Canton-based South Shore Staffing, an agency offering temporary and direct-hire placement in accounting, finance, and administration, was founded by Ed McDaid in 2003. He died in 2013 at 46, and the business was taken over by his sister, Linda McDaid of Norwell. We talked to her for this story.

Q. How did the business begin?

A. My brother worked for major staffing firms and was inspired to open his own place by our father, who had his own insurance agency in Canton. Ed wanted to staff local people for local jobs because he always felt employees were happier if they were close to home, and he wanted a company with more of that local, personal touch.

Q. Was it hard coming into a business you didn’t really know?

A. I’d worked for Honeywell for 30 years in engineering and sales, living in California. It’s been a learning experience, coming from a Fortune 100 company to a small business, but it’s given me a real appreciation for what it takes to run one. My brother laid a good foundation and had good people working here, and they all helped in the transition; they’ve been very supportive and helpful to me. The only thing I’ve changed was adding engineering to our professional job focus.

Q. Do many temporary hires find permanent work?

A. We have about a two-thirds rate of permanent job offers. Then we have people who only want temporary work; they want flexibility to work two or three months a year. We fill a lot of “mothers’ hours,’’ too, which is a good fit for a lot of small businesses.

Q. How has growth been?

A. We topped $2 million in 2012, when Ed was still here. Growth has been steady since, and this is my year to grow it. When I came in, it was more about stabilizing; in a situation where you lose the head of a company, you can lose clients and employees. We didn’t have that happen.

Q. Has the low unemployment rate affected the business?

A. We have to work harder to find qualified candidates and do a lot of passive recruiting, not necessarily of people on the street with a resume yet but who are thinking about changing jobs. We do that through referrals and networking and reaching out to them. We have to do more work to get those people in the door.

Paul E. Kandarian can be reached at pkandarian@aol.com.