Successful Blog

Is Starting a Small Business a Health Insurance Headache?

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multi-ethnic-team-during-meeting-10066408If you’ve been thinking about turning your hobby into a small business or even buying an existing business, you may be hesitant after you start looking into the health insurance aspects of hiring employees.

Thanks to Obamacare, more small businesses are now required to provide health insurance plans.

That’s all well and good for owners who have the resources necessary to fund such plans, but it bodes ominous for startups that are bootstrapping their business.

In fact, the sole requirement for a health plan can deter new businesses from starting up in the first place.

Don’t worry.

Starting a small business doesn’t have to be a health insurance headache.

There are ways around the Obamacare mandate, just as there are ways to comply with the law in ways that won’t negatively impact your business finances.

Here are some effective ways to get your small business up and running – and keep it running – while dealing with health insurance requirements:

How to Get Around the Requirement

If you have zero funds available for a health insurance plan, yet still need employees to operate the day-to-day tasks of your business, hire independent contractors. Independent contractors are in business for themselves.

As such, they are responsible for their own taxes and health insurance.

They work for you on what’s called a “work for hire” basis. You assign them tasks based on their expertise and specialties, and they invoice you for work that is satisfactorily completed.

Independent contractors don’t technically work for you, and are not your employees. Thus, you are not liable to provide health insurance for them.

The management of your independent contractors needs to be systemized so that in itself doesn’t become an organizational headache.

If this is an avenue you’re interested in pursuing, consider hiring a project manager and investing in some kind of online collaborative software to ensure projects get done on time and under budget.

Keep in mind that if you want or expect your business to grow, eventually you’ll need to move to a traditional employee model.

At that time, you will need to implement a health insurance plan for them, and you’ll need to save in order to manage that scenario.

How to Work With the Requirement

The fact is, there are so many complicated requirements within the Obamacare mandate that it can be compared to the complexity of the overall tax law in general.

As the following article shows, a small business owner, will be hard pressed to research and understand the basic key health insurance terms, let alone come up with a health plan by themselves that satisfies the vast legal requirements.

Your best course of action is to outsource your health insurance plan management to a professional company that specializes in working with small businesses like yours.

Otherwise, the vast amount of your time and the time of your admin team will be spent trying to navigate the minefield of employee health insurance.

Whatever you spend on the health plan management company is tax deductible and the return on investment will prove substantial, even in the short term.

As a small business owner, how are you dealing with the new health insurance requirements?

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Kate Supino writes extensively about best business practices.

Let Software Help Keep You on Schedule

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asoftwareRunning a business takes plenty of time and effort. In fact, most business owners will tell you there is not enough time in the day to get everything done that they want to.

With that in mind, what if your business life could be made just a little bit easier, especially when it comes to keeping your employee schedules in check?

Given all business owners must deal with when it comes to their customers, having a good repertoire with their employees is critical, especially in a day and age when more and more employees are telecommuting. Whether your employees all work under one roof or some are working from home and/or the road, keeping their schedules in sync is crucial to running a smooth operation.

Know When Your Employees Are on the Clock

Whether your company employs only a few people or hundreds of workers, keeping their days running smoothly with the right scheduling software is important for several reasons. Among them:

  • Continuity – Having a business that runs on time is important, especially given the fact that consumers have more and more choices these days with where their dollars will be spent;
  • Production – If you have employees coming and going at all hours of the day and no real schedule in place, your production schedule could suffer. The right scheduling software allows you to coordinate the proper shifts from the minute your business day begins;
  • Fairness – Face it, some offices have to deal with office politics at times. In order to keep everyone relatively happy when it comes to work schedules, having a software program in place dedicated to coordinating shifts can do wonders for your business. Its biggest attribute is it should cut down on any potential complaints from co-workers that so-and-so is not reporting for work on time and/or cutting out too early;
  • Absenteeism – As all too many business owners discover over time, absenteeism can have a profoundly negative impact on their company. Many workers can certainly have legitimate excuses for missing work, ranging from illness to injury involving themselves or a loved one. That said many others will try and milk the system, taking advantage of their bosses in the process. When this happens, not only is the employee ultimately hurting him or herself, but they are negatively impacting their place of employment. More pressure is put on other employees to pick up the slack, thereby making it more difficult for them to do their own jobs. This can also result in lower office morale, something that can ultimately have a significant impact on the company’s ability to meet the needs of customers.

If your company has essentially let employee schedules run on the fly over time, now might be a good time to turn to technology to better enforce worker schedules.

By investing in the right scheduling software, you can schedule and communicate with your hourly workers right from day one of their employment. Keeping them on schedule will ultimately keep your business on schedule with the people who matter most, your customers.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Dave Thomas writes for a variety of websites on topics such as human resources and running a small business.

Overcoming Big Data Skills Concerns

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Big data analytics has been proven to be highly beneficial for businesses, allowing them to extract optimal value from their data and make better-informed decisions.

As more and more businesses are adopting big data analytics, it is becoming increasingly necessary to make big data a part of your business strategy.

However, it is not easy to implement a big data solution, because there is a significant shortage of big data skills.

Then again, if you use the right hiring strategies, you may be able to recruit some of the best big data experts available in the market.

How to Hire the Right Big Data Talent

Define Responsibilities

Before you start the hiring process, it is essential that you clearly define the role and responsibilities that you want the big data expert to assume.

This will help you determine what kind of big data talent you should look for, so that you can attract the most suitable candidates. It also gives the candidates a clearer idea of your expectations.

Set Job Requirements

First of all, you need to set the minimum academic and experience qualifications to ensure that the candidate has the necessary knowledge, skills and training to handle the tasks that come with the job. Then, list down the specific skills and qualities that he or she must possess.

For instance, the candidate should be familiar with the specific type of big data solution that you are planning to implement.

According to a blog post entitled “Combating Big Data Skills Concerns“, business organizations are not only trying to recruit and retain experts to handle long-existing data management technologies, but also new big data technologies such as Hadoop.

It is important that you hire a big data expert who makes an effort to stay up-to-date with the latest big data technologies.

Attract the Best Candidates

Big data experts are highly sought after these days, and they can afford to be selective.

As such, you need to make a very competitive offer in order to attract the best big data talent. Big data experts enjoy solving challenging problems, and they thrive in an environment that allows them to exercise their creativity.

You can bait them by giving them interesting data to manage and fascinating problems to solve, so that they can satisfy their intellectual curiosity endlessly.

While money may not be the main factor affecting a big data expert’s choice of job, it is still an important consideration. Therefore, you have to make sure that you offer your big data expert a highly competitive salary.

Evaluate the Candidates

There are many tools from reliable sources that can help you perform a thorough and accurate evaluation of candidates.

You can use these tools to do resume screening and reference checks, conduct competency-based and background interviews, and create real-life scenarios to assess the responses of the candidates.

It is also a good idea to use psychometric assessments such as cognitive testing, emotional intelligence testing and motivational assessment.

A competent big data expert can do wonders for your business by helping you get the most out of your data.

By following the tips above, you can significantly increase your chances of landing the best big data talent.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who writes on a wide range of subjects, from social media marketing to Cloud computing.

Lock in Best Rates on a Business Credit Card

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What are some of the key challenges for business owners in 2014?

If you ask that question of such people, they’re likely to tell you attaining and retaining customers can be one of the trickier tasks when running a business.

Face it, many consumers in today’s economic climate have to make tough choices about where they’re going to shop, when they can afford to shop, and of course how much money they can afford to spend.

As a business owner, you can encourage consumers to come deal with you by making the shopping experience as friendly and easy as possible.

Credit Cards and Customers

One way to make the shopping trip easier for customers is by having the right credit card provider available to them to charge purchases.

Whether they make a charge in your place of business, over the phone or through online avenues, a simple and effective credit card option will help keep shoppers coming back.

“More shoppers want a quick and easy shopping experience, especially when online,” said Chris Mettler of CompareCards.com. “Having the right credit card options for them makes things better for everyone involved in the sales process.”

According to a report from Javelin Strategy & Research, in just three years, it is expected that less than 25 percent of all point-of-sales acquisitions will be made with cash. The translation – more than 75 percent of all purchases by consumers will be made via credit and debit cards.

As a business owner, it behooves you to make sure that your credit card or cards of choice offer you affordable rates and quality customer service. When that happens, you will open the door to more consumers shopping with you via credit cards.

Finding the Right Card or Cards

Many business owners will offer a number of credit card options to their customers, with Visa, MasterCard and Discover Card the typical choices.

In order for the business owner who is either setting up shop for the first time or going from just accepting cash and perhaps checks to credit card purchases to locate the best cards, it is important for them to do some research.

Take the time to visit different card provider websites, seeing which offer the best rates and customer service.

If you’re looking to move away from a high balance that you might have accrued over time, you can look at which providers offer the best savings when it comes to interest payments when transferring a high interest balance over to a 0% interest credit card.

Lastly, take the time when selecting a card provider as if you are a consumer, because in fact, you are.

Put the offers side-by-side to see which provider gives you the most rewards, best interest rate, and cost savings.

When you align your business with the right credit card provider, take credit for making a wise choice.

Photo credit: qbservices.net

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers small business, social media and SEO topics for a variety of websites.

Having Inconsistent Contact with Customers?

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You have a fantastic website that gives customers all of the information they need about your product or service. You may even have a blog to go with your website to provide further information or to answer questions.

However, many businesses often overlook the importance of one page: the Contact Us form.

Even if they include it on the site, they fail to maximize its potential.

Call to Action

Businesses often lack the knowledge on how to use call to actions to convert more customers by making the contact form a bigger part of the website.

It’s commonly added to the menu along with the other pages on the site. However, a link to the form should be included with all of your calls to action.

At the point where you invite customers to contact you, there should be a link that makes it easy for them to do just that. If they have to navigate from somewhere else, they may get distracted and forget to complete the action.

What Makes a Good Contact Page

After viewing your website, the Contact form is the next “first impression” that you make.

If someone is taking the time to contact you for any reason, you want to make it a positive experience for them. It should be easy to access and have personality, but it should not be cluttered. You don’t want your visitors to get bogged down with what is on the page and forget to actually make contact with you.

The problem with many standard Contact pages is that they are designed solely for functionality without thought about the people that will be using them.

As Howard Yeh, founder, investor and president of ContactUs.com says about the process of designing a contact form, “We approach the problems that websites face not just as web developers, but as online marketers, experienced lead-generators and sales account managers. And with that mindset, we’ve built both features and data solutions to make those jobs easier.”

You want to look at your Contact page as a marketer.

Does it provide a warm welcome and then a call to action that visitors will understand?

It should also be short and efficient.

Collect the necessary information to provide an accurate and thorough reply but don’t waste your visitors’ time filling out unnecessary fields.

Multiple Avenues to Reach You

While some customers will feel more comfortable with the idea of sending out a message or email, others still prefer a phone call.

A contact link should be visible on all pages right in the area where it does the most good.

On some pages, this may be as a sidebar while on others; you might want it right below a product or list of services you provide.

An effective Contact Us form is one that converts your visitors into customers. It is included as a way to help you establish new relationships and continue to grow current ones.

Make sure your contact page is working for you.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Joyce Morse is an author who writes on a variety of topics, including content marketing and small business.

Is Your Home Office What You Want It to Be?

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aofficeMore and more people are working from home.

Maybe it’s telecommuting for an international multi-billion dollar company, or it could be running your own small business from home where you are your only employee. Maybe sometimes you’re in a company’s office, other days you’re at home.

Whatever the case may be, it’s becoming more the norm for people to be working at home.

According to a Forbes piece, at least 30 million Americans work from home at least one day a week. This number is growing and is expected to continue to do so over the next few years.

One of the main reasons people do opt to work from home, and why companies are supportive, is because work productivity is shown to increase for those who work from home.

Not only do home officers save time (which means money) by skipping the commute, they also can be more productive at home by working in more personalized comfort.

When it comes to that personalized comfort, which is conducive to productivity, how do you get the optimal home office for an affordable price?

Take a look at some of these tips to find what works for you and enhances your own space:

• A designated space – It’s important to have a designated work space aside from your home life. Keep the doctor bills and PTA forms somewhere else. Make sure this space stays all business and your productivity will increase. It’s not cost prohibitive to do this, you just might need to do some organizing.

• A comfortable space – If you are at your desk for any extended time, you need to be comfortable. Major retailers, including Walmart, offer great specials on affordable and comfortable office desks to make working from home a positive, comfortable and productive experience. Along with the desk, you need a comfortable chair to keep your posture and back healthy.

• A well-lit space – You will be happier working in a space with good lighting. If you can’t have natural lighting, find some lamps that offer good light. Even the paint color on the wall adds to the lighting feel; choose a color that works well for you, makes you happy and that you find positive energy from. Paint is an affordable way to make a big change in a space.

• A clutter free space – Even if you’ve banished all your home clutter from your work space, make sure you continue to keep it clutter free. Toss or file old documents, organize material on a regular basis and keep what you can electronically, toss the hard copies.

If you can set up your work space when you first start your home office experience, your productivity will shine. It’s beneficial to do it the right way from the start so you don’t need use valuable time to make changes.

But if you do need to change something, do it – it will be worth it for your comfort and productivity.

Photo credit: decoist.com

About the Author: Heather Legg writes about small business, staying within a budget and making the most of what you have.