Dashboard: Coping With HR Issues Without an HR Staff

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard I'm Lauren Feldman I'm here with Gene marks to talk about the things we think business owners should be following this week welcome Jean welcome to you Lauren thank you for having me on always a pleasure Jean as usual you've been writing and talking about stuff that matters to business owners I want to start with a piece you wrote encouraging business owners to consider Outsourcing their HR tasks to what's known as a professional employer organization or a peo um I'm not surprised that you would find some appeal in a peo because it kind of means that you get to get rid of all your employees right oh stuff that's not fair at all it's actually a great take it's a good take um listen you knew it was coming right yeah you knew it was coming you know I'd be writing uh and you knew I'd be writing about that this week and and uh it I it came out in the Philly inquire uh it is definitely a t you know I do a lot of speaking around the country I'm going to be talking about peos this year because um they've been growing in popularity among my clients and they are uh they they seem like they are in the right place at the right time um for those of you guys that are listening that aren't famili tell's how it works yeah they're it's a professional employer organization that's peo and um when you partner with a peo you will be the co- employer of your employees technically the peo will be the employer of Records you're literally your employees are going to be their employees they're going to get a W2 from the peo but you still have co-employment rights which means you can take advantage of tax deducting and credits and even like perfect examples like during the pandemic any company that you know their employees with a peo were still able to get PPP loans you know paycheck protection loans you know what I mean what about like the employee retention uh tax CR same same thing you're you you're a co- employer so you are you're able to take advantage of anything that an employer can take advantage of so so um but but here's what the peo does uh particularly for smaller companies um in general I mean obviously for fee um they will take care of your payroll but then they're your outsourc payroll uh HR person so they they deal with new hires and offboarding and terminations they deal with policies they advise you on any employee related issues they can help you um classify your workers whether they're 1099 or employees and on top of that once your employees become their employees um then the employees are part of a big pool of employees so the peo can negotiate lower rates for like health insurance and other benefits as well which can offset the fees that you're paying your peo for their services and the reason why I've seen so many clients just become more you know interested in these peos and Hing them is because employees are a pain in the ass no no no no offense but like the regulation I mean you and I I knew we'd get there we're going to be talking this year about all the regulations that are coming it's insane from the nlrb the Department of Labor the EEOC the FTC now with non-competes it's nuts and you know a lot of my clients are like we just can't deal with this anymore well the regulations will still be there but you're saying that being part of a peo means that you'll have somebody guiding you to deal with to deal with all of that that's exactly right and you know because it's like Outsourcing anything you Outsource your taxes you Outsource your payroll you Outsource your marketing your you know this is like HR has become such a specialty that most business owners and even office managers who historically sort of handle the HR stuff it's just way over everybody's head so you Outsource it yeah you know health insurance is such a a big concern do you see this does this kind of solve the problem is this the best alternative no it's not the best alternative there that's another topic for another day of different what I'm seeing out in the health insurance Market because there are a lot of other things people can be doing business owners to to reduce their health insurance uh I'm going to be writing a piece sometime in the next month or so about captive Insurance um which is health insurance for that small business owners can now take part in it's like self-insured that can have a significant impact on your health insurance premium so um I'm just saying that as an aside no it's it's not a solution but it might be a good option for you you if you're a business owner and by the way if your employees are with this peo and you just you don't want them to be part of Theo's health insurance plan you know they can do something else you know what I mean you can have another plan you have all the flexibility do you see this as being most attractive to a smaller firm that doesn't have a full HR department or to a larger firm that's looking to save money or both no generally for small and midsize businesses generally starting at around five to 10 employees and up uh it really becomes cost-effective to do um just be aware you know one attorney I spoke to uh a friend of mine named Claud shenberg who Lauren you got to have him on your show this guy is great and he's hilarious um although I don't think you guys would agree politically but that's a whole other topic well we don't agree on everything Jean that's that's part of the oh Claude Claude is far to the right of me okay but he's a great employee um employer attorney anyway he interviewed him as well because he was like before warned you know the peos you know screw things up sometimes you're Outsourcing stuff to somebody else so you still have to be on top of that you know what I mean because interesting they're not always perfect so yeah you got to be careful so I gather you you're not doing it not yet not yet I mean I have 10 employees so you know I am on that that that Tipping Point line where I would consider it so it's something um that I'll think about but I'm definitely advising my clients to consider it that more employees interesting all right next topic you wrote recently for the guardian that many business owners have no idea that there are a whole bunch of government programs out there that could be helpful to them want to name a few yeah I mean first of all the point of the column though by the way Lauren was that you know there was some survey that came out that was like uh you know you know oh government is not doing enough for small businesses you know it's all I hear you know right and I'm like would you guys just shut up already I mean there's so many programs out there I mean that I guess just B it's just a lack of awareness I mean you can look up the article in the guardian guys if you're listening to this it's called why aren't more business owners taking advantage of government help because I want to list out everything but just to give you some examples there's like a number of deductions and tax credits available to business owners for child care offering paid leave uh you know and there's and the IRS itself provides all sorts of webinars and training programs to help you save your taxes you know and then it's pretty much every state has got programs to help you find skilled workers as well so if you like if you just go to the workforce training programs in States I mean they're they're they're they're bending over backwards to provide people and then and then giving you cost free that they'll train and and they'll they'll subsidize the training that you need to do for the states and then you know for these workers and then there's you know the the the government bills that passed I mean you know you and I can debate the effective you know the infrastructure and investment jobs act the inflation reduction act I mean you know it's a lot of government spending and blah blah blah but listen I mean it's a lot of lot of money out there for small businesses to take advantage of if they want to do you know work related to the government it's not all just work it's also you know Green energy things uh tax credits for vehicles and and uh and and that kind of thing as well 100% 100% and then you know like there's you know the federal government of course has the small business administration and the state small business credit initiative which you and I have talked about before and then when you go to your different cities I mean you know Philadelphia has got like funding for like stores and restaurants to put in security systems uh and beautify their storefronts and you know Denver has free counseling for startups and Little Rock has an online portal U you know for businesses to do business with the city and you know I mean again you can read the article I guess my point is like stop it already I mean there's a lot of resources out there from federal and state and local governments you know I think one problem might be that there just isn't that OneStop shop to go to to find everything is there anything close to that that you found there really there isn't that One Stop Shop you're right that does it all other than you because you come close I mean the SBA is probably the best place to start I actually think there's a bigger problem and I think a lot of business owners are agree with me is that with all of the assistance and things that are out there the the quality of the assistance sometimes it could be dubious do you know what I mean well I think it depends on what kind of assistance you're looking for I mean if if it's money the quality is good if it's advice you have to consider the source exactly right you know I mean like there are some governments say yes you know we we offer free counseling to small businesses and startups and then like you wind up talking to somebody it's a government employee who's never ran a business before in their life do you know what I mean right so you got to be careful of that as well um but you know it's out there Lauren I mean there there's a lot of help for small businesses if you if you dig a little bit um so you know I don't know what more the government you know actually can be doing I mean I realize there's tax incentives and things they can be given reducing tax rates and all that but just from a service standpoint there's a lot of resources I I am surprised I haven't heard more about how the money is being dispersed and maybe it's just too early from the two programs you mentioned the inflation reduction Act and the uh infrastructure act do you by anys have any clients that have sought yeah and and is is it working yeah the infrastructure money is not being dispersed directly to businesses it's going out in in in blocks of money to States and then the states award contracts to their contract to to companies to build highways and restore electrical grids and you know do all sorts of infrastructure type projects do you know what I mean y so it's really finding out the the the contractors the private contractors are getting that money and then offering your services to those private contractors do you know what I mean or you could you could apply yourself and trust me there's a whole other area of you know you know government programs that where they they they have by they're mandated to give money to small businesses and minority owned businesses as well so there's that opportunity too so you know that's that's a you know one other thing by the way before I even leave this offer I you know I mentioned all these different sources go go to grants.gov grants.gov it just blows me away it that is a centralized site for every Grant that's being offered anywhere including for small businesses by every agency in the federal government and you would not believe how much money is out there you got to go through a process to get certified I get it but it's like a lot of money out there from agencies looking for help from small businesses to you know further their objectives at the agency so look into that as well can you give us a hint of who those grants are particularly aimed at is it is it businesses that are struggling is it businesses no no no no no no this is not like uh social welfare grants this is like uh NASA having you know you know hundreds of millions of dollars of grants available to to businesses of any size that are developing Technologies in space exploration or engineering you know or it's the Department of Agriculture that's making you know again you know millions of dollars of grants available for businesses that are in the a industry that provides certain types of services or uh you know or products do you know what I'm saying that's what it is is this is not like a oh you have to be a minority owned business or in a you know revitalization zone or anything like that no no no this is for actual companies you know wherever they are whatever they're doing if it fits the needs of that agency all right next topic uh but sticking with Government Contracting I recently highlighted a piece that ran in Inc magazine uh that talked about how government contractors are preparing for the possibility that the debt Silling crisis might actually Force the government to stop paying its bills and and it talked about what some contractors are doing to start preparing for that including trying to find more commercial clients and fewer government clients I'm wondering if you've given this any thought and if any of your clients are uh are are starting to prepare yeah first of all that article p pisses me off and you piss me off because I was absolutely going to be writing about this very soon and like and I thought I was like this is gold man it's like February and I know this this this shutdown's absolutely gonna happen mid year I mean there's no doubt about that I mean I have more chance of growing hair on my head than there not being a government shutdown so and I was going to write and say like hey look at how smart I am looking in advance and out this this person at Inc you know what wait a couple of weeks you can do it nobody will remember the other story fair enough thank you that's great advice so listen the you know the the shutdown is going to happen in the middle of the year it is a volatility event okay uh which basically means it's going to have some impact on the economy short term and that you know there could be some stock market impacts but the biggest impact will be the government will be stop will stop spending their money uh for a period of time um one of the things I'm going to go in is to see like how long the longest government shutdown was I'm not even sure if it was in that article I didn't even read the article Lauren sorry you were too annoyed yeah I was I was like that guy beat me to it but um but it is you know no I don't have any clients that actually thinking about that right now because we're all dopes and all we think about is like you know what we're what kind of what we're gonna have on our pizza on Saturday night so we should be thinking about this because it's coming and my smartest clients are always thinking ahead if you're in the business where you think you're relying on any you know either government money or Services if if you have like travel planned in the summer and your passport isn't updated you you better like jump on that as well as you could have a real problem um but you're also if you're you know if you're if you're relying on services and frankly if you're going to take a vacation to a national park in July you might want to consider changing your plans this is gonna happen mid year we all you and I both know this right so I I'm out of the prediction game I I I certainly know it's a threat and I I'm certainly not saying you're wrong um but you know who knows anymore strange things keep happening but but I do think there are ways to try to prepare for the the risk whatever however great that risk might be yeah and you can't generalize you have to look at your own set of books and be like all right what you know what do I have any contracts out there revenues that are coming from the federal government you know and think about the cash flow issues and whether 100% 100% And you have to think to yourself okay I I could be having that cash flow issue in the summer and it could go on for a month or two maybe longer uh am I ready for that uh we you have to be thinking ahead of that right now it's good just what we need one more economic catastrophe awaiting us I know this year's going to be a tough year economically I'm telling you that hasn't what you been what you've said all along you are you feeling worse is are you more concerned yeah I am feeling worse I'm starting to become even more pessimistic I mean I'm hearing it from clients and I'm also just seeing I did a article for the Washington times this week where I looked at like inflation um and like it is unbelievable how much prices have increased in just the past two years um on all sorts of core materials that uh businesses use in their business and uh those price that's not going to change and I think a lot you know businesses have a big adjustment that they got to be dealing with this year and that combined with demand suppression because I do think consumers are going to start holding back sooner rather than later I just think it's going to be a tough this year that's my prediction all right we'll talk more about that as the year goes on I'm sure yeah maybe I mean again next time we talk again that my piece in the Washington Times came out you know late last week so you can um you it could be something we talk about next week before I let you go one last topic I want to run by you uh this one's about Mr Wonderful Kevin o of the shark of shark T yeah he's a bozo by the way keep going but we all know him and he tweeted recently and by the way that's how you know this is an important topic because it was on Twitter yeah he he tweeted recently that being an entrepreneur might cost you your wife your dog and the love of your mother uh but none of those things matter he said because what matters is being successful and then you can do what you want yeah Gan I'm pretty sure you have a dog and a wife I know is your mother still around I actually I mean in one week we've got Don Lemon saying that women you know are not productive past their Prime yeah past their prime or whatever they're like like a bozo comment number one on CNN and then we've got this bozo on CNBC saying that like you know being a successful Entre entrepreneur means you have to sacrifice everything else it's like the stupidest thing I've ever you know I've ever heard and I can point to countless business owners super successful business owners that have you know ran companies of various sizes from you know you your Warren Buffett on on and the people that he invests in that are you know that managed to balance their lives and you know have you know family lives and personal lives and dogs and still run successful businesses it's just such a Dopey thing to say you know he doubled down on it I mean it blew up and he he made no effort whatsoever to run away sof on the blow anything yeah let let me tell you something about these Shark Tank guys okay him and Damon John and all these guys something's going on there I mean this guy Kevin o he speaks at conferences he's you know he's on CNBC as a you know as a commentator Damon John I see him at conferences all around the country and like I know these guys are like billionaires I thought they're like big shark investers but like apparently you know they still need the money to go on CNBC or to speak at some small business conference and I don't know man to me there's like something suspect I hate that whole shark tank other than Mark cubin who I love I hate the whole shark tank thing and that that Bozo comment by that guy pretty much you know validates why I can't stand you know you know that whole group of people I I I I just don't know how real they are that's my that's my thought I I think the the realness is a is a good question both about the people and the show because you know a lot of those deals never actually become deals yeah they're all it's all fabricated that said I feel like I've you know over the years I've learned things watching it and I think um you know I think it has served a worthy purpose but it has elevated these people like they are the spokespeople for business owners inica America and that's kind of a fortunate especially at A Moment Like This I was hoping you and I might disagree about what he said but uh sadly that is not the case no that is definitely not you know you can go on hoping you know Lauren I'm sure we can find plenty of things to disagree on well we'll find something next week we work on it Gan Jean Marks is a CPA who writes weekly on small business for the guardian the hill the Philadelphia inquire the Washington Times the Chicago Daily Herald Forbes and entrepreneur you can also hear on ABC radio's eye on the world with John Bachelor Jean host two small business podcasts with paychecks Corporation and the Hartford thank you Jean thank you Lauren talk to you soon have a great week [Music]