Hiring & Labor
From W-2’s to W9’s and what you need to know when hiring those who will support your business.

3 Things Every Boss Should Find in a Prospective Employee
Good help is hard to find. It can be an overwhelming task to hire new staff for your company — and it’s even worse when new employees don't keep their promises. We’ll be real: Nobody knows the kind of employee you need better than you do, but three key factors must be...

Why You Should Outsource Your Payroll
Compliance is a huge issue when it comes to setting up a business payroll. Over 75% of all revenue collected by the IRS comes directly from payroll — and while you’d hope the government would maintain consistent regulations, it hasn’t. Governments are imposing MORE,...

4 Reasons an Ex-Employee Might Sue
You have very few “correct” ways to terminate an employee’s tenure at your company and many, many incorrect ways of doing it. If you want to avoid lawsuits after letting an employee go, here are a few key mistakes to avoid. 1: You don’t give a reason for firing. Just...

3 Tips for Communicating a Pay Raise
Even if the pandemic has forced you to cut down on staff, there’s a chance you have a few employees you’d like to reward if your revenue has been improving this year. Communicating a pay raise can be extremely exciting, but, believe it or not, it can go wrong! Here...

Do You Have a Healthy Employee Retention Rate?
Life is not static. It’s completely natural for every business to have employees who come and go. However, it’s best when those transitions are as peaceful as possible and they don’t involve your best performers. How can you determine whether you have a healthy...

Surprising Ways a High Employee Retention Rate Can Save You Money
If you have employees constantly coming and going, your business is probably not optimized to keep your employees long term. It can entirely depend on your business model, but there are many reasons you should keep your employees for as long as possible. First, you’ll...

Try This Trending Remote Game to Show Employee Appreciation During the Holidays
I know we’re only in September, but, knowing my fellow entrepreneurs, you’re probably already looking to the near future: the holidays. While you might be canceling the office holiday party this year, that shouldn’t discourage you from having a major company...

3 Killer Tips to Help Boost Your Online Job Posting and Find Qualified Candidates
Candidates in 2020 rarely find out about your job posting through a paper posted on the window. Nowadays, you have to make sure your online job posting isn’t only that informational paper on the wall but also a representation of your whole company culture, staff, and...

Why Your Business May Not Be as Deaf-Friendly as You Think
People all have different needs and wants, so to provide incredible customer service, you must have the right preparation. If you have deaf employees or deaf clients, ask yourself this: Is your business really equipped to take care of them? What adjustments do you...

Creative ‘Office’ Perks and Benefits You Can Give Remote Workers
The COVID-19 pandemic has made a hybrid of remote and at-location workers the new normal. This can put unique stresses on your work culture. How do you make everyone feel included and connected despite the gaps created by distance? How do you make your company feel...

Prevent Company Burnout — What You Should Look for in New Remote Hires
If you’ve been understaffed in the recent months following the lockdowns, you might be already thinking about what you can do to prevent company burn out. The answer may be hiring more help, even though that help may have to be remote. You already know that remote...

Boosting Company Morale During COVID-19
At the moment, being a company leader can be extremely anxiety-inducing since anything you say sets a tone for the entire company. You want to be positive while also providing an authentic message to your staff. With the following strategies, you'll be able to boost...

Managing Reopening During COVID-19
Right now, companies are exploring their options for reopening. For some, even with all the government assistance, their success and their staff's livelihoods depend on it. At the same time, their staff's safety is a concern since they can't afford to lose employees....

Find the Right Employees During Quarantine
If you’re an essential business or you focus on eCommerce, you might still be scaling your company during this pandemic. If you’re still seeing a spike in growth, you need the right staff behind you, ensuring you continue building your customer base. Right now, there...

What You Need to Know About the Employer Landscape
COVID-19 is changing the business landscape as we know it. And while it will likely revert back to how it was eventually, for the time being you need to be ready for anything the market will throw at you. This includes possible changes in customer needs, new...

Ways to Reduce the Pain of Layoffs
Nobody looks forward to delivering the news that one of their employees is getting let go. Still, presiding over layoffs is a part of leadership, and what you say, or don’t say, when you lay someone off can have an impact on the future of your company. Treating your...

Why Your Business Needs an Applicant Tracking System
Every hiring manager has been there: Your inbox is overflowing, and you’re working overtime to excavate the few qualified applicants from the rush of unqualified applications. Or, maybe you’ve been in the converse situation: You post a job, but the response is radio...

What Does the Secure Act Mean to Small Business Owners?
According to the Government Accountability Office, up to 30% of American workers work part time. With the rise of the gig economy, there are more and more part time workers every single year, and if your business employs them, the SECURE Act that passed into law this...

How to Talk to Your Employees About Rising Health Costs
No employer looks forward to telling their employees about an increase in health insurance costs, but in our current climate, the reality is that most employers are going to have to navigate that conversation sooner or later. When it’s your turn to communicate with...

Power Up Your Job Descriptions to Attract the Right People
Creating just the right job description is tough, but it’s an essential part of attracting and retaining the right employees. According to Recruiterbox.com, the sweet spot for length is somewhere between 700–2,000 words. For context, that is between two-and-a-half and...

Effective Employee Training
Professional development is essential to the growth and strength of your business, but putting together effective training can be difficult. Here are a few things to keep at the front of your mind as you develop your next training. Engage Different Learning Styles...

A Guide to Gig Worker Retainment
Gig Workers — or freelancers, whatever you prefer to call them — have woven their way deep into the fabric of modern businesses. Freelancers help bridge gaps during periods of staff shortage, and they bring specialized — and often expensive — skill sets to the table....

An Overworked Staff is an Underperforming Staff
According to the BBC, employees who use all of their leave are 6.5% more likely to get promoted or get a raise than employees who retain eleven or more annual leave days. Having a well-staffed company that can cope with a brief absence is one of the key ways employers...

Balancing Work & Your Personal Life
Working on career goals and maintaining a balanced personal life is no easy task. More often than not, when you’re excelling in one area, the other suffers. But this doesn’t have to be the case. There are a few simple tricks you can utilize to improve your...

Tax Season and Your Employees
At the beginning of every year, there are two critical numbers in tax-law provisions that are adjusted for inflation. The IRS and Social Security Administration usually release these figures in October. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this, these figures have...

Top Cost-Cutting Measures
As we approach a new year, companies are looking for new ways to save money and properly budget. As a small business, it can be difficult to save money and grow at the same time. There are, however, some unique things you can implement to trim your operating budget....

The Basics of Intraoffice Conflict Management
Conflict can arise anywhere at any time, regardless of how well team members work with each other. Failure to address conflict efficiently can lead to high turnover rates, which can cost anywhere from 16%–216% of the salary of the individual as noted in our last...

Does Employee Turnover Keep You Up at Night?
Employee turnover rates can have a substantial effect on the lifeblood of the business. It is estimated turnovers can cost anywhere from 16% to 216% percent of the employee's salary. Another study found that 25% of all new hires quit within a year. There are many...

The Benefits of Healthy Employees
There are a plethora of benefits associated with having your employees in good health. Investing in perks like gym or health memberships can have notable upfront costs. However, there are also benefits that will make a substantial impact on your business performance....

Is Hiring Student Workers Worth It?
When hiring student employees, you need to consider several factors. While doing so can be beneficial for you and the students you hire, there can be some downsides you need to prepare for. Here are just a few of the pros and cons associated with hiring students for...

Hiring Via Social Media
Finding quality employees can be frustrating at times, and social media can make the whole process even more confusing. Running a small business is already very stressful. By using these strategies in your hiring process, you can eliminate another potential source of...

Make Hiring Count
When on the search for employees, the amount of time and money you put into an individual can really add up, so you need to make it count. Unfortunately, it really is a candidate's market right now, so you need to be aware of the current employment trends that will...

Preventing High Turnover Rates
Hiring is one of the most crucial and tricky parts of any successful business venture. That’s why, ideally, it should be avoided as much as possible! Employee turnover is a huge strain on your business, so finding ways to increase employee retention is crucial. With...

One Tool for Your Hiring Arsenal
Hiring is never easy. Your business has specific needs and you want to find the perfect candidate to fit those needs. But finding that candidate means you often have to wade through dozens of other applicants first. A lot of businesses end up settling on the...

The Pros and Cons of Job Search Sites
For those of you on the job hunt, it may be time to rethink your outreach methods. With today’s myriad of job recruitment services, there is a virtually endless stream of ways to find work. From message boards to resume searching sites to job search engines and...

How to Find the Perfect Hire
Hiring new employees is vital if you want your company to succeed. We have mentioned in the past that employees are the fuel that keeps your company going, therefore it is important to find the right candidate who is capable of doing the job in the most efficient way....

The Subtle Difference Between Entrepreneurship and Labor
The nuances in the business jargon we use every day gets lost in translation sometimes. This is especially true when it comes to the actual difference between labor and entrepreneurship. Believe it or not, these two components are very different in practice. Simply...

Working With a Team of Entrepreneurs
So many people who decide to start a business overlook the importance of having a team of entrepreneurs on board with you. It is necessary to remember that one person by themselves cannot achieve all the goals they set for their business, so getting a little bit of...

Investing in the Right Employees
Unemployment in America has been at historic lows recently. As such, the optimism driving small businesses seems to be at an all-time high. As those numbers soar, so also is the demand fo small business loans, with entrepreneurs around the nation reaping the benefits....

The Importance of Company Culture
The concept of making workplaces more than a monotonous drudgery of paperwork and deadlines seems to be a fairly new idea. Workplace etiquette and ideology in the United States has changed so much — thanks to countless laws and reforms by workers unions — the...

The Right Way to Say Goodbye
Getting fired is a horrible experience, but it doesn’t have to be. Losing a job is hard on an employee, and terminating an employee can create a whole mess of grief for the company as well. This is especially hard for any small-business owner heading up a tight-knit...

Hiring a Team as an Entrepreneur
If you are an entrepreneur committed to your business, you can see how you are growing in different ways every day. But there will come a time when you are no longer able to handle everything on your own. That is the moment when you need to start thinking about hiring...

A Simple Guide to Hiring Smarter
For many entrepreneurs and first time small-business owners, the hiring process may seem like learning a foreign language. You started this project by yourself or with a small team, now you’ve grown it to the point where expansion isn’t just an option — it’s...

Higher Quality Hiring
What to Keep in Mind When Bringing on Employees Very, very seldom are successful businesses run by one person. It’s just not practical. While many of the companies you admire — or even your own business — started in garages or spare bedrooms or on rundown personal...

Entrepreneurial Coaching Masters
Why Having a Coach in Your Corner Gives you the Upper Hand The road the entrepreneur walks can be a lonely one, especially when you’re just starting out. As with anything that requires you to stick your neck out to follow a dream, it can often be confusing, especially...

7 Ways To Reward Your Employees
It’s November, which means it’s the month of giving thanks! When you run a business, so much of its success is owed to your team of employees. But writing a check to show appreciation for all your employees can be impersonal and financially irresponsible. Here are...

Going Big – Scaring Business Owners Out of Success
When a good family friend considered expanding his business out of Scottsdale, Arizona to Mesa, Arizona, he imagined his clientele expanding and his money growing. Unfortunately, his investment in office space in Mesa ended up failing - he was unable to attract...

Getting Family Involved In Your Business
Entrepreneurship can be a tricky business (pun intended), especially when you’re trying to balance work and your family life. Many entrepreneurs lean on their families as a lifeline - family members fill positions in the company and even provide short-term...

5 Ways To Plan Ahead In Business
When you make the choice to be your own boss, it can come with an overwhelming to-do list. With everything that needs to get done on a daily basis, how can you possibly stay on top of everything? One of the biggest mishaps new business owners run into is...

Entrepreneurs Now Outnumber Full-time Employees In U.S.
Entrepreneurs in the U.S. are a force to be reckoned with. The spirit of entrepreneurship has always been the backbone of America, and now we’ve got numbers to prove it. In 2014, the IRS reported that over 91,102,788 individuals receive non-employee...

5 Ways Hiring Students Benefit Your Company
I can’t tell you how frustrating it was my senior year of my undergraduate and everywhere I looked, companies were looking for someone with 5-7 years of professional experience. It felt like there was no middle ground between entry-level jobs for high...

How To: Interview Students
Students often face a struggle getting a job in their field of study, especially when their experience is limited. So when you’re trying to interview someone with limited experience, how do you gauge what kind of candidate they might be? Asking the right...

The 4 Levels of Listening: Why Every Good Entrepreneur Should Talk Less
My father has a string of aphorisms he’s been saying for years that still resonate with what’s going on today. One of my favorites is this: “We have two ears and one mouth, so we should spend twice as much time listening as we do talking.” This seems...
5 Things You Should Never Expect From Experts
Image credit: Thomas Barwick | Getty Images Reader Resource Apply now to be an Entrepreneur 360™ company. Let us tell the world your success story. Get Started » Domain experts have typically spent countless hours building their expertise, content, an audience and...
Why More Sales Leaders Are Focusing on Sales Coaching
Image credit: Shutterstock.com Reader Resource Apply now to be an Entrepreneur 360™ company. Let us tell the world your success story. Get Started » The American job market is tighter than it’s been in years, and the sales industry is no exception. Great sales reps...
This Is Why You’re Not a Best-in-Class Company for Retaining Great Employees
Image credit: Shutterstock.com Reader Resource Apply now to be an Entrepreneur 360™ company. Let us tell the world your success story. Get Started » Best-in-class companies know what it takes to attract and retain quality employees. While they make many attempts, most...

Fair Labor Standards Act and Regulations
The United Sates Department of Labor (DOL) provides great resources for understanding “fair labor standards”. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Advisor provides employers and employees with the information they need to understand Federal minimum wage, overtime,...

AFEUSA Supports Waste Reduction Efforts That Create Jobs and Increase Profits
In the 1960’s, the average person produced under 2 pounds of waste per day. Today, that number has skyrocketed and the average American produces close to 5 pounds of waste per day. Currently, Americans only recycle or compost about 30% of the waste materials that they...

Minimum Wage Increase Activates AFEUSA to Advocate for Arizona Members
Increasing minimum wage in Arizona sounds like an easy decision. Increasing take-home pay for people across the state sounds as if it would improve quality of life for millions of people. However, that’s only half of the picture. With 6.6% of Arizonans employed in the...

AFEUSA Advocates for Balancing Small Business Needs with Minimum Wage Increases in Colorado
Colorado’s minimum wage for tipped employees would increase by 70% by 2020. Restaurants already operate on slim profit margins and any increase in payroll expenses could mean that small business have to be extremely conservative with what little resources they have to...

California Entrepreneurs Impacted by Minimum Wage Increase
Increasing minimum wage has been a hot topic as of late. Shouldn’t employees be able to make a livable wage? It seems like the answer would be simple, but there’s a little more to think about than just whether or not people should make more money. What does increasing...

AFE USA Tells Officials How Overtime Rules Impact Entrepreneurship
Paying salary exempt employees allows entrepreneurs to pay for the exact number of hours required to get a job done at a competitive rate. Proposed changes to overtime regulations would require that entrepreneurs change the salary structure of their business by...
Federal Court Upholds Employers’ Right to Seek Legal Counsel in Labor Disputes
A U.S. District Court in Texas blocked a DOL rule requiring small business owners to disclose any communication with legal counsel in preparation for union elections. Source: NFIB