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2008 Issue 5
Got The Payroll Blues?
– Outsourcing Could Be
The Solution
Write A Recruitment Ad That
Works
Ten Great Reasons To Use
Incentives
Creating A Website That Makes
Your Business Fly
 
Got The Payroll Blues? –
Outsourcing Could Be The Solution
Smart business owners strive to spend their time
working ON their business rather than handling
all those time consuming and low value-add back
office functions. One function they are likely
to find both frustrating and time consuming is
handling payroll. It’s not that payroll isn’t
important, but it is a standard procedure and
one that is not core to your business activity.
That makes it perfect for outsourcing.
But while it is a standard procedure, as every
SME manager knows there's more to payroll than
writing checks and handing them out to employees
on time. Maintaining accurate records, making
additions and deductions for individual
employees, calculating and paying payroll taxes,
arranging bank deposits and handling the
inevitable follow up inquiries all soak up time
that could be better spent on winning more
business, improving operations or developing a
new product.
It’s likely that few business owners appreciate
the hidden costs of payroll. Doing payroll
in-house is both error prone and time consuming,
often involving the input of a number of people.
In the latest edition of the Small Business
Administration (SBA) study, The Impact Of
Regulatory Costs On Small Firms, estimates
that small businesses annually spend, on
average, $1,304 on tax compliance per employee.
Further, according to research by ADP (an
international supplier of HR, payroll, and
benefits administration solutions), companies
with 20 employees or more spend upwards of half
a day per pay period dedicated to payroll
related duties.
Even a small error in calculating payroll can
have major consequences. Applying the wrong
salary rate, not understanding how annual leave
rules operate, or miscalculating benefits rates
will result in short-paying some, or maybe even
all, of your employees. When the error is
finally noticed the back cost can be huge.
Remaining up-to-date and compliant with changing
payroll tax legislation is a formidable task.
Your business may face penalties and even
retrospective interest charges on moneys owed as
the result of calculation errors or late
payment. Even when businesses use payroll
software they still have to invest in the
software and software upgrades, train the people
who will use the system, remember deadlines and
process and mail pay checks.
Many small business owners are finding a cost
effective and efficient alternative to their
in-house procedure by outsourcing to a
professional payroll services provider. Your
role then reduces to providing, each pay period,
the necessary payroll data (pay rate,
deductions, and vacation time) to the payroll
service provider, usually electronically.
Small business payroll service providers
typically handle a range of payroll tasks
including calculating the pay and tax
obligations for each employee, printing and
delivering checks and delivering management
reports. Pay checks can be issued on a cycle to
suit the business. Additional payroll related
services that may carry separate fees include
automatic check signature, direct deposit, and
preparing W-2 and 1099 forms. Many services now
offer tie-ins with benefit plan providers
allowing for the automatic deduction of
contributions from an employee’s pay check. Many
small business payroll services offer the option
of filing state and federal payroll taxes as
well. Working with a payroll service provider
you can feel confident that payroll will be
accurate, on-time and fully compliant with
regulations.
In outsourcing payroll you are paying for
someone to reduce your workload and worry, so
you want a reliable provider who can keep your
accounts efficiently, accurately and up-to-date.
For information on service providers and how
satisfied their customers are check with your
local Chamber of Commerce, banker or accountant
as well as other business people and contacts
who are outsourcing their payroll.
A checklist for a payroll partner would include
consideration of their expertise (payroll should
be their central function – ask for references
from some of their clients); their familiarity
with your industry; their response time to
queries; if they can provide both hard and soft
copy of reports; and, of course, their price
structure (there are often fees for adding or
dropping employees, adjusting employee
information, and setting up your account). Make
sure you are looking at comparable pricing when
evaluating different providers. When you do
decide on a supplier have the details of the
service you have agreed to and how the
relationship will work (e.g. timescales for
processing the payroll etc) written into a
formal contract.
A 2006 national payroll survey by the National
Federation Of Independent Business (NFIB)
Research Foundation found that the most common
reason given by SME managers for doing payroll
in-house was that it is the cheapest way. Closer
investigation of the real cost of payroll along
with the risk factors involved in doing it
yourself suggest that that assumption is
questionable. Outsourcing payroll has the
potential to reduce costs, save time and
eliminate the need to keep up with changing tax
regulations allowing you to concentrate on the
real value producing activities.
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Write A Recruitment Ad That Works
If you want to attract the sort of job applicant
who will require the minimum of training to get
up to speed, who will be happy with their job,
and who will fit into your workplace, then don't
underestimate the importance of knowing how to
write a job advertisement. If it is flawed, the
applicants will be unsuitable, you’ll waste time
and money on the whole exercise and maybe end up
with someone you really consider second best.
To get the right message across about what you
require, pay attention to developing four
aspects of your ad; responsibilities,
requirements, the benefits you are offering and
what type of person would fit in.
Assess and prioritize the job’s responsibilities
The job description is basically an outline of
how the job fits in to the organization. It
should point out in broad terms the job's goals,
responsibilities and duties. This may sound
obvious but often recruiters just draw up a
laundry list of duties without carefully
considering and prioritizing them. Include only
the core responsibilities. Jobs change over time
and job descriptions go out of date. Preparing a
recruitment advertisement provides an
opportunity to reconsider the job and ascertain
exactly what it involves and what sort of skills
it requires. The better you understand the role,
the clearer your ad will be.
Specify the requirements exactly
Spell out your requirements clearly and
precisely. How many recruitment ads include the
requirement ‘strong communication skills’?
Running a sales presentation, talking to
customers and writing up a proposal are all
communication skills but there’s a lot of
difference between what’s involved in each. Ask
yourself “To what purpose will this
communication skill be used?” and write up the
ad accordingly. Instead of ‘good communication
skills’ it could be ‘ability to develop and
present an effective sales presentation’;
instead of ‘computer literate’ specify
‘proficient with Microsoft Word, Excel and
QuickBooks’ if that is what the job entails
using.
The same precision should be used in listing any
required certification and personal capabilities
for performing the job such as the ability to
lift a certain amount of weight, drive certain
types of vehicle on the job or use particular
types of machinery. It can also be used to
specify the type of experience required, such as
‘experience handling accounts worth over $2
million a year’.
Include the benefits, not just the salary
Don’t mention only the monetary reward. While
that may be the bottom line it is often just one
of the things a candidate is interested in. Job
development opportunities such as training or
travel, challenging assignments and career
advancement potential can attract great
candidates interested not just in getting a job,
but in making a wise career move. For others a
retirement scheme or health benefits package may
be important. Applicants for a position in a
particular organization should be interested in
what that industry does. So, for instance,
offers of discount travel for team members would
attract candidates for a travel agency job.
Attract best fit candidates, not just the best qualified
The message about ‘what type of person would
enjoy working here’ will come across in what you
say in the ad. The specifications might include
‘feeling comfortable in a multicultural,
cooperative environment’. The conditions could
mention that dress is generally informal. The
benefits might include an annual office ski
vacation. All these say something about the
organization and provide the would-be applicant
with an idea of how comfortable they’d feel in
the workplace.
Your recruitment ad is more than just a job
description - it’s a marketing exercise that has
to attract a pool of suitably qualified
applicants who will fit into your organization.
A poorly written recruitment ad could mean being
swamped with unsuitable applicants or it could
result in too few responses - both of which
waste your time and money.
To Top
Ten Great Reasons To Use Incentives
Incentives can play an integral role in
motivating consumers to buy certain products
over others. Here are some ideas for
incentivating existing and potential customers
to use your product.
- Increase product trialing.
A giveaway can be used to increase product
trialing and brand recognition. For example, at
the end of several summer concerts, concertgoers
were given sample size bags of coffee in
assorted flavors to take home with them. This
put the coffee in the hands of a great number of
people who might never have tried it otherwise.
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Promote website visits.
An incentive offer can be used to drive traffic
to your website. When the online company
Inoutdoors.com wanted to grab the attention of
nature lovers it sponsored an online drawing
competition. The grand prize of an
all-expenses-paid vacation with well known
sports celebrities proved to be an alluring
incentive.
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Increase brand awareness.
No matter what business you’re in, keeping your
name in front of customers is a top priority.
Giveaways such as T-shirts and umbrellas
emblazoned with the company logo are popular
ways of getting the brand advertised.
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Level seasonal variations in sales.
The dips and plateaus of the business cycle
affect most industries. A well planned incentive
campaign can lure customers to buy during the
off-season. Having an outdoor barbecue is great
in the summer. But how many families enjoy
cooking out in the colder winter months? To
entice patrons to buy grills during the winter
months, a major retail chain offered gas grill
buyers a valuable steak package and sponsored
on-site cookouts where they gave away sirloins
and burgers to lucky customers. That promotion
yielded a 35% increase in sales.
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Boost slow moving products.
Being associated with well known brands or
activities gives less popular items appeal to a
broader audience. Offering a free trial,
discount coupon or prize of a slower moving
product/service to purchasers of a recognized
line can encourage their popularity.
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Build continuity of purchase.
An incentive campaign can encourage repeat sales
of a product. The beverage industry is known for
motivating customers to make their beverage
purchases in bulk by including sequential
contests within large cases. In order to win,
you must collect all the game pieces - meaning
you have to continue purchasing the product.
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Increase volume sales.
‘Free with purchase’ premiums aim to increase
volume sales while also increasing consumers'
appreciation for the featured product. Consumers
are required to buy a featured product in order
to receive the premium. Beauty salons often
offer free styling or nail service with the
purchase of a premium haircut.
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Learn more about customers and identify prospects.
Premiums have proven to be highly effective in
both direct mail campaigns and direct selling programs as
a way of increasing customer knowledge and
identifying prospects. By asking for some
demographic information on their entry ballot
for a competition you can build a more accurate
profile of customers. Prospects can be
identified by encouraging participants to submit
entry forms for friends and family members as
well as themselves.
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Reach adults through their children.
Kids possess immense purchasing power and can
directly influence their parents to buy
products. When Kool-Aid wanted to introduce its
brand to a new generation, it sponsored a ‘More
Smiles Per Gallon’ tour. In every targeted
market the Kool-Aid Man stopped in popular
children's play areas such as zoos, museums and
amusement parks. Free photos with the Kool-Aid
Man, an opportunity to play a soccer game, and,
of course, free samples with coupons attached,
attracted potential consumers and helped raise
awareness of Kool-Aid.
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Offset price concerns.
One way for a company to take consumer attention
off the actual price of an item is to offer a
valued premium. Cellular phone companies are
famous for creating promotions for new
subscribers that include a valuable item when
they sign up for an expensive activation
package.
When you offer your customers or prospects
valuable incentives as rewards for purchases
made or enticements for engaging with the
business in some way, they are by nature
appreciative, so incentive marketing is a great
way of cementing customer loyalty and gives
potential customers more of a reason to pay
attention to your product.
To Top
Creating A Website That Makes Your Business
Fly
Successful selling online requires a website
that is visually attractive as well as easy to
use. Here are some tips for developing a website
that looks good and is easy to read by visitors.
Make it readable
Visual appeal is nice, but readability must be a
top design priority. In order for your content
to communicate effectively you need to consider
how colors and fonts work on a webpage.
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The text/type should be easily readable
against the background color.
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Refrain from choosing busy, loud backgrounds,
for example, marble or pattern backgrounds. They
detract from content and often make text
illegible.
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Too many colors or fonts can also be
distracting and give the site a cluttered feel.
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Consider breaking up longer pieces of text
with subheadings and bullet points. They
encourage continued reading by separating the
text into short, bite-sized chunks.
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Use one design throughout the site. It's
confusing if pages within a site are not
consistent in design.
Make the pages easy to view
Visitors do not like to scroll from left to
right to see the entirety of a webpage so build
it to fit the standard monitor size of 640 by
480 pixels. Higher resolution screens are
growing in popularity but unless you are certain
that your target audience is likely to be using
them, you should discuss it with your web design
firm. If you’re putting it together in-house, be
sure to consult with someone who has experience
with current web page size standards. Also check
how your pages display in different web browsers
– displaying properly in the popular Mozilla
Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers
is a minimum requirement. Long pages that
require scrolling down … and down … and down are
also poor practice. It’s better to create a
number of pages than have this toilet roll
effect.
If you use graphics for navigation (such as
buttons) or rely on images to display products,
provide an alternative text (ALT text)
description in the HTML code. ALT text provides
a text equivalent of the image. There are a
number of reasons for including a text
description:
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People with low bandwidth connections may opt
not to load graphics
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It is helpful to visitors using assistive
technology (the ALT text is read out for the
hearing impaired for instance), and
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It can contribute to a better ranking in
search results since most search engines
interpret the meaning of objects by analyzing
their ALT attribute
But be warned – there’s a real art to
constructing and using ALT text. The text need
not be a literal description of what the image
represents. There’s not much point in using the
ALT text ‘microwave oven’ if the image is meant
to display the product’s most attractive selling
features. The ALT text will be better used
describing those features.
Keep download time to a minimum
Visitors resent waiting for slow downloading
pages. Decrease loading time by paying attention
to the size of the webpage. Website developers
suggest a maximum of 30K for a webpage overall.
Thus, if you have three 6K images on the page,
you should not add more than 12K of HTML and
text. It’s preferable to increase the number of
pages rather than overload a single page.
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