Dashboard: A Social Media Strategy for Business Owners

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard every Monday Gene marks and I talk about the issues we think business owners should be following welcome Jean hey Lauren happy Monday happy to be here with you Jean um Jean we uh we highlighted a story uh this past week that I've been really eager to talk to you about it's about a small business owner in the UK who kind of claims to have cracked the code on Tik Tok um I guess first question before I tell you what this owner did um are you and your clients taking Tik Tok seriously yet have we reached that point um first of all it depends on the on the clients I mean remember my clients are mostly small and midsize family-owned B2B businesses um I don't really deal with a lot of uh you know Freelancers influencers you know people that are you know entertainers that's they usually not part of my client base so I don't see a lot of it among them although I will say I'm not on Tic Tac I I'm I talk I'm personally on you're not on Tic Tac either Tic Tac yeah right you use a Tic Tac you I've been talking a lot today um but I'm on Instagram just so you know uh where I I don't post anything but I follow a number of highly inappropriate accounts that were reced by my by my two sons that make me laugh out loud and some of the Tik Tok stuff you know lands on Instagram so right right like the thing I liked about this story is that it kind of suggests that we're moving past the things that we kind of know Tik Tok for and to a place where maybe not for your B2B clients but for a lot of other businesses it might be something worth paying attention to and this is a small business uh a woman who just followed Tik Tok for a long time trying to figure out what worked and what didn't and came to the conclusion that like a a one minute video telling the story of her own business might connect and uh she saw lots of others do that so she did it she kind of told the story of her business just the way she would if she were talking to a friend and the thing went viral her her business is uh selling um kind of a a holder for wine bottles to to keep them cool when you take them on picnics uh that kind of thing it's a very small business but the uh the viral video made a huge difference and I guess two things one I thought it's noteworthy about Tik Tok but also just the the social media message of sharing your own story and being the face of your own business what what do you think of that I mean I I think it's great I you know I think this story is did you even see how many hits it got on Tik Tok how many views I I did I don't remember um it it you know it it multiplied the amount of sales she had dramatically but from a very small base you know my opinion I think it's a one in a million story I really do I I don't think it's easy to do um I think that it's a um and you know any social media person that that I've talked to if you want to succeed on a platform it takes a long long time of of investment of time and you know money and time on your behalf and uh coming up with contents and you know to build followers over a while that's the whole thing um you this one you're right she she managed to do it without doing that work and I think you're right that's unusual she got lucky I mean you know and it's you if you're on social media long enough sometimes you know you post something and just just by luck somebody with a big following stumbles on it and then they share it and then suddenly like wow there's a lot of people like looking at that video and that's great but you know it's kind of like you know just because you build it doesn't mean they'll come and you can create a great video on Tik Tok um but that doesn't necessarily mean that that's um you know it's a one in a million shot that you're going to have the kind of success that that she had I tell you what I am talking to to my clients about and and other business owners when it comes to Tik Tok and Instagram is um is advertising on it for employees I mean it is a you you go to where the audience is and I just want to be clear for you I'm on Instagram like I said remember I follow all those inappropriate accounts remember do get a lot of I get a I'm happy to share some of them with you right now Lauren but maybe after we wrap this up FCC I'll take your license away uh but no it is um um both on Tik Tok and Instagram if you know on Instagram where I'm at I see a lot of brands that advertise for employees um and you know Tik Tok has a billion users the demographic is younger it's generally under 25 I think it's like 14 years old to 25 years old but if that's demographic you're looking for um I mean you asked like how can you leverage Tik Tok do we think it's a Trend I don't think it's I don't think you're going to make any viral videos anytime soon but I do think you can use that platform to create you know an interesting little enticing employment uh ad and attract people to your business uh great Point next story uh you and I have to uh talked quite a bit about the vaccine mandate it's finally come down we knew it was coming since I think September but the rules are out now and I'm curious uh do you have any reaction both for uh the businesses that it hits directly those with 100 or more employees are or also whether you think it'll have any impact on businesses with fewer than 100 employees so will you know right now the Department of Labor has left the door open that they might expand these rules to smaller businesses those with less than 100 employees so don't think if you're running a small business you're you're off the hook um you might very well not be off the hook for this for this thing so that's number one number two is uh we've talked about the Mandate before so it's you we don't have to go back into it but um the companies that I'm talking about with that I talk to with more than 100 employees are scrambling to figure out what to do they're grumbling about it they're not happy and they don't want to lose any employees because if you if if you don't comply you could be facing a fine of up to $14,000 per violation so that can really add up uh so you know you giving these clients the advice that you gave on this show a few weeks back to shut up and just do what you're supposed to do yeah I mean I I'm telling them to do that I actually am telling a lot lot of them to shut up do what you're supposed to do but if you want to do it a little slowly you can do it a little slowly because there's going to be a lot of lawsuits about this which may push this thing you know who knows you know and again uh I heard that cases are spiking in Europe so for all I know if this becomes a bigger issue um well there is concern especially after Thanksgiving and the holidays you there's all that going on so yay but I I a couple workarounds that I can I can tell you legal workarounds just I'm just telling you what's going on in the field you Lauren okay some some you business owners I talked to they have more than 100 employees uh they know that there's a few of their employees that are not going to comply and the business owners one don't want to fight them and number two they don't want to lose them in this area of you know trying to find good employees so what are they doing well number one is the regulations don't or the rules don't apply to remote workers so if you've got somebody that's an employee and they they just don't want to you know you know do this um you can temporarily move out your office say okay well then just work from home you know and we'll work that out with you and that's just that's one option if that's by the way we should point out here uh we we I keep calling it a mandate and that's what everybody seems to be calling it but it's technically not really a mandate you have a choice you don't have to get vaccinated you can get tested every week yeah you can get tested every week so you know it's not that you know but it is a mandated to the sense that you've got to do one of those two things right you know so correct so you can send people home to work remotely the other thing which is an intriguing idea that I'm I'm going to be talking about with a few clients next week is um for those employees say an employee can't you know uh you know can't work from home or or doesn't want to or whatever there is the option of converting them to an independent contractor now the rules for independent contractors have to be complied with which means that you you know you they might not be able to work all the same hours or they might not be able to uh you know you have to have certain controls over what they do but there is a scenario there might be a scenario where you say okay I'll tell you what for the foreseeable future we're going to take you off a payroll you're no longer an employee you're an independent contractor we might have to cut your hours or move things around or do whatever uh we might have to you know make sure you're still compensated so you can afford to carry on COBRA for your health insurance for example you know um there's some hoops that you would have to go through could this employee that you turn into a contractor still come into the office and work so yeah independent contractors come into the you know come into businesses you know all the time now can they they can't work 40 hours a week and you know among other things that you have to direct them you know you can't direct them what to do there's there's rules about independent Contracting you know what I mean yes but it is a potential I mean listen where you know you've got employers that are trying to serve you know the the government's roles while also trying to keep their employees you know and they don't want to pay these big fines and they don't want to fire people so maybe there's something to do with independent Contracting as well that's a conversation you want to have with your accountant um and and you can go through the rules themselves and who knows maybe you can come up with a solution that way I I know the results have varied around the country there have been quite a few places including the uh New York City Police Department where in the end most employees have complied and gotten the vaccination is that yeah and then I see studies that say up to 70% of employees will refuse to comply you know I haven't seen that yeah some crazy number like that you know which that sounds like really you know pretty high I think they took that entire report in like some County in Alabama you know what I mean that's probably where that came from but it listen I mean you the key is by the way one final option I just want to you know also want throw there you pay the fine I mean if you've got a really good employee uh it's a cost of doing business and you're like I don't want to lose this person it's 14 Grand but this guy's yeah it's per incident well per violation so you have that employee that's violating um and that's a good question does that mean like what every week that it goes by he doesn't get a test you have to pay 14 Grand or is it just that employee is not you these are the questions that are kind of gray right now do you know what I mean y um but if it's affordable to pay the fine itself maybe you say to yourself all right well that sucks but you know this guy's generating profits for me and I don't want to lose them and that's another potential option as well when you said uh mentioned contractors I thought you were going to suggest that an employer with around a 100 employees put some of them on a contract basis and get under a 100 yep also you I'm sure somebody's doing that yep that could that could also be you know the the way that you work around that as well or um you know and then again there's also you see the other problem with the Mandate we call it the Mandate but the rules themselves still need some more you know they've opened up more questions about how you define an employee so can you put people on part-time do they still count as an employee um you know so there I guess there's ways to wiggle around this you know and I'm not saying should if you know I I don't know I I think people should get vaccinated but people have reasons for not and I respect that um and I respect business owners are trying to make a freaking profit so you know they want to keep their employees around and trying to figure out a solution that works next Story another topic that business owners love and always look forward to it's health insurance season yay gen you wrote about this recently for the Philadelphia Inquirer um do you have some good news for us when it comes to health insurance any opportunities to point business owners toward yeah I mean listen there there's I wrote about it because I said the you the exchange is the the enrollment period uh just opened up now on November 1st so it opened up last week and it is uh we will last until January depending on you're talking about the Obamacare uh correct the Obamacare exchanges so um you know you might want to give us some thoughts so first of all if you are an employer and if you don't employ uh don't have a health insurance plan or if you you um are self-employed or a freelancer you should definitely be not only revisiting the Obamacare exchange because there's a lot of generous you know tax credits available but also you know to do your part for your employees at the very least maybe you can help them get insurance on the Obamacare exchanges so I know a lot of small employers that aren't offering plans are still providing assistance you know just you know consultative assistance to their to their employees to help them get health insurance cuz you don't want to lose them to somebody else that's offering a health insurance plan so there's one um number two is there's you know there's suggestions where employers can move employees off of their health plan and have them go to Medicaid so you know if an employee you know qualifies for Medicaid uh because of their income level um then you can you know take them off your health insurance plans and help them get on Medicaid and it might be you know just as good coverage for a lower cost both for the employee and for you um and then the third one which is the biggest one are hras which are reimbursement accounts Lauren and those were you know those hras are they they were kind of verboten originally under the Affordable Care Act and then president Trump you know issued an executive order you know you basically allowing them and and President Biden well of all the executive orders that he overturned from from president Trump this is the one that he let stand you know stand because they're pretty popular and in HRA is one it's becoming popular among a lot of my clients because it gets you out of the healthcare business you basically set up an h a health reimbursement account for your employee you contribute money pre-tax so they don't get taxed on it as income and you get a deduction and then they could take the money and buy their own health insurance wherever the hell they want to buy it they can go to the exchanges they can go to uh their health insurance broker they can do whatever the heck they want to do and you're not involved anymore you know you're not negotiating which actually is what I have always thought should have been the goal with Obamacare and every other initiative with health insurance it makes no sense for to be employer based and except for the fact that a lot of people are happy with it and don't like change and they want to stick with what they've got what they know but it's crazy that business owners have to deal with it it is crazy I remember when my wife moved over from England she was like what the heck you know is my in my health you know what I mean so um I'm actually and that's a topic for another day but I I am actually in favor of of national health for this company for this country I don't know if we'll ever get there I think that National Health will sign significantly benefit business owners it would remove an enormous headache and cost from me and um I've written about it before and I'm more than happy to take people on to debate that but I do think I think it could be a great thing for small businesses it'll never happen though but I think it would I mean the Affordable Care Act was a step in that direction it um and business owners didn't fully embrace it although some did um yeah but yeah we'll leave that for another day as you say uh last question Jean um are you happy well you're referring to uh there was a great report in the Wall Street Journal this week um there was a professor at King's College um in London who accumulated like a hundred separate studies that have been done in the past about entrepreneurship and and and happiness um with the question is like are entrepreneurs more happy than everybody else and um the conclusion was yes they are more happy than everybody how about that but also more stressed more stressed as well and there are a lot of there are a lot of reasons that people will give for why they're happy I'm certainly happier doing this than working for you know a company but yeah what you've done in the past I have done yeah I've worked for a few different companies but I I have to say that the um uh it's not for everybody you know I mean you know I know I personally know people that struggle running their own businesses like they're not thrilled with it uh they'd rather be employees they don't want all the headaches it's you can be pretty dark times if you're a small business owner but for the most part people um these Studies have found that business owners though they're more stressed they are happier and you know Lauren I mean listen you're an entrepreneur right so I don't know when you become an entrepreneur um I think I mean might need to be a little further down the road but but I I know what you're referring to yeah so the question is are you happy well I'll be I'll be happier if um you were making more money if well there's more evidence that what I'm doing is is going to succeed and Lauren join the crowd I've been waiting for that evidence in my business for about 25 years you know I we're never you're never GNA get but after 25 years I think the answer is in it worked I guess yeah I mean or I'm just stupid but it is a um you know I I tell you I think the reason why I'm happier and I think a lot of business owners would agree with that um Lauren is that you know some people are like oh I'm doing the great thing for sociiety or you know well I'm contributing or I'm like you whatever I love what I do and all yeah yeah yeah my thing is I got control more control over my life because I don't have to have a boss do you know what I mean I like 600 bosses um so I can divide that up I know what you mean and and here's here's how they answer the question you put to me which is you know if I could press a button and go back to the job I quit to do this would I press that button the answer is no even though this hasn't been proven out yet uh I do love being responsible for my own success or failure and you know that does make me happy agreed good all right glad we settled that um Gan Marx is president of the Marx group a consulting firm that advises small businesses especially about their technology needs he also hosts his own podcast small Biz ahead with the Hartford Insurance you can find it at sba.com and if you want to know more about any of these stories uh you can read the 21 hats Morning Report where we highlight the most important important news of the day for business owners 5 days a week thank you Jean thank you Lauren we will see you next week always great speaking with you have a great week everyone