Day: July 8, 2014

Ditch the Desk and Start Your Small Business Now

    Finance Tips

Building business credit

Maybe you’ve spent your whole life sitting behind a desk at work. Maybe you’re tired of your boss who seems to be Satan in the flesh who verbally abuses you and belittles you at every turn. Or maybe you’re just sick of the regular nine to five that has dictated the way you’ve lived your life for the last thirty years. And all you ever wanted was to open up a little specialty store selling clothes and accessories for small dogs and cats. Now is the time to do it. You can leave that desk, bad chair, and impending carpal tunnel syndrome behind and finally open your own business. One of the most important steps is finding the start up loans for small businesses available to you.
The economic climate of the last few years hasn’t necessarily been very welcoming to new businesses, especially businesses that are small and privately owned, but these days they are in better shape than they were before. Small businesses even make up the bulk of the businesses in America today — a surprising 90% of them. These small businesses are also responsible for more than half of the country’s sales. You and your small business can get a piece of that retail pie. All you have to do is find the small business funding you need, which is easier than it has been in the past. Small business funding may seem hard to come by, but this isn’t the case. New business funding increased almost two billion dollars in a single year, so you should start exploring the small business funding options out there. Become your own boss. Open that small pet apparel store. Now is the time to do it. Find out more here.

One Business, Two Countries — How Businesses Operating Under Two Systems Struggle With Payroll

    Finance Tips

Processing payroll

For business owners that operate a business in both the U.S. and Canada, navigating the payroll processing systems in both countries is tricky enough. But this can become even more complicated as other HR and employee management issues start appearing; for small businesses especially, even the smallest paperwork mistakes can be extremely costly.

Many business owners don’t think about the other HR issues surrounding payroll processing, and what first seemed to be a simple task can quickly become an impossible mountain to scale. A recent article published by newswire.ca discusses the new guidelines released by the Canadian Human Rights Commission — guidelines that specifically focus on health issues for Canadian employees. This guide discussed notable statistics, including that the average number of work days taken off for personal reasons was approximately 9.1 in 2010, and that disability accounts for anywhere between 4% to 12% of Canadian payroll costs.

Why Do Business Owners Need to Pay Attention to These Statistics?

For businesses that are based in the U.S. but employ Canadian citizens, it is imperative that corporate management understands restrictions and regulations imposed by Canadian legislation for employing Canadian workers. Knowing how HR regulations differ in both countries, and also how American payroll regulations differ from Canadian payroll regulations, are two imperative parts of running a business between the two countries.

Keeping track of all these differences can quickly become a full-time job, and take time and energy away from managers and owners who should be focusing on the primary core of their business. Many businesses — especially small and independent businesses — find that an easy solution is to outsource payroll tasks to a company that specifically provides payroll services. These companies can be invaluable for business owners because they not only take care of the entire payroll processing task, but they also often provide HR guidance and help owners navigate sensitive employment tasks, such as changes in employee healthcare requirements.

So when should a business owner think about outsourcing payroll? Somewhere around the time when he or she begins spending more time working on employee payroll and not having enough time and energy to focus on the core of the business. Learn more.