Family-Owned Businesses: One in Five
In nearly every industry, you can find small family-owned players and billion-dollar behemoths. Both have an important place in business today. While most small businesses aren’t grabbing the headlines, they are growing in number and size and account for nearly half of all enterprises and jobs in America, according to the Small Business Administration’s 2018 U.S. Small Business Profile. Furthermore, one in five is family owned.
Small, family owned businesses have a big impact on the economy and on job creation.
When considering a staffing partner for your business, are you better off with a family-owned regional company or one of the big players? Of course, you’ll want to choose a staffing company whose niche, services and geographic footprint line-up with your company and your business needs.
But take this into account: while there are many staffing companies and options to choose from, there are distinct advantages to choosing a family-owned and family-operated staffing company.
Ease of Doing Business
When you work with a small, family-owned company, it’s just easier to get things done. For buyers of staffing services, this can mean faster response times, quicker decision making and fewer levels of bureaucratic red tape.
Frequently, a smaller company can more easily create customized processes specific to your business.
And a family-owned staffing company is more stable than one whose employees aren’t tied to the history and legacy of the tribe. You’re likely to work with people for whom the staffing agency isn’t a job; it’s their life. That stability translates into consistent servicing of your staffing business, low turnover among your staffing team and deeper loyalty to you and your growth.
Individual Care & Attention
Everyone likes to feel understood. Known. Appreciated. If personalized attention to you and your company’s discrete staffing needs is a driver of satisfaction, small can be better.
Smaller staffing companies typically have fewer clients to manage and so can invest more time in learning and servicing your business.
You may also feel a greater sense of care and loyalty from a family-owned staffing partner because there’s more at stake with each individual client. Winning and keeping every client matters every day. More than a “big fish in a little pond” situation, the work ethic and commitment of a smaller firm to its clients is tied back to family pride and reputation, not Wall Street.
Access to Owners
Business is built on relationships. That’s true in companies of all sizes. But when the owners of the company are involved on a daily basis – out there to meet clients and associates personally, shake hands, say thank you, and become intimately involved in their success – that’s a benefit you simply don’t get from a huge corporation.
When your staffing partner’s owners and account reps are both at the table, you benefit from their decades of experience, strategic high-level thinking, and deep knowledge of your industry. Looking to move or expand your business to a neighboring state? Owners can guide you through that process. Need to bring in a different type of associate or skill set? Owners have the power and insight to adjust to the changes you require.
When problems arise (and they sometimes do), clients can get right to the top: to an owner or family member. That access can not only help resolve problems quickly but also to make changes in how business is done – for you and other clients – so those same problems are less likely to arise in the future.
Conclusion
A family-owned and family-operated staffing partner isn’t the right fit for every business. Choosing a staffing company requires due diligence and discovery.
Consider the advantages a family company can offer: they make your staffing business easy to handle, give you individual care and attention, and allow access to the owners. The benefits to you and your business are stability, loyalty and trust.
At Active Staffing, the owners are available to clients, associates and team members every day and have been for more than 70 years. Their family name and reputation are on the door and their expertise is available to help your company grow.
Talk to Active’s owners – Elliot and Benny Elzweig – about your HR and staffing needs. You’ll experience the values that have guided the company since 1947: integrity, accountability, respect, dedication and operational excellence.