Free calculator
What launching actually costs you
Setup, overheads and the payroll gap, added up honestly — with and without a funding line behind you.
The short answer
Starting a staffing agency costs low thousands in formation, insurance and software — and then tens or hundreds of thousands in working capital, because contractors are paid weekly and clients pay in 30 to 60 days. Size the payroll gap first; everything else is a rounding error.
Startup capital
How much cash do you actually need to launch?
Formation and insurance are the small number. Payroll is the big one, and it grows with every placement you win. That is why the honest answer to "how much does it cost to start a staffing agency" is a funding decision, not a setup fee.
Next step
You have the number. Now check whether the plan stands up.
Funding a staffing agency is the easy half. The two-minute readiness check scores your model, margins and materials the way an investor will before we make an introduction.
Questions founders ask
How much does it cost to start a staffing agency?
Formation, insurance and software are typically low thousands of dollars. The dominant cost is working capital: if you pay contractors weekly and clients pay in 45 days, every contractor ties up roughly seven weeks of gross payroll. Ten contractors at $25 an hour can lock up well over $100,000 before a single invoice clears.
Can you start a staffing agency with no money?
Perm placement is close to it — you invoice on start date, so working capital needs are small. Temporary and contract staffing is not, because payroll leaves before revenue arrives. Founders who start contract with no capital usually fund it with factoring or payroll funding rather than savings.
Does a factoring line reduce the startup capital needed?
Substantially. A factoring facility advances most of each invoice within a day or two of submission, so instead of funding the whole payroll gap you fund only the reserve and the fees. That is why the calculator shows the funded and unfunded numbers side by side.
What overheads should a new staffing agency budget for?
An applicant tracking system or CRM, payroll and back-office provision, insurance premiums, job board and sourcing spend, accounting, and your own draw if you need one. Sourcing spend is the one most new founders under-budget, because candidate supply becomes the constraint long before client demand does.
Stay close to the money
The recruitment funding briefing
One email a month: funding terms we are seeing, margin benchmarks, and what buyers are paying for agencies. Written for founders, not for a mailing list.
Knowing the number is step one
Step two is the people who have raised it, funded it or done without it before. That is what we match you with.