V.L. Thompson's Blog, page 8

How to Create an Effective Business Continuity Plan

Natural and manmade disasters underscore the challenges of seamless disaster recovery in the real world. Having a comprehensive business continuity plan isn’t just an IT concern; though. Nothing less than the survival of your company is at stake.

We rarely get a head’s up that a disaster is ready to strike. Even with some lead time, though, multiple things can go wrong; every incident is unique and unfolds in unexpected ways.

This is where a business continuity plan comes into play. To give your organization the best shot at success during a disaster, you need to put a current, tested plan in the hands of all personnel responsible for carrying out any part of that plan. The lack of a plan doesn’t just mean your organization will take longer than necessary to recover from an event or incident. You could go out of business for good.ORE

How Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery Plans Differ

Business continuity (BC) refers to maintaining business functions or quickly resuming them in the event of a major disruption, whether caused by a fire, flood, epidemic illness or a malicious attack across the Internet. A BC plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of such disasters; it covers business processes, assets, human resources, business partners and more.

Many people think a disaster recovery plan is the same as a business continuity plan, but a DR plan focuses mainly on restoring IT infrastructure and operations after a crisis. It’s actually just one part of a complete business continuity plan, as a BC plan looks at the continuity of the entire organization. Do you have a way to get HR, manufacturing, and sales and support functionally up and running so the company can continue to make money right after a disaster?

For example, if the building that houses your customer service representatives is flattened by a tornado, do you know how those reps can handle customer calls? Will they work from home temporarily, or from an alternate location? Companies such asSunGard sell access to cubicles that include a desk, phone and computer in their recovery centers, along with server- and device-based DR services.

Tutorial: How to Start a Business Continuity Program

Note that a business impact analysis (BIA) is another part of a BC plan. A BIA identifies the impact of a sudden loss of business functions, usually quantified in a cost. Such analysis also helps you evaluate whether you should outsource non-core activities in your BCP, which can come with its own risks. The BIA essentially helps you look at your entire organization’s processes and determine which are most important.

Why Business Continuity Planning Matters

Whether you operate a small business or a large corporation, you strive to remain competitive. It’s vital to retain current customers while increasing your customer base — and there’s no better test of your capability to do so than right after an adverse event.

Because restoring IT is critical for most companies, numerous disaster recovery solutions are available. You can rely on IT to implement those solutions. But what about the rest of your business functions? Your company’s future depends on your people and processes. Being able to handle any incident effectively can have a positive effect on your company’s reputation and market value, and it can increase customer confidence.

First, Create a Business Continuity Plan

If your organization doesn’t have a BC plan in place, start by assessing your business processes, determining which areas are vulnerable, and the potential losses if those processes go down for a day, a few days or a week. This is essentially a (BIA).

Next, develop a plan. You can use any number of free templates available online or find an actual plan published by an organization similar to yours and modify it as needed.

There are six general steps involved in creating a business continuity plan:

1. Identify the scope of the plan.

2. Identify key business areas.

3. Identify critical functions.

4. Identify dependencies between various business areas and functions.

5. Determine acceptable downtime for each critical function.

6. Create a plan to maintain operations.

One common business continuity planning tool is a checklist that includes supplies and equipment, the location of data backups and backup sites, where the plan is available and who should have it, and contact information for emergency responders, key personnel and backup site providers.

Remember that the disaster recovery plan is part of the business continuity plan, so check with your IT department to ensure it has or is actively developing a DR plan.

As you create your plan, consider interviewing key personnel in organizations who have gone through a disaster successfully. People generally like to share “war stories” and the steps and techniques (or clever ideas) that saved the day. Their insights could prove incredibly valuable in helping you to craft a solid business continuity plan.

Then, Test Your Business Continuity Plan

You have to rigorously test a plan to know if it’s complete and will fulfill its intended purpose. Many organizations test a business continuity plan two to four times a year. The schedule depends on your type of organization, the amount of turnover of key personnel and the number of business processes and IT changes that have occurred since the last round of testing.

Common tests include table-top exercises, structured walk-throughs and simulations. Test teams are usually composed of the recovery coordinator and members from each functional unit.

A table-top exercise usually occurs in a conference room with the team poring over the plan, looking for gaps and ensuring that all business units are represented therein.

In a structured walk-through, each team member walks through his or components of the plan in detail to identify weaknesses. Often, the team works through the test with a specific disaster in mind. Some organizations incorporate drills and disaster role-playing into the structured walk-through. Any weaknesses should be corrected and an updated plan distributed to all pertinent staff.

It’s also a good idea to conduct a full emergency evacuation drill at least once a year. This type of test lets you determine if you need to make special arrangements to evacuate staff members who have physical limitations.

Lastly, disaster simulation testing can be quite involved and should be performed annually. For this test, create an environment that simulates an actual disaster, with all the equipment, supplies, and personnel (including business partners and vendors) who would be needed. The purpose of a simulation is to determine if you can carry out critical business functions during the event.

During each phase of business continuity plan testing, include some new employees on the test team. “Fresh eyes” might detect gaps or lapses of information that experienced team members could overlook.

Read full article by Kim Lindros and Ed Tittel on cio.com

The Basics of Employee Benefits

Once you have great employees on board, how do you keep them from jumping ship? One way is by offering a good benefits package.

Many small-business owners mistakenly believe they cannot afford to offer benefits. But while going without benefits may boost your bottom line in the short run, than penny-wise philosophy could strangle your business’s chances for long-term prosperity. “There are certain benefits good employees feel they must have,” says Ray Silverstein, founder of PRO, President’s Resource Organization, a small-business advisory network.

Heading the list of must-have benefits is medical insurance, but many job applicants also demand a retirement plan, disability insurance and more. Tell these applicants no benefits are offered, and often top-flight candidates will head for the door.

The positive side to this coin: Offer the right benefit, and your business may just jump-start its growth. “Give employees the benefits they value, and they’ll be more satisfied, miss fewer workdays, be less likely to quit, and have higher commitment to meeting the company’s goals,” says Joe Lineberry, a senior vice president at Aon Consulting, a human resources consulting firm. “The research shows that when employees feel their benefits needs are satisfied, they’re more productive.”

 

Benefit Basics

The law requires employers to provide employees with certain benefits. You must:

- Give employees time off to vote, serve on a jury and perform military service.
- Comply with all workers’ compensation requirements.
- Withhold FICA taxes from employees’ paychecks and pay your own portion of FICA taxes, providing employees with retirement and disability benefits.
- Pay state and federal unemployment taxes, thus providing benefits for unemployed workers.
- Contribute to state short-term disability programs in states where such programs exist.
- Comply with the Federal Family and Medical Leave (FMLA).

You are not required to provide:

- Retirement plans
- Health plans (except in Hawaii)
- Dental or vision plans
- Life insurance plans
- Paid vacations, holidays or sick leave

In reality, however, most companies offer some or all of these benefits to stay competitive.

Most employers provide paid holidays for New Year’s, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving day and Christmas day. Many employers also either allow their employees to take time off without pay or let them use vacation days for religious holidays. (See more on time off in “The Low-Cost Benefits of Offering Time Off” ).

Most full-time employees will expect one to two weeks paid vacation time per year. In explaining your vacation policy to employees, specify how far in advance requests for vacation time should be made, and whether in writing or verbally. There are no laws that require employers to provide funeral leave, but most do allow two to four days’ leave for deaths of close family members.

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires employers to give workers up to 12 weeks off to attend to the birth or adoption of a baby, or the serious health condition of the employee or an immediate family member. After 12 weeks of unpaid leave, you must reinstate the employee in the same job or an equivalent one. The 12 weeks of leave does not have to be taken all at once; in some cases, employees can take it a day at a time.

In most states, only employers with 50 or more employees are subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act. However, some states have family leave laws that place family leave requirements on businesses with as few as five employees. To find out your state’s requirements, contact you state labor department.

 

Legal Matters

Complications quickly arise as soon as business begins offering benefits, however. That’s because key benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans fall under government scrutiny, and “it is very easy to make mistakes in setting up a benefits plan,” says Kathleen Meagher, an attorney specializing in benefits at Kirkpatrick Lockhart LLP.

And don’t think nobody will notice. The IRS can discover in an audit what you are doing doesn’t comply with regulations. So can the U.S. Department of Labor, which has been beefing up its audit activities of late. Either way, a goof can be very expensive. “You can lose any tax benefits you have enjoyed, retroactively, and penalties can also be imposed,” Meagher says.

The biggest mistake? Leaving employees out of the plan. Examples range from exclusions of part-timers to failing to extend benefits to clerical and custodial staff. A rule of thumb is that if one employee gets a tax-advantaged benefit–meaning one paid for with pretax dollars–the same benefit must be extended to everyone. There are loopholes that may allow you to exclude some workers, but don’t even think about trying this without expert advice.

Such complexities mean its good advice never to go this route alone. You can cut costs by doing preliminary research yourself, but before setting up any benefits plan, consult a lawyer or a benefits consultant. An upfront investment of perhaps $1,000 could save you far more money down the road by helping you sidestep expensive potholes.

 

Expensive Errors

Providing benefits that meet employee needs and mesh with all the laws isn’t cheap–benefits probably add 30 to 40 percent to base pay for most employees–and that makes it crucial to get the most from these dollars. But this is exactly where many small businesses fall short because often their approach to benefits is riddled with costly errors that can get them in financial trouble with their insurers or even with their own employees. The most common mistakes:

- Absorbing the entire cost of employee benefits. Fewer companies are footing the whole benefits bill these days. According to a survey of California companies by human resources management consulting firm William M. Mercer, 91 percent of employers require employee contributions toward health insurance, while 92 percent require employees to contribute toward the cost of insuring dependants. The size of employee contributions varies from a few dollars per pay period to several hundred dollars monthly, but one plus of any co-payment plan is it eliminates employees who don’t need coverage. Many employees are covered under other policies–a parent’s or spouses, for instance–and if you offer insurance for free, they’ll take it. But even small co-pay requirements will persuade many to skip it, saving you money.
- Covering nonemployers. Who would do this? Lots of business owners want to buy group-rate coverage for their relatives or friends. The trouble: If there is a large claim, the insurer may want to investigate. And that investigation could result in disallowance of the claims, even cancellation of the whole policy. Whenever you want to cover somebody who might not qualify for the plan, tell the insurer or your benefits consultant the truth.
- Sloppy paperwork. In small businesses, administering benefits is often assigned to an employee who wears 12 other hats. This employee really isn’t familiar with the technicalities and misses a lot of important details. A common goof: Not enrolling new employees in plans during the open enrollment period. Most plans provide a fixed time period for open enrollment. Bringing an employee in later requires proof of insurability. Expensive litigation is sometimes the result. Make sure the employees overseeing this task stays current with the paperwork and knows that doing so is a top priority.
- Not telling employees what their benefits cost. “Most employees don’t appreciate their benefits, but that’s because nobody ever tells them what the costs are,” says PRO’s Silverstein. Many experts suggest you annually provide employees with a benefits statement that spells out what they’re getting and at what cost. A simple rundown of the employee’s individual benefits and what they cost the business is very powerful.
- Giving unwanted benefits. A workforce composed largely of young, single people doesn’t need life insurance. How to know what benefits employee’s value? You can survey employees and have them rank benefits in terms of desirability. Typically, medical and financial benefits, such as retirement plans, appeal to the broadest cross-section of workers.

If workers needs vary widely, consider the increasingly popular “cafeteria plans ,” which give workers lengthy lists of possible benefits plus a fixed amount to spend.

Health Insurance

Health insurance is one of the most desirable benefits you can offer employees. There are several basic options for setting up a plan:

- A traditional indemnity plan, or fee for service. Employees choose their medical care provider; the insurance company either pays the provider directly or reimburses employees for covered amounts.
- Managed care. The two most common forms of managed care are the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and the Preferred Provider Organization (PPO). An HMO is essentially a prepaid health-care arrangement, where employees must use doctors employed by or under contract to the HMO and hospitals approved by the HMO. Under a PPO, the insurance company negotiates discounts with the physicians and the hospitals. Employees choose doctors from an approved list, then usually pay a set amount per office visit (typically $10 to $25); the insurance company pays the rest.
- Self insurance. When you absorb all or a significant portion of a risk, you are essentially self-insuring. An outside company usually handles the paperwork, you pay the claims and sometimes employees help pay premiums. The benefits include greater control of the plan design, customized reporting procedures and cash-flow advantages. The drawback is that you are liable for claims, but you can limit liability with “stop loss” insurance–if a claim exceeds a certain dollar amount, the insurance company pays it.
- Archer Medical Savings Account. : Under this program, an employee of a small employer (50 or fewer employees) or a self-employed person can set up an Archer MSA to help pay health-care expenses. The accounts are set up with a U.S. financial institution and allow you to save money exclusively for medical expenses. When used in conjunction with a high-deductible insurance policy, accounts are funded with employee’s pretax dollars. Under the Archer MSA program, disbursements are tax-free if used for approved medical expenses. Unused funds in the account can accumulate indefinitely and earn tax-free interest. Health-savings accounts (HSAs), available as of January 2004, are similar to MSAs but are not restricted to small employers.

 

Cost Containment

The rising costs of health insurance have forced some small businesses to cut back on the benefits they offer. Carriers that write policies for small businesses tend to charge very high premiums. Often, they demand extensive medical information about each employee. If anyone in the group has a pre-existing condition, the carrier may refuse to write a policy. Or, if someone in the company becomes seriously ill, the carrier may cancel the policy the next time it comes up for renewal.

Further complicating manners, some states are mandating certain health-care benefits so that if an employer offers a plan at all, it has to include certain types of coverage. Employers who can’t afford to comply often have to cut out insurance altogether. The good news: Many states are tying to ease the burden by passing laws that make it easier for small businesses to get health insurance and that prohibit insurance carriers from discriminating against small firms. (MSAs, described above, are in part a response to the problems small businesses face.) The following states make some special provision concerning small employers and health insurance: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Until more laws are passed, what can a small business do? There are ways to cut costs without cutting into your employees’ insurance plan. A growing number of small businesses band together with other entrepreneurs to enjoy economies of scale and gain more clout with insurance carriers.

Many trade associations offer health insurance plans for small-business owners and their employees at lower rates. Your business may have only five employees, but united with the other, say, 9,000 association members and their 65,000 employees, you have substantial clout. The carrier issues a policy to the whole association; your business’s coverage cannot be terminated unless the carrier cancels the entire association.

Associations are able to negotiate lower rates and improved coverage because the carrier doesn’t want to lose such a big chunk of business. This way, even the smallest one-person company can choose from the same menu of health-care options that big companies enjoy.

Associations aren’t the only route to take. In some states, business owners or groups have set up health-insurance networks among businesses that have nothing in common but their size and their location. Check with your local chamber of commerce to find out about such programs in your area.

Some people have been ripped off by unscrupulous organizations supposedly peddling “group” insurance plans at prices 20 to 40 percent below the going rate. The problem: These plans don’t pay all policyholders’ claims because they’re not backed by sufficient cash reserves. Such plans often have lofty-sounding names that suggest a larger association of smaller employees.

How to protect yourself from a scam? Here are some tips:

- Compare prices. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Ask for references from other companies that have bought from the plan. How quick was the insurer in paying claims? How long has the reference dealt with the insurer? If it’s less than a few months, that’s not a good sign.
- Check the plan’s underwriter. The underwriter is the actual insurer. Many scam plans claim to be administrators for underwriters that really have nothing to do with them. Call the underwriter’s headquarters and the insurance department of the state in which it’s registered to see if it’ really affiliated with the plan. To check the underwriter’s integrity, ask you state’s department for its “A.M. Best” rating, which grades companies according to their ability to pay claims. Also ask for its “claim-paying ability rating”, which is monitored by services like Standard and Poor’s. If the company is too new to be rated, be wary.
- Make sure the company follows state regulations. Does the company claim it’s exempt? Check with your state’s insurance department .
- Ask the agent or administrator to show you what his or her commission, advance or administrative cost structure is.Overly generous commissions can be a tip-off; some scam operations pay agents up to 500 percent commission.
- Get help. Ask other business owners if they’ve dealt with the company. Contact the Better Business Bureau to see if there are any outstanding complaints. If you think you’re dealing with a questionable company, contact your state insurance department or your nearest Labor Department Office of Investigations.

 

Above and Beyond

What does COBRA mean to you? No, it’s not a poisonous snake coming back to bite you in the butt. The Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act (COBRA) extends health-insurance coverage to employees and dependents beyond the point at which such coverage traditionally ceases.

COBRA allows a former employee after he or she has quit or been terminated (except for gross misconduct) the right to continued coverage under you group health for up to 18 months. Employee’s spouses can obtain COBRA coverage for up to 36 months after divorce or death of the employee, and children can receive up to 36 months of coverage when they reach the age at which they are no longer classified as dependents under the group health plan.

The good news: Giving COBRA benefits shouldn’t cost you company a penny. Employers are permitted by law to charge recipients 102 percent of the cost of extending the benefits (the extra two percent covers administrative costs).

The federal COBRA plan applies to all companies with more than 20 employees. However, many states have similar laws that pertain to much smaller companies, so even if your company is exempt for federal insurance laws, you may still have to extend benefits under certain circumstances. Contact the U.S. Department of Labor to determine whether your company must offer COBRA or similar benefits, and the rules for doing so.

 

This how-to was excerpted from Start Your Own Business, Grow Your Business and “Selecting the Right Retirement Plan” by David Meier.  Read full excerpt on Entrepreneur.com

How to Shop for a Bank

Choosing a bank for your business involves more than opening a new account at your personal bank or picking the branch office nearest your company. You need to understand what services you require and how much they cost. Ideally you’ll find a banker who will take the time to walk you through how to solve a problem, so you can go back to running your business. Still, some business owners may spend more time shopping for a $300 laser printer than they would shopping for a bank.

Here are a few issues to keep in mind when you look for a banker:
Does your local banker have lending authority?

What’s the largest loan he or she can approve without checking with higher ups? Relationship managers at community-based banks often have more discretion than those at a unit of a big institution and they may consider small-business lending to be their bread and butter. But lately, the distinctions between “large” and “small” banks have blurred with the industry’s consolidation. Many community banks have undergone mergers that now allow them to offer a wider range of services. Banks of all sizes are emphasizing improved customer service, having discovered that many customers still like face-to-face service at branches versus conducting all transactions online.

Smaller, regionally focused banks may be better because they know local market conditions.

They often provide more one-on-one access to a loan officer and put more emphasis on a borrower’s character rather than just applying a credit-score model. And they can be more flexible during tough times, such as covering overdrawn accounts without imposing stiff penalties.

Rates charged by large financial institutions “are systematically lower” than those charged by community ones

According to a study cowritten by the National Federation of Independent Business, an advocacy group, larger banks are more likely to issue corporate credit cards to small businesses, which can be used for financing.

Is your bank comfortable working with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loan system?

Federally subsidized loans help protect the bank against default, which makes it easier for banks to lend money. SBA loans are available to businesses whose credit histories, cash flows or collateral would be inadequate for them to obtain traditional bank loans, and the SBA typically offers more flexible repayment terms. Larger institutions are likely to make loans backed by the SBA, which lets them accept riskier borrowers.

What extras are available with your account?

Despite stiffer lending procedures, larger banks may offer added benefits such as online services that help save time and money on tax and accounting assistance. These may include sending invoices, collecting payments, payroll and loan applications. Some banks may tie such help to requirements that a business’s employees use direct-deposit channels. But keep in mind that banking is a competitive business, and it rarely takes more than a year for a new product or service to be copied by banks across the country. So trust and being comfortable with a bank can sometimes be more important than a seemingly new product.

Some common small-business banking needs:

Basic Services

- Checking account

- Business savings account

- Credit card

- Deposit-only card

- Discounted employee checking accounts

- Online banking

Lending Services

- Lines of credit

- Term-loans

- Commercial real estate

- Equipment leasing

- SBA loans

 

Read full article on guide.wsj.com

10 Steps to Setting Up a Payroll System

Whether you have one employee or 50, setting up a payroll system not only streamlines your ability to stay on top of your legal and regulatory responsibilities as an employer, but it can also save you time and help protect you from incurring costly Internal Revenue Service (IRS) penalties. Here are 10 steps to help you set up a payroll system for your small business.

1. Obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN).

Before hiring employees, you need to get an employment identification number (EIN) from the IRS. The EIN is often referred to as an Employer Tax ID or as Form SS-4. The EIN is necessary for reporting taxes and other documents to the IRS. In addition, the EIN is necessary when reporting information about your employees to state agencies. You can apply for an EIN online or contact the IRS directly.

2. Check Whether You Need State/Local IDs.

Some state/local governments require businesses to obtain ID numbers in order to process taxes.

3. Independent Contractor or Employee – Know the Difference.

Be clear on the distinction between an independent contractor and an employee. In legal terms, the line between the two is not always clear and it affects how you withhold income taxes, withhold and pay Social Security and Medicare taxes, and pay unemployment taxes.

4. Take Care of Employee Paperwork.

New employees must fill out Federal Income Tax Withholding Form W-4. Your employee must complete the form and return it to you so that you can withhold the correct federal income tax from their pay.

5. Decide on a Pay Period.

You may already have a manual process for this, but setting up a pay-period (whether monthly or bi-monthly) is sometimes determined by state law with most favoring bi-monthly payments. The IRS also requires that you withhold income tax for that time period even if your employee does not work the full period.

6. Carefully Document Your Employee Compensation Terms.

As you set up payroll, you’ll also want to consider how you handle paid time off (not a legal requirement, but offered by most businesses), how you track employee hours, if and how you pay overtime, and other business variables. Don’t forget that other employee compensation and business deductibles such as health plan premiums and retirement contributions will also need to be deducted from employee paychecks and paid to the appropriate organizations.

7. Choosing a Payroll System.

Payroll administration requires an acute attention to detail and accuracy, so it’s worth doing some research to understand your options. Start by asking fellow business owners which method they use and if they have any tips for setting up and administering payroll. Typically, your options for managing payroll include in-house or outsourced options. However, regardless of the option you choose, you — as the employer — are responsible for reporting and paying of all payroll taxes.

8. Running Payroll.

Once you have all your forms and information collated, you can start running payroll. Depending on which payroll system you choose, you’ll either enter it yourself or give the information to your accountant.

 

Read full article on sba.gov

9 Simple and Free Tech Support Tips For Your Office

Bobbi Dangerfield, Dell’s head of customer experience, shares her insight on how small businesses can have an awesome tech experience.

1.    Take advantage of the diagnostic tools available on your employees’ systems and on the internet – for example, Dell provides diagnostics online in the form of Dell PC Diagnostics. If there’s something wrong with your Dell system, you can run this and organize a part dispatch without having to pick up the phone.

2.    If you have employees based in a satellite office or work with freelancers, try using a remote desktop session to fix their software issues instead of sending someone to them. If your organization uses Google Chrome, you can install the Chrome Remote Desktop application from the Chrome Web Store to do exactly that.

3.    Half the battle of trying to fix your employee’s PC is trying to figure out what setup they have. Take the opportunity to make a note of exactly what each employee has (PC model and make, network router model and make, software installed, etc…). Alternatively, you can make life easy for yourself by downloading a system information tool like Speccy to get that information. That way, you can start to compile a list of drivers that you’ll potentially need to fix their issue.

4.    A lot of the issues that workers come across stem from clicking on links from less-than-reputable sites or e-mails. Education on what’s safe and not safe to click on is the key. For example, spam e-mails might appear to come from a colleague but when you hover over the link, the URL doesn’t appear to come from that person at all. Get your employees out of the habit of clicking on every link they see and you’ll save yourself a lot of work and money.

5.    Automate their security regimes to make sure that their systems are as free from viruses and spyware as possible. Set up automated tasks in their operating systems or in their anti-virus and anti-malware tools to run these on a regular basis.

6.    Stress the importance of having a backup to their data and a system image. For example, Dell has Dell Backup & Recovery which can do exactly that. Remember though to make sure that the backup and system image aren’t stored on their computer – the last thing anyone wants is to find out that the backup or system image is unusable due to a faulty hard drive.

7.    It is always better to show how you fixed issues than just to fix it yourself and tell your employees afterwards. Sit down with them and show them step by step how to fix their most common issues – being proactive will save time in the long run.

Read full article by Ramon Ray from SmallBizTechnology.com

7 Things You May Not Know About Payroll Taxes, But Should

Payroll taxes are a fact of life, but that doesn’t mean you know all the facts.

Any time the federal government, a state government and a small business intersects, there are bound to be nuances. And when it comes to payroll taxes, those details matter; tax authorities take very seriously the withholding and remitting of funds from employees’ paychecks.

Here, then, are seven things you may not know about payroll taxes and certainly should.

1. Tax liability in other states.

If a business has employees in multiple states, payroll taxes may get more complex. Different states have their own rules regarding how payroll taxes are handled, as well as different rates in certain areas. “Hiring people to work for you in other states potentially creates unemployment tax liability in those states,” says NFIB member Sam Kerch, resident CPA and director of finance at Symmetry Software in Scottsdale, Arizona. “Check with the states you are dealing with to determine what other taxes you may be subject to.”

2. Timing of bonus checks.

Eager as you may be to hand out bonuses to star employees—wait. The timing of those bonuses could have tax implications. “If a small business owner pays bonuses to his or her employees, the timing of the bonus payments must be lined up with the due date for the payment of the payroll taxes. If these two payments are not lined up, a penalty could inadvertently be triggered,” says NFIB member Chris Roush, CPA, principal at Rea & Associates in New Philadelphia, Ohio.

3. Timing of overtime.

Just as the timing of bonuses can trigger tax havoc, other elements of payroll must be tackled with timing in mind. This includes overtime, says Shauna A. Wekherlien, CPA, owner of Tax Goddess Business Services in Scottsdale. Not every employer issues paychecks weekly. That’s fine, but for payroll-tax purposes, overtime still must be broken down into weekly increments.

4. Paying up withholding on time.

Remitting funds to the IRS on deadline should be obvious. But in this case, it’s not even your money: It’s employee money that you have held back. That makes timeliness doubly serious. “Once monies are withheld from employees’ paychecks and not turned over to the IRS, penalties are severe. It is the most critical mistake many small business owners make. They often fall behind one quarter and attempt to ‘catch-up’ the next quarter. It generally does not work,” says Alan Drucker, a former IRS Special Agent and now principal in Secure Investigations, located in Little Falls, New Jersey.

5. Vetting vendors.

Don’t just assume a vendor is ready for the job. “If you deal with a third-party payroll-processing company, make sure the payroll-processing company is properly bonded for fidelity purposes and that all tax funds advanced to the third-party payroll-processing company are held in a separate trust fund,” says Neal Graham, a CPA with Harris Shelton Hanover Walsh in Memphis, Tennessee. In other words: Make sure that money stays safely out of bounds. “There have been cases where the third-party payroll company commingled the funds received from various small business owner clients and ultimately failed to transfer the small business owners’ payroll taxes to the U.S. Treasury. In those cases, the small business owners still owed the taxes and penalties to the U.S. Treasury and had to seek damages from the third-party payroll-processing company, which may or may not be solvent.”

Read full article on NFIB.com

What to Do When Your Dreams Stall: 5 Steps to Take When You’ve Given Up

I get asked this question almost every time I’m interviewed about my new book Finding Spiritual Whitespace. 

Why is it so hard to rest, if we know it’s good for us?

This is what everyone wonders.

And this is what I say:  it’s easier not to think about rest.

It’s easier to go, go, go.

I t’s easier to say yes, yes yes.

No one gets upset, no one gets disappointed and maybe there seems to be fewer conflicts — at the moment. But, deep inside, the person who pays the price for putting ourselves last is… us.  We somehow erroneously feel if we choose to take care of ourselves, we are rejecting God and our usefulness to Him.

Another reason we avoid the quiet is this:  we don’t know what we’d do with ourselves if we had extra time to just be. It’s such a foreign concept, if we’re used to defining our value by how much we can do – versus how much intimacy we experience with God.

How can we give of ourselves to God and to others, if we don’t even know ourselves? Our God-given dreams hold one of the special keys to our hearts. 

 

Today, I’d like to share an article I wrote for Relevant Magazine: What To Do When Your Dreams Stall:  5 Steps to Take When You’ve Given Up, that became one of top trending published posts that week.

When we make space for quiet and rest, we nurture our God-given dreams — even the ones we’re discouraged to give up.

…..

She told me that I was selfish to try to be a writer.

My mother said other people can afford to go off to become a journalist, but God gave me gifts for a reason. Not so I can do whatever I wanted. Writing was good hobby, but it doesn’t pay the bills or move us out of our low-income housing.

So, I shoved my applications to Boston U and Columbia into the garbage can.

I applied to become a computer science and engineering major and stayed close to home. I never told anyone about my broken dreams because it always felt like I was being ungrateful for the opportunities I was given to get an education.

I let go of my dream of becoming a writer. I lived separated from my heart.

I eventually found healing, but only after I took the painful path to re-awaken the dreams I tried to deny my whole life.

Maybe you too have given up on the dreams you felt called to when you were younger. Maybe you’re discouraged and think it just isn’t meant to be. I had to learn the hard way that God-given dreams are worth pursuing, even when it’s difficult.

Here are a few things to do when your dreams stall.

1. Make space for you. Confide in God. It’s soul wearying to constantly hide your dreams. To deny our desires and the pain of loss. We feel guilty for not moving on and beat ourselves for not being thankful. Instead, Jesus whispers –

“Come to me, all those who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.”   Matthew 11:28

Confide in God about how you really feel. Make space to ask the hard questions. When your soul is free to be real, you can receive the comfort and strength from God to dream again.

2. Feed your soul instead of ignoring it. We often think of the action-figure Jesus but the Bible tells us –

“Jesus would often slip away to the wilderness for prayer.”  Luke 5:16

Jesus took time to rest because nurturing his soul with his Father was more important than what He could do. We need spiritual whitespace to feed our dreams. Whitespace is the space on a page left unmarked in the world of art and design. Without whitespace, a composition goes from being fine art to commercialization.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s poeima – poetry translated as “workmanship” — created in Christ Jesus to do good works.”

Are our lives more like art or cluttered advertisement?

3. Make Rest Your Ambition Rest sounds inactive, doesn’t it? I was surprised to find that rest is one of only three ambitions that God explicitly calls out in the Bible. Rest is as important as preaching the gospel and pleasing God (Rom.15:20, 2 Cor.5:9)

“We urge you, brethren, to excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet (restful) life.” 1 Thess. 4:10–11

Downtime puts us in touch with our passion instead of numbing ourselves by managing our inboxes, Facebook updates, TV or achievement-oriented productivity. Rest rejuvenated our dreams with creativity, deep relationships and adventure.

4. Cast Your Net On The Other Side It’s too late, you tell yourself. You’ve moved on and gained strength by helping others.  But Jesus sees the nets you’ve left. Jesus says –

“Cast the net on the [other] side of the boat and you will find a catch” (John 21:6).

Jesus sees the empty nets.  Put out where it is deeper and let down your nets. It’s not too late. Try something radically different.  Maybe even the opposite direction you’ve been heading.

 

Read full article by Bonnie Gray on Crosswalk.com. Image by Jorn Van Hezik

The bazaar, the oldest newest idea for small businesses

In an FT column today Dave Eggers pines for the days when schools taught metal and woodworking. “It doesn’t all have to be keyboards and screens, does it?” he asks.

It certainly doesn’t.

Many small business in the U.S. are  becoming part of a new wave of small-scale and super premium manufacturing. There’s any number of examples to look at, like the plumbing parts manufacturing in Brooklyn, the artisanal chocolate makers and the distillers in Boston.

There’s also no shortage of stories focusing on Brooklyn’s manufacturing boom. Turns out we are making things with our hands even if schools don’t teach us how anymore.

Of course Brooklyn, with its close proximity to Manhattan and available factory space, can’t be a model for every city that wants to develop a micro-manufacturing center specializing in pickles, bicycles and chocolate.

But there’s an old idea that Eggers touches on that’s taking hold in New York that other cities can and should appropriate. And it’s such an old concept that Brooklyn can’t even take credit for it. It’s the bazaar, as old as market capitalism itself.

In New York City, we’ve seen a few bazaars sprout up in the last few years. Of course here they’re called “fleas” because this has a retro feel to it and sounds cooler than simply calling something a “market.” But make no mistake, these are nothing new. They are just updated variations of the old mall/market/bazaar.

There’s my favorite, the Pop Up Flea, which returned this year bigger than ever and boasting a Microsoft sponsorship. And then there’s the mother of fleas, the Brooklyn Flea, an outdoor flea that seeks shelter in the old Williamsburg Bank building during colder months to attract consumers all year. It’s also grown a spinoff market for food vendors called Smorgasburg. And if there’s doubt about growth potential for these markets, consider one investor the Brooklyn Flea’s founders recently attracted: Goldman Sachs.

Goldman invested $25 million dollars to help the Brooklyn Flea build out a communal cooking space for food startups, as the New York Times reported. That’s not the only food incubator in town either. Somewhat shockingly to Eggers, people have embraced his idea to build a communal market space for small business and manufacturers:

Read full article by John Peabody from blogs.reuters.com. Photo by mehmet avincan

3 Ways Perfectionism is Holding You Back

As a recovering perfectionist, I keep uncovering new ways that this obsession has held me back. Until recently, I would have admitted to being perfectionistic the way someone might confess to being especially pretty: It’s harmless. It’s kind of cute. It’s just the way I am.

But perfectionism is a lot darker than it seems at first glance and not half as cute as I would like to think. It masquerades as a desire for excellence, but with a few important differences. For starters, a real desire for excellence doesn’t stir panic when you miss one point out of a hundred. Excellence acknowledges the beauty in the journey; perfectionism is obsessed with the illusion of an impossible destination.

Perfectionism makes performance the measure, surpassing normal bounds of moral obligation and creating new, extrabiblical rules. Suddenly leaving a carton of milk to spoil on the counter is a moral failing. The empty toilet paper roll is a symbol for all that is wrong with humankind. How do these people sleep at night?

The habits that keep us entrenched in perfectionism take time to overcome, but with intention and awareness, we can learn to live with grace for others – and for ourselves.

 

Problem 1: We stop giving ourselves grace, stifling our unique growth and dishonoring God’s design.

Solution: Acknowledge that both your strengths and weaknesses are part of you. Instead of competing with the status quo, focus on becoming a better version of yourself.

As a kid in the church, I knew that I was supposed to extend grace to others when they did wrong things, but the idea of having grace for myself seemed outlandish. Am I not supposed to be my biggest critic? Shouldn’t I take the plank out of my own eye before worrying about anyone else’s specks? Who’s going to tell me I’m terrible if not my own inner dialogue?

One problem with focusing so intensely on your own flaws is that you stop seeing past them to your strengths – the ones you worked on and the ones the Lord saw fit to let you be born with. You dishonor not only your own accomplishments but the artistry of your Creator. I would have been so ashamed – and friendless – if I ever had directed one half of one percent of my bullying self-talk to other people.

Often when we demand some version of “perfection” from ourselves, we automatically subscribe to the definitions of perfection set for us by our culture – expectations made with the priorities of the majority, and not our individual gifts and obligations, in mind. These are hard to purge, and they sneak in without our realizing it. We can claim to others – and even convince ourselves – that we only want to be the best version of ourselves, but if the best version of ourselves suddenly equals thin and pretty (for women) or capable and tough (for men), we have to consider the looming possibility that we might be fooling ourselves.

Recruit some tough self-love and ask yourself the hard questions: Will I still feel okay if the best version of me contradicts the standards of my family or culture? Get specific. What if the best version of me writes folk music instead of symphonies, never makes the Dean’s List, never gets promoted, or still gets passed by elderly runners wearing funny costumes in a 5k, no matter how hard I train?

(Not that, ahem, I can relate or anything.)

We’ll all have our own customized versions of this. That’s the point.

 

Problem 2: Our perfectionistic insecurities hinder our relationships with others.

Solution: Kick the comparison game for good, and cherish the unique ways that your friends are making their own mark on the world.

While a mature, gracious desire for excellence celebrates individual accomplishments, perfectionism whips out a measuring stick. Deciding that no celebration is in order until we beat everyone else, perfectionism places us constantly in the fluctuating position of being either one up or one down.

If the standards you’ve created are based on being better than everyone else, feeling good about everyone else’s successes gets tricky. Their success jeopardizes your status, and if your jealously guarded status means anything to you, you’ve got two options: put your friends down or hustle harder to get better than them again.

Your third and last status-based option is to decide that if you can’t be first place you might as well not play the game. You can stop contributing.

If none of these sounds appealing, you can let real life pry out of your stubborn, little fingers the impossible dream of being the best all the time and just contribute. You can stop checking your progress against anyone else’s, and the only person you can worry about beating is who you were yesterday.

I believe in testimonies, accountability, and healthy competition, but when the comparison game leaves your own value as a person in the balance, it’s time to kick your performance-based worries to the curb and embrace healthy, stable self-esteem. Only when you stop obsessing about your status can you be free to share your real, raw self in safe relationships.

We’re all imperfect. And people already know it. Any investment in some false projection of ourselves only holds us back from letting our real selves be seen and known – and truly loved.

 

Problem 3: We can’t stand to do anything badly, so we don’t do anything.

Solution: Get over it, even if you don’t feel over it, and just do it.

Land that high dive on your face. It’ll feel awful, but it’ll be good for you.

When it comes to most decisions in my life, I’m like a little kid waffling on the edge of a pool. I stall painfully for time – calculating the depth of the pool, taking the temperature with my toes, reapplying sunscreen for an hour and stopping for a corndog – only to squeeze my eyes shut and take a running, ugly leap into the water, screaming like Tarzan.

It’s quite freeing.

Nothing runs us right into our fear of failure quite like taking a chance we don’t feel ready for. It’s exactly the reason why I’ve spent much of my life keeping risks at the minimum level required for human functioning. I was determined that I wouldn’t learn my lessons the hard way. It’s done a lot of good things: for instance, it’s kept me focused enough to get through school and helped me sort through my doubts before I’ve made serious decisions.

But by not wanting to learn anything the hard way, I learned this the hard way: You can either take a chance on doing things, or you can take a chance on not doing things. There is no other option.

My obsession with doing my best all the time has terrified me and held me back from doing good things – pursuing jobs I won’t be good at right away, entering a 10k, writing letters to a friend in grief – and, consequently, made me a less adventurous and helpful person.

When my fear of failure outweighs the real consequences of my not acting, when “I can do better” becomes “I can’t stand to fail,” I know I’m in dangerous territory. Perfectionism is, at its core, a fear of being flawed, of being found out, and when I get there, my creativity is shot and my stress levels are through the roof, whether I’ve confessed that to myself or not.

I know now that the only cure is grace, friends, and something completely embarrassing, like signing myself up for a something I’m terrible at – a class, a sport, a race – or brewing an unwholesomely large pot of coffee and sitting up all night writing something utterly unpublishable.

Find your (safe, moral) risk and take it. Your growth, and your willingness to let your real self be seen, known, and a little embarrassed, will be worth it.

 

Read full article by Emily Maust Wood on Crosswalk.com

How God Reveals His Will

Article from InTouch.org

The Father always wants the best for His children. So when we begin to wander from the center of His will, He acts to recapture our attention and protect us from harm. If necessary, God will move heaven and earth to show us His will (Life Principle #10). He speaks directly to our hearts through the Holy Spirit,but also has other ways to get our attention:

1. A restless spirit

Read Esther 6:1-10. How did God direct the king to honor Mordecai?

If you experience inner restlessness—connected to dissatisfaction with the status quo—first make sure you aren’t ignoring an area of sin. Then ask the Lord if He’s trying to say something to you.

Think about the last time you experienced a major life change—for instance, changing jobs, moving to a new area of Christian service, or entering a season of rest. Did God speak to you through restlessness?

 

2. A spoken word

God also gets our attention through the wisdom of others.

From what two sources did Eli learn that his sons would die (1 Sam. 2:22-36; 3:1-18)? Why were they cut down in the prime of life?

If several people in a short span of time tell you the same thing, ask the Lord if He’s speaking through them. For example, sometimes a message at church, a radio sermon, and a friend’s advice will be similar.

Why do you think God often gives the same message in multiple ways?

What has He been saying to you lately?

 

3. An unusual blessing

To get our attention, God may show His favor in unexpected ways.

What prompted one Roman jailer to ask how he could be saved (Acts 16:16-34)?

The jailer recognized that supernatural power was at work, and his experience prepared him to become a follower of Christ. God can also use things such as financial provision, the beauty of nature, or the birth of a child to awaken people spiritually.

What types of blessings renew your desire to seek the Lord wholeheartedly?

 

4. Unanswered prayer

Sometimes God will answer a prayer with “No.” He may want to deal with sin or misplaced priorities. Or He may have something more important in store for us.

What did the Lord eventually reveal to Paul about why God did not remove his “thorn” (2 Cor. 12:9-10)?

Think of an unanswered prayer from your life—either one that was eventually fulfilled or one that remains unanswered. What has the Father done in you as a result?

 

5. Disappointment

When the nation of Israel refused God’s command to take possession of the Promised Land, they were judged for unbelief. Through disappointment, the Lord got their attention.

How were they punished for failing to trust God (Num. 14:27-32)?

Describe the people’s reaction when they heard what their punishment would be (Num. 14:39-40).

In a similar way, God may use setbacks to keep us from charting our own course.

Give an example of how the Father has used a disappointment to draw you closer to Himself.

 

6. Extraordinary circumstances

The Creator can use unusual phenomena to get our attention.

To attract Moses, God used a burning bush that was not consumed by fire (Ex. 3:1-22). Based on the future leader’s reaction to the Lord’s command, why do you think God chose to get his attention this way instead of simply speaking to him (Ex. 4:1-16)?

 

Read full article on InTouch.org