How to Start a Private Investigator Business

Business Overview:

If you’re looking for an enterprise that’s both challenging and exciting, then you should consider learning how to start a private investigator business. Private investigators are paid to either find information that someone wants to know, or to gather information for a specific purpose. A private investigator business therefore works with individuals or organizations who want certain information. For example, its services may include locating missing persons, looking into whether an employee has been stealing, finding out whether a wife or husband is having an affair, and so on. What makes this business idea very attractive is you can start it without any previous experience, and no special qualifications are required. In fact, you don’t even need to be an investigator yourself—you can hire investigators and run your business as an agency. If you do decide to do your own investigation, doing a private investigator certification program would certainly be advantageous to you and would help you stand out and attract clients. While formal qualifications are not a necessity, a high value is placed on integrity and competency in this line of business. Depending on your area of specialty, training in computer software for doing things like credit checks and computer searching may also be required. Thankfully trainings such as these can all be completed relatively quickly. Private investigators typically charge from $40 to $100 USD per hour for their time, so starting a private investigation business could prove to be a very lucrative move on your part. Investigators that charge higher prices tend to specialize in specific areas, so choosing a specialty for your investigation business could be a wise move for you to make. If you decide hire investigators for your business, the typical arrangement is to pay your investigators a percentage of the billable hours they produce for your company. The average amount is 40%. As an example, if $70 USD per hour was being charged for services you would pay your investigator $28 USD and retain $42 USD. Therefore whether you run your business on your own, hire investigators—or both, starting a private investigation business is one of those business ideas that can definitely become a highly successful and profitable venture.

A Day in the Life of a Private Investigator Business Owner:

A typical day in the life of a private investigator business owner may begin with a call from a person or organization that needs your skills and services in order to find or gather particular information on something. For example, you could be contacted by a company who wants to investigate an employee they suspect may be stealing from them. You will then set about gathering information on this person and conducting surveillance on them. This would include using computer software to access information on this person and their activities, doing research into their past to build a profile of them and ascertain whether they have been previously convicted of stealing or other major offences, reviewing CCTV and surveillance footage of the person while at work, interviewing people, and generally gathering information about this person to give as much evidence as possible to the company to show whether or not this person had been stealing. You would then write up a report which you will present to the company. On the other hand, if you hire investigators for your business then a typical day would look different. Instead, you’d receive contact from individuals or organizations that are looking for specific information, and you’d match them with an investigator within your business that would be best suited to serve them. You would then pay the investigator a percentage of their billable hours spent working on the case. On a typical day you would also spend time recruiting investigators into your business, and marketing and promoting your services to prospective individuals and companies.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will depend on which type or area of private investigation you choose to specialize your private investigation business in. Generally speaking however, your customers will be people or organizations who want information on either specific people or things, or who want information gathered for a specific purpose.

What You Need to Start:

• A private investigator certification (recommended)
• Good writing skills for producing reports
• A Private investigator’s license
• Good interpersonal skills—part of your work will involve interviewing people
• A clean criminal record
• Specialized computer software—for credit checks and computer searching resources
• A private investigator business plan

The Good:

• The work is challenging and exciting.
• A specialized private investigator business can make a lot of money.
• You can hire investigators to do the actual work for your business.
• There are many areas of investigation you can specialize in.
• You can be your own boss.

The Bad:

• You may often have to work long, irregular, and solitary hours while you are doing surveillance work.
• Some areas of private investigation can potentially be dangerous.

Resources:

• Private Investigators Association of America
• Professional Investigators and Security Association
• Bureau of Labor Statistics on Private Detectives and Investigators
• Wikipedia on Private Investigators

About The Author

---

Templateify

Praesent nec tortor quam. Quisque ac malesuada augue. Sed dignissim gravida odio ut bibendum. Cras fermentum euismod turpis. Nunc nec diam ante, et faucibus ipsum. Etiam imperdiet mattis elit et molestie. Nulla feugiat mollis leo vel egestas. Pellentesque convallis

- Twitter - Facebook - Google+