Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$252

Website Costs

$223

$7,015

Business Formation Fees

$600

$4,700

Vehicle Expenses

$0

$10,000

Retail Business Expenses

$1,250

$6,650

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$75

$3,986

Software Expenses

$162

$2,720

Office Space Expenses

$0

$100

Specific Industry Expenses

$0

$500

Total Startup Costs

$2,461

$35,923

Washington State Investigators

washingtonstateinvestigators.com

400,297

Vcheck Global

vcheckglobal.com

751,643

Private Investigator, Private Detective

icsworld.com

755,789

PInow.com

pinow.com

826,796

Star Quality Private Investigations

sqpi.ca

851,660

Private Investigators For Your Business and Personal Life.

phenixinvestigations.com

1,057,854

North American Investigations

pvteyes.com

1,152,325

Corporate Risk Investigation Services

severg.com

1,177,600

NITA

investigativeacademy.com

1,254,687

Detective Training Institute

detectivetraining.com

1,469,462

UK Private Investigators

ukprivateinvestigators.com

1,547,325

Little startup costs required

The cost to start a private investigator costs significantly less money than most businesses, ranging anywhere from 62 to 35,923.

Rewarding work

Starting a private investigator can be really rewarding work. After all, you are solving an immediate issue for your customer and you're working on something you truly care about.

High customer retention rates

Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.

Pick & choose the clients you work with

Private Investigatores have the ability to choose the clients they work with. You have the freedom to work with only a few loyal clients or with hundreds of clients!

Control of workload

With becoming a private investigator, you have the unique ability to choose how little or how much you want to work. You also have the freedom to decide which projects you want to work on, and can turn down the ones that do not interest you.

Gain exposure and experience

This career allows you to gain experience working for multiple different businesses - which will benefit your resume and also keep things interesting for you!

Motivation of employees

If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.

Longer Sales Process

A private investigator can be a big time and money investment for your customer, so it's important you plan and predict a longer conversion funnel and stay in communication with potential customers.

Work can be inconsistent

As a private investigator, the amount of work assigned to you and schedule tends to be more inconsistent, which may make your income less stable. It's important to set boundaries and budget accordingly based on the amount of work you plan to have.

Lack of benefits

With a private investigator, you are typically self-employed and responsible for finding your own insurance, which can be quite costly and time-consuming.

Taxes

As a private investigator, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It's important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you're taking on is worth it.

No safety net

Typically, as a private investigator, you do not receive a consistent pay-check and instead earn money based on your transactions each month. During the slow periods, you typically take away less since the job is based on commission. It's important to budget accordingly for the slow times.