Tough Times

During tough times everyone is in sales. As a small business owner you have two choices when in comes to a decline in sales: 1) view your employees as variable expenses that can be cut to help maintain the bottom line, or 2) view your employees as strategic assets that can be redeployed to generate new sales, bolster relationships with customers, and to seek out new opportunities.

To do this, you need to start thinking of your employees as an underutilized sales force. And a non-traditional one. It won't be obvious to treat your production workers as sales people - but most if not all have a great grasp of what customers want - and probably an excellent sense of what people buy and why. Put this knowledge to work - from brainstorming sessions to delivering finished product to the customer's door - to participating in advertising campaigns, booth duty, even a little cold calling.

When times are tough - everyone is responsible and capable of focusing on the top line. Set out the sales targets, discuss progress and lack thereof, and solicit volunteers to take on new duties. Before you fire or layoff that experienced worker - give them the opportunity to earn their salary. You will be surprised, your team will feel a new sense of control (and appreciation), and your customers will benefit from closer contact with the knowledgeable workers on your team.

Give it a shot - what do you have to lose?

For more information and ideas - check out this article.

Payroll Service

The mantra for small business owners is always the same - do what you do well and contributes to the bottom line - and outsource the rest. Your time is your most critical resource - so using your precious time to process payroll is probably not the best use of time.

At a minimum, use the Payroll function embedded in Quickbooks. It's easy to use and automates many of the tedious tasks.

For almost the same price, call your local payroll service. Ask them a few questions: how long have they been in business? how many companies do they serve? are they insured and bonded? can they provide referrals? what is their average number of employees per company? who will you deal with? and most importantly - how do you submit your data? You are looking for a tech savvy company that works over the web or email - that provides input and output reports electronically - and that allows you to access your account 24/7. If they mention "Fax" - move on to the next company.

Better yet - contact a PEO in your area. The Professional Employee Organization takes payroll processing to the next level - and becomes your virtual HR department. They will handle everything from employee manuals to tax filings. Just in terms of time saved and value added - this is a great source of help for most small business owners. Beware - some PEO's use very aggressive selling techniques and hide fees that only seem to appear later. If you get the hard sell - move on to the next company. There are many PEO's serving every market - so you can be very selective. For more information - check out the PEO Association web site.