Lisa Guadalupe Clark started ATL Search Group with $325 and a mission: help the Latino community access better job opportunities in a staffing industry that wasn't serving them. Six years later, her firm has grown from roughly 80% one demographic to 90% Latino clients and become one of Georgia's leading staffing companies for that community. I wanted to talk with her about the model that made that growth possible in an industry known for razor-thin margins.
Why a Startup Staffing Company Can't Just "Get Workers' Comp"
Here's something most business owners don't realize until they hit it head-on: many workers' comp carriers won't write a policy for a staffing company that hasn't been in business for four to six years. That's the standard. If you're in staffing, especially light industrial staffing, you need workers' comp — someone is going to get hurt on the job eventually — and you need working capital. A brand-new company usually has neither.
Lisa's solution was an EOR (employer of record) relationship, not a traditional PEO. It's a distinction worth understanding: a PEO is true co-employment, sharing risk and liability alongside you. An EOR is closer to employee leasing — they *are* the legal employer of record for those workers. For a staffing company placing temps across dozens of client sites, the EOR model is often the better fit, because it lets a brand-new business get workers' comp coverage, funding, and W-2 processing for its temporary workforce before it qualifies for that coverage on its own.
What It Actually Solved for Her
Lisa's EOR partner didn't just hand her a policy — they handled the funding, the administrative duties, the W-2s for her temps and in-house staff, and HR services she didn't have in-house yet. Three years ago, once she'd built up enough of a track record, she qualified for her own funding. But she kept the employer-of-record relationship anyway, because — as she put it — "even though I've been in business for six years, I'm still considered a really young firm in my world."
The COVID Test
When the pandemic hit and her temporary staff had no work, her EOR partner walked her through something she didn't know existed: those employees could collect unemployment while she had no work to give them, even though technically they were still hers. "I was like, oh my God, where do I start," she told me. That guidance kept her people afloat during a stretch when a lot of small staffing firms didn't make it.
Her Advice to Other Startups
"Make sure that you have a good attorney, a great accountant, and a PEO or EOR company that partners with you and understands your needs — so when you call them, they'll pick up the phone." Simple advice, but it's the kind that only sounds obvious after you've lived without it.
If you're a growing business trying to figure out whether a PEO, an EOR, or something else entirely fits your situation, that's exactly the kind of question worth walking through before you guess wrong. Grab our free PEO evaluation checklist to start figuring out where you stand.
Suzanna Martinez, President | PEO For The CEO