Hiring, firing, delegating, supervising – these are challenges faced by every business owner as a business expands. People are a company’s most important asset. But managing and motivating people are not easy. The good news is that there are a few great cloud-based technologies that are helping to make this less difficult. I’ve seen a few of these in action at our clients’ businesses and have recommendations. Ever heard of these?
Back in the day, actual humans using actual pieces of paper took care of accounting, payroll, benefit enrollment, expenses, reporting, and all the other nitty-gritty, tedious, yet critical elements of running a business. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is changing how businesses of all sizes manage their finances.
When I was searching for a part-time research assistant for my firm just a few months ago, I did what I normally do: I placed an ad on Craigslist. And I got the usual overwhelming response—more than a hundred replies. How did I manage that? By writing a great job ad. It’s not easy, but it’s the critical first step in hiring the right employees. The right ad will draw in the right talent for your company and set the stage for a productive hiring process.
Bryan Clayton of Greenpal has been in landscape contracting his entire career. Clayton’s business used to get paid the old-fashioned way: by sending invoices and follow-up payment notices via mail well after a job was completed. Getting paid took a long time, and managing the paper trail and accounts receivable ate up valuable staff time. Now Clayton’s lawn care operators can get paid instantly because of two simple changes: Adding a credit card processing app to their smartphones with a card reader.
Getting a payroll system in place for your small business can seem like a daunting and potentially expensive challenge. While a large corporation might be willing and able to shell out some dough to a traditional full-service payroll provider like ADP, as a small business owner you simply can’t afford that luxury. And given the smaller size of your business, you probably don’t need all the bells and whistles a full-service provider offers anyway. You just want some automation and features that speeds up the payroll process, ensures more accuracy in paying employees and helps integrate payroll processes with other financial tasks, such as bookkeeping and tax preparation.
Starting and running a business out of your house has many rewards: no commute, less time-sucking small talk, no missed time with your family. But before you settle into the bliss of this heaven on Earth, remember that, in the end, you are still running a business. Working from home has all kinds of pitfalls that need to be avoided if you are to succeed. Here are five no-nos to avoid when running a business from the comforts of your abode:
We hear a lot about all the technologies that will one day change our lives like drones, driverless cars and 3D printed body parts. That stuff is for real and, yes, it will have a huge impact on the world…within the next decade. But what about the short term? What about the next 2-5 years? There are many technologies that you are using in your business which will become obsolete in that time frame. And the last thing you want to be doing is investing your money in the wrong place. Here are just three business techs that will be disappearing from earth sooner than you think. Not entirely…but they’ll be pretty much dead.
We spend a lot of time talking about why you should ditch spreadsheets in favor of an accounting app — automating, error-proofing, scalable, saves you time and money — but we don’t touch on enough on the topic of security. Which is more secure — book-based bookkeeping, Microsoft Excel, downloaded accounting software like Quickbooks, or the trendy cloud-based accounting? They each have different pros and cons Today we look to weigh the risks versus the benefits of using an accounting app to manage the day-to-day of your small business in the cloud.
Tax Strategist or Tax Evader? C’mon…admit it. You know someone who’s done it.
If you’re looking to start your first small business, there is one thing you need to know more than anything else, the role profit and cash flow will play in your venture. An Insights West survey found that nearly half of small business owners consider these their main source of stress. A U.S. Bank study by Jessie Hagan found 82 percent of businesses fail due to cash flow mismanagement. We don’t want you to become part of that statistic. We want to help you start your small business on the right foot, and increase your chance of success straight out of the gate. To do that, not only do you need to ensure profits, you absolutely must embrace the concept of cash flow management and it’s critical importance to the success of your business.