press.

That's a massive topic by itself, but here's what you need to do in a nutshell...

#1: Write a press release that focuses on human interest. (How your handbag saved a dying child or something)

#2: Come up with a "Media pitch" that is

• short
• funny
• has zero sales
• focuses on how your info can benefit the readers/viewers/listners

#3: Call newspapers and radio stations and ask for the editor who works in the fashion section or whatever section will correspond to what you sell.

#4: When you talk to them, ID yourself, ID where you're from, Tell them why you're calling (ie Pitch) and ask if you can send your press release to them.

#5: FOLLOW UP!!!! This is the most vital part about the process. Call them back. Remember, they're busy.

This may sound a bit complex, but I'm telling you it works. I use this exact method and it's landed me in over 50 papers and on some massive radio shows.

Huge, huge, huge web traffic and insane sales! You will not be sorry you went this road.

And the best part is... you'll never have to pay for it!

Good luck!

One of the best ways to identify companies that NEED staffing services is to find trigger events. Trigger events are staffing leads or sales triggers and examples include companies relocating, companies expanding, new hires, management changes, new product launches, companies that raise money. You can learn more about staffing leads or trigger events by viewing our Sales Intelligence Portal at http://www.salesfuel.com/?s=SALESFUEL&p=staff.ascx

I hope this helps.