Relationships are at the core of Staffing Kansas City’s 20 years of success.

“Personnel Services With a Personal Touch.” Those words aren’t just a marketing slogan for Shelley Seibolt and Roses Ammon, the founders of Staffing Kansas City. They are the philosophy that guides every aspect of their business. And it is a philosophy that has led the staffing firm to two decades of success.

Twenty years ago Seibolt and Ammon were working in another staffing firm, when the owner sold it. Shortly after the sale, the pair realized it was time for them to move on. With such a firm background in staffing and a knack for creating lasting customer relationships, the two launched Staffing Kansas City in 1998. They’ve never looked back.

Staffing Kansas City is a full-service employment agency that offers permanent and temporary employment placement. The company’s focus is identifying and recruiting top performers for Kansas City companies.

Along their entrepreneurial journey, they’ve learned a lot about running a successful business. Here are a half dozen pieces of advice they share for running a successful company.

1. “Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.” // Someone gave Seibolt and Ammon that piece of advice early on, and they’ve never forgotten it. They interpreted it to mean that a business needs a healthy bottom line, but that you should never get greedy. “We’ve never raised our rates since we opened our doors. We focus on our clients. We keep things simple and make good money,” Ammon said.
2. Cash is KING. // During their first year in business, Staffing Kansas City set a revenue goal and blew it out of the water by year end. Great results, right? Except they hadn’t budgeted enough for the taxes for their successful first year. But because they value that “personal touch” and had developed such strong relationships with their customers, they were able to collect many of their receivables before they were due—and pay their tax bill on time without borrowing from their line of credit!
3. Family comes first. // “If you put family first and make sure your employees know their families are taken care of and happy, they will do a better job at the office,” said Ammon. That philosophy also spills over to the relation-ship they have with their clients and candidates. “We’re considered ‘powerhouse recruiters,’” Ammon said. “We offer our employment candidates flexible work schedules with benefits. Every candidate has a face-to-face interview in our office. We make sure they are not only the best candidate for our client, but it’s the best situation for the candidate and their family.”
4. Giving is good. // Ammon said that she and the team at Staffing Kansas City abide by the old saying that “to whom much is given, much is expected.” Every year, the company sets aside a portion of its revenues to give back to the community. It’s the company’s “personal touch” philosophy extended to the community as a whole. Ammon said, “When you give, you’re happy. When you just take, not so much.”
5. Focus on what you do well, and the rest takes care of itself. // Someone once asked Seibolt and Ammon how they could sleep at night knowing that so many jobs and livelihoods rest on the work their company does. “Honestly, we don’t even think about that,” Ammon said. “When you come into work each day and focus on what you do best and do it the best you can, the rest follows. Failure is not in our brains.”
6. Talk about disagreements, and move on. // Partnerships can be fraught with differences, sometimes to the detriment of the business. Seibolt and Ammon have been business partners for nearly 20 years. The key to sustaining the relationship, said Seibolt, is that when they have differences, they voice them and don’t hang on to them. “We truly want what’s best for each other, so we always find a way to compromise.”