Buying a Staffing Agency, What It Costs to Buy an Existing Staffing Agency and the Cash to Close

An existing US staffing agency cost a median $670,000 to buy across 2021 to 2025, based on closed BizBuySell sales, on median billings of $1,306,129 and median owner earnings of $301,147. Financed with an SBA 7(a) loan at 10 percent down, the cash you bring to that purchase is about $80,568 for the equity injection and the SBA guaranty fee. That is not the whole bill. A staffing agency pays its temps every week and waits 45 to 75 days for clients to pay, so unless the receivables come with the deal, you also fund the payroll float, about $156,735 at 12 percent of revenue on the median agency.

Most pages that answer this question price starting an agency: a license where your state needs one, insurance, a job board subscription and a website. Buying a running agency is a different purchase. You pay for clients who already send orders, recruiters who already fill them, and a payroll and tax history that took years to build. The price is set by earnings, and the cash you need is set by payroll.

How much does it cost to buy a staffing agency?

The median staffing agency sold for $670,000, which is 2.22 times its $301,147 of seller discretionary earnings and 0.51 times its revenue. The published median multiple is higher, 2.69x earnings, and half of all staffing agencies sold between 2.04x and 3.22x. The two readings differ because the median price, median earnings and median multiple come from different agencies; the multiple is the better tool for the agency in front of you.

Seller discretionary earnings (SDE) is net profit plus the owner's pay, benefits, interest, depreciation and one-time costs, the cash one full-time owner takes out. Read the price off the earnings of the agency you are looking at:

Which column applies depends mostly on size, specialty and how spread out the clients are. BizBuySell states that an agency with sales over $2.5 million may sell for 3.2 times earnings or more, while one under $600,000 may trade below 2 times. A light industrial desk earns a thinner gross margin than an IT or accounting desk and sells lower on revenue. The full distribution, the yearly prices and the comparison with fifteen other service categories are on our staffing agency valuation page. If the seller has handed you a profit and loss statement rather than an SDE figure, start with how to calculate SDE.

How much money do you need to buy a staffing agency?

On a $670,000 staffing agency financed with an SBA 7(a) loan, plan on about $80,568 for the 10 percent injection and the guaranty fee, plus working capital for payroll if the seller keeps the receivables. Here is the arithmetic at three price points, computed at 10 years and 10.5 percent:

The small agency is the lower quartile of earnings at the lower quartile multiple; the larger one is the upper quartile of earnings priced at the median multiple. Fee tiers follow the FY2026 SBA schedule: 3 percent of the guaranteed portion on loans from $150,001 to $700,000, and 3.5 percent above that while the guaranteed portion stays under $1 million. The working capital row uses the low end of the 12 to 18 percent of revenue that CT Acquisitions, an M&A adviser, quotes for staffing firms. If you fund it in cash, the median purchase needs about $237,303 in total; most buyers finance it instead, in the same loan or on a revolving line.

Look at what is left after debt service. Even the small agency leaves $113,435 before the owner is paid, and the median one $203,508. Staffing earnings carry debt comfortably. The pressure point is the weekly payroll, and a buyer who underestimates it can run out of cash in a profitable month. Budget also for legal fees, the independent valuation on any purchase above $350,000, and the deposit a workers compensation carrier may ask for on a new policy.

Can you get an SBA loan to buy a staffing agency?

Yes, in most cases. Staffing is an eligible service business, and the median agency's earnings support about $1,214,011 of price at an $80,000 owner draw, $544,011 above the median sale. Three parts of SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, effective October 1, 2026, shape the deal.

First, the valuation. On a purchase price above $350,000 the lender must order an independent valuation from a credentialed appraiser, and any part of the price above the appraised value has to be paid with equity, not debt. At the median 2.69x multiple, an agency earning more than about $130,112 crosses that line. Money you spend on the report counts toward your equity injection. Our page on business valuation for an SBA loan explains what the appraiser will look at.

Second, working capital. For a Standard 7(a) loan above $350,000, the lender's credit memo has to include an analysis of working capital adequacy for at least the next 12 months, and has to explain why if half or more of the proceeds go to working capital. Bring a 13-week payroll and collections forecast and that conversation gets short. Third, the revolving piece. The SBA Working Capital CAPLine is open to businesses that generate accounts receivable, which every staffing agency does, and it cannot be used to pay delinquent withholding taxes. Our guide to using an SBA loan to buy a business covers the rest of the lender side.

Is now a good time to buy a staffing agency?

For a buyer, prices are recovering from a sharp dip, so the timing is better than it was in 2023 and less forgiving than it was in 2024. The median staffing agency sold for $790,000 in 2023, $362,500 in 2024 and $650,000 in 2025. That 2024 drop was 54.1 percent in one year, with a sale to ask ratio of 0.79, the weakest yearly reading in any sector we track. Median earnings at the 2024 sales were $174,614, against $400,000 a year earlier.

What that history tells you is to price on normalized earnings across three years, not the last twelve months. An agency that earned $400,000 in 2023 and $220,000 in 2024 is not a $400,000 business, and it is not a $220,000 one either. Ask for monthly billings by client back to January 2023 and watch which clients cut hours in the slowdown. Those clients will cut again in the next one.

What to check before you buy a staffing agency

The value sits in the clients, the recruiters and a clean payroll history, so diligence goes there first. The items buyers and lenders ask for most often:

• Billings and gross profit by client for three years, with the bill rate and markup on each. CT Acquisitions describes multiple compression starting once one client passes 15 percent of revenue and calls more than 35 percent a deal killer.
• The receivables aging, by client and by bucket. Over 75 days sales outstanding with more than 10 percent past 90 days is the line where CT Acquisitions says the multiple compresses 10 to 15 percent. Ask how the agency follows up on late invoices; one that already uses a tool to chase every overdue invoice by email and text usually collects faster, and each week cut from collections is a week of payroll you do not have to fund.
• Payroll tax filings and deposits. Quarterly federal returns, state wage reports and proof the withholding was deposited on time. Unpaid trust fund taxes follow the people responsible for them, and a lender will not let loan proceeds pay them.
• The state unemployment tax rate. Under 42 U.S.C. 503(k), the seller's experience must transfer when buyer and seller are under substantially common ownership, management or control, and must not transfer when a non-employer buys mainly to get a lower rate. Everything in between is state law. Get your expected rate from the state agency before you price payroll.
• Workers compensation history and the class codes the temps are placed under. A light industrial agency with a bad claims year pays for it in premiums for several years after.
• Recruiter and sales agreements. Who owns each client relationship, and whether those people have non-solicitation agreements that survive the sale.
• Franchise consent, if the agency is a franchised brand. Many staffing franchises need the franchisor to approve a new owner, and the transfer terms set part of your cost.

Is buying a staffing agency better than starting one?

Buying costs far more up front, but you start with billings, recruiters and an unemployment tax history instead of a cold list. A new agency has to win clients one order at a time while paying its first temps out of its own pocket, and the early clients are usually the slow payers nobody else wanted. A bought agency with $1.3 million of billings hands you about $301,147 of owner earnings from the first month, and the SBA will lend against it. For a recruiter or branch manager who already knows the trade, that head start is usually what the price pays for.

If you are looking at a specific listing, enter its billings and owner earnings in the estimator at the top of this page. You get a value range against real staffing agency sales in a few minutes, before you pay for a broker opinion or an appraisal, and it tells you whether the asking price needs a harder conversation.