Dashboard: Stop Complaining!

[Music] hello everyone welcome to another episode of dashboard every Monday Gan marks and I will have a quick conversation about the issues we think business owners should be monitoring this week Jean is president of the marks 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 sb. harford.edu Lauren thanks for having me on um this is so much fun talking to you every week always a pleasure yeah we have a lot to yell about this week yes we do let's start actually with the same story we started with last week which is the vaccine mandate that uh President Biden announced last week you called it a nightmare for small businesses but on Friday you published a piece in which you said you changed your mind what happened yeah yeah first of all first of all um this is your fault I want you to know that I mean last week and here I was saying like this is a nightmare this is like going to be a problem and then it was our conversation you know where where I I I was started thinking harder about it and um and here's the deal right I mean I I I put this up I wrote about this in the hill this week um where I write you know about every week or every other week on on matters related to small businesses and you know the issue Lauren is is as to do with the Mandate so just a you quick recap if you're a relatively small business and you've got more than a 100 employees you are um you know you're the president is mandating you now to um either ensure and get the documentation from employees that are fully vaccinated or um they have to be required to get uh weekly you know tests uh you know for covid um and you have to keep records of that as well otherwise you can face some pretty stiff fines and and so a lot of my clients we were talking about this were up in arms about this and all that kind of stuff and then I don't know Laur man I started thinking about this I you know and I was looking back in history and I'm like you know in thousands of years of recorded human history governments have put mandates and requirements and all sorts of restrictions on small businesses I mean Egyptian armies you know taking over you know Egyptian businesses in the times of Anthony you really did a deep dive on this I mean you know during the time of Tiberius you know Caligula Augustus the Roman emperors they you know they took took business assets but okay let's fast forward into like the current day even in World War II Lauren you know if you're running a business and the government says we're at War now so you know you're going to stop making what you're making and we need you to make tanks you know I mean these are like big asks of businesses back then and those were Wars and here's what the numbers are we have had more people die of covid in this country than in both World War I and World War II combined and we've had you know the the number of deaths of Co even exceeds the number of people that we lost in the Civil War so it's like a big deal and what is President Biden asking us to do make sure our Our Workers are vaccinated or at least get documentations and know that they're getting tested every week like boo freaking who you know I mean I just started you know like like you know and again and I was saying this to some of my clients because they're complaining and like oh my God these manat I'm like would you just shut the hell up already I mean you wrote that you wrote that in your piece in the hill you told your own clients to shut up shut the hell up did you hear from any of them after you wrote that no I mean like I known them for years and I've you know and they they they know me you know that I'm going to be honest with them but I'm like come on man this is all that they're asking for yeah I know it's a little bit of a pain in the ass and I know you've got to get your you know HR person to go around and interview all your employees and all right but I mean for God's sake it's not like you know that Biden's coming in and telling you to you're going to take away your business cuz he needs it to make you know ice cream he's a big fan of ice cream you know or or make Munitions for some World War I mean Jesus I mean just just shut up and just do it and move on and stop spending all this time complaining about it you've got other things to worry about like running your business so just just do it and hopefully we'll get through this and you move on from it so that was my message well I can tell you pe people are paying attention um I had I highlighted it in the morning report on Friday and I got uh a couple of angry emails from people thank you very much Jean um what are we taking away your freedoms oh your freedoms are going away oh you're being excted from boy you're really you're really going all in uh oh please I also heard from our our mutual friend Jay goz who uh appears on this podcast uh the 21 hats podcast from time to time and Jean said you know he he'd been he he wasn't one of your complainers but he had been concerned he was worried about losing employees he does have a group of employees who work in his plant uh who are not vaccinated and many of them are really good people been with him for 20 years and he's he's not looking forward to that but after reading your piece he said you know what what the hell this is this makes no sense I'm doing it and we'll see what happens well I always knew Jay was a smart guy you know so I mean that just proves it but you know on top of that listen yeah that's what some people have told me this as well like oh we're going to lose our employees and listen it's a short supply of labor so you know but honestly this is a mandate on all employers so first of all employees leave you they're going to go somewhere else where they going right although there is the issue of of businesses that have few than 100 employees and and you know that there is something to that that's interesting I I wonder if there's going to be any movement to try to include them um we may get there I'm telling all my clients man like just get ready you know and and do this and as far as getting the testing I mean there are plenty of free testing sites around there's you know you can get them home tests if you want to spend the money or or you know and I'm sure it's covered from insurance as well I mean I know it's a pain I realiz that but for goodness sake we're fighting a war we really are so you and one final thing on that note is which I didn't even put in the column but you know it's like it is it's a great way out I mean you know if your employees are angry with you you can be like hey man I'm just it's not my it's not me it's President Biden it's the government telling me to do this yeah what do you want me to do so I don't know I I think if you've got a good enough relationship with your employees you can figure something out that's all Next Issue um it keeps getting harder to compete with Amazon for employees they got they got facilities all over the country they're hiring people by the tens of thousands in some places they're paying $3,000 hiring bonuses you wrote a piece suggesting that smaller businesses can actually match or exceed that bonus and do it with government money explain how you can do that yeah here's here's another thing that not not as many of my clients know about and and it is an amazing benefit that the federal government is offering um it's called the work opportunity tax credit Lauren and you know they because of the stimulus bills they've extended it now through 2025 and what this credit is is it goes against your income taxes so it lowers your income tax bill it's I mean this is like money that you won't have to spend um if you hire anybody that's out of the military that's off of Weare that's out of prison or and this is most important has been unemployed for more than 6 months and we know they're all coming back now because those benefits are running out right well if you hire any of those people you can get a credit of up to 9600 per employee that you hire and this thing again goes through 2025 so you can do this for the next few years so you my advice to you if you're listening to this right now and you're trying to compete and you're like oh my God freaking Amazon with their hiring bonuses okay listen when you find that good employee and you want to give them an offer before you do call up your accountant ask your accountant what would my work opportunity tax credit be for this employee this person's been out of work for 6 months the accountant will do the math the accountant will tell you well if you're going to pay this person I don't know 45 Grand your tax credit will be five grand okay great hang up the phone call up the prospective employee and say listen come and work for us we'll give you a $4,000 hiring bonus to come and join our company that's more than Amazon's giving and you're still $1,000 ahead because you're getting a $5,000 tax credit so you got to do it in advance of hiring because a form has to be filled out you like you're actually like applying for this but it is a huge huge deal and it's a way for you to to to to beat Amazon at their own game and other companies by by by offering this hiring bonus to your employees and letting the government pay you for it so it's called the work opportunity tax credit Lauren and every business should be well aware of it and could it possibly be more valuable than right now with so many people coming off unemployment absolutely I mean it the timing is like perfect I mean everybody is you know have been yelling and screaming about oh the feder want unemployment benefit and you know everybody's staying up okay you got The Perfect Storm the unemployment benefits have now run out after Labor Day everybody's going back to school which is great they're they're keeping the schools open so you know people have less and less of a reason to be to to stay home from work so now they're going out looking for jobs and a lot of these people have been unemployed for six months so many are qualified you for that for that work opportunity tax credit all right next item this is a piece you wrot for the guardian we took a shot at another group of business owners you wrote that that restaurant uh owners are stiffing their employees by not paying them enough tell us more yeah okay so Lauren this is another like what the [ __ ] example okay I mean this is happening all over the country this happened in Philadelphia so you know my hometown and you're close enough I'm going to call them out they're the Bottle Bar East restaurant in Philadelphia okay they were found in violation by a federal Court of withholding wages to the tune of almost $250,000 from their employees they owed money to like 73 employees bartenders servers cooks and dishwashers some employees were owed as much as $42,000 if you were they shorting them or were they just not paying them or how how shorting them and here's what they what they do it's they they they all play and by the way once I saw this bottle bar restaurant I'm like man these guys are just dicks I mean how many other people are doing this sure enough I started searching around and there's all these other restaurants all around I mean I had dozens of cases and I just included a handful in this article I didn't have a the spa the internet didn't have enough space for me to include them all of these restaurants that are shorting their employees on their wages and what are they doing well first of all you know in in Pennsylvania all the states have similar rules in Pennsylvania a restaurant only has to pay a worker $22.83 as a minimum wage as long as the worker is making enough tips to take them above the $7 you know 65 national minimum wage okay so the the workers have to the workers trust the employers to keep track of that and to keep track of the tips that they're receiving and what do the employers do they take these tips and they they don't allocate them they they stuff them in their pockets so they they're it's not even like they're with they're withholding them they're basically not sharing the tips that these workers have earned and remember this is a lot of it's on the honor System these people these servers these bartenders you know the cooks they're running around they don't have the time to track all this they're they're you know they're hoping their employer going to do this well guess what the employer not and there there was restaurants in New York there was restaurants again there's a Casino in Pennsylvania a restaurant in Nashville they're all like messing around with their employees tips they're they're they're either telling them they didn't make the minimum wage or they're just just flat out and not you know reimbursing them for the tips that they were owed and the employees don't know any difference and then finally when they start asking questions they have to file this lawsuit I can't imagine any employee once this becomes public for a restaurant wanting to work for a place like this you know I mean I just and I there was another one chicky and Pete are you familiar with them Philly so they were they had the same this isn't like and I want to say these are not people that are allegedly or that they were accused of these are like actual lawsuits that were settled or they were found guilty of chick and pets did the same thing a few years ago and I like refuse to eat at of chick and pet cuz I just think those guys are just such jerks for doing that so anyway it's going on all over the place you know there's let's let's talk about that um first of all I think you slipped and said that the national minimum wage is 765 as I know you know it's 725 sorry 725 you're right2 wor um but how I mean this is indefensible but you know restaurant owners in general it's been tough it's a tough business it was a tough business before Co nobody ever said that their you know profit margins were too big uh what about the typical wait Lauren are you like are you defending them are you is that is that defense are you literally saying like oh yeah I defending really tough year so I guess I can understand why they stole this money from their employees is no it's not but thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain um no I am not defending stealing money but I don't believe and I don't think you do either that this is typical of most restaurants do you no I I know that it is not typical most so but and I my point is do you think what you're saying applies to those restaurants as well I mean my personal opinion is we need a new business model for restaurants th this model did not work before covid business owners didn't make enough money and um and the employees weren't getting paid enough and something has to change one of the things might be higher prices but that's that's another podcast uh but but I don't think it's fair to car all restaurant owners with the same brush it's it's you're you're absolutely right about that so I'm not doing that I mean it is but but it is it is enough restaurant owners that and it gets enough bad attention that um it it puts a black mark on the rest of the industry particularly towards those restaurant owners that are doing a good job but you know what's the solution for this Lauren I can tell you what it is you do away with tipping you know I mean when I was in Australia a few years ago you there's no tips in Australia I mean it's it's a higher price and you pay it but the price winds up being the same because it it's just the tips are baked in so it's just the the the the workers I didn't know about Australia that's that's really interesting you know it has been tried here you know some very prominent people have have tried it and and failed yeah for all sorts of reasons it's just a cultural thing but the the problem is is that you've got tips and then you've got this tipped wage calculation so now the restaurant owners have to keep track of what the tipped wage is did each employee get enough in tips to take them over the tipped wage they can continue to pay the ti wage and not the full minimum wage and then they got to account for the tips and do we do all of that and so it's all this extra stuff that they've got to do some make mistakes and withhold it but others it just gives them so much room to to take advantage of their employees and uh you know if you get away with that system would end it is that realistic probably not because I don't think we're going to change that in this country's culture but I I will you hear about those you know restaurants that are taking advantage of employees like that I mean don't eat there I think that's good advice all right last item um the BBC ran uh a piece this week talking about how Co may have just now finally killed off the business card what do you think I what are business cards I mean I haven't used a business card I bought a box of business cards from for my business for myself probably 10 years ago I swear to God Lauren it's like all still sitting there in my desk drawer I mean way before Co you know I was still using them when I went to conferences uh I would hand them out that was yeah I don't do that I mean I just I I I tell either I just tell everybody like find me on LinkedIn you know I mean I think business cards are so oldfashioned that I can't even like I I just don't even I don't even use them but okay I mean I guess and when I go to conferences I mean I don't usually get people giving me their business cards I mean I just tell them well my name is Jean Marks and I'm on LinkedIn so I was going to say the other side of that is I hand out mine and I take other people's and then I put them in a box and never ever look at them again and you never look at them yeah again one thing is funny know I I actually had a stack of business cards from like 20 years ago that I never threw out I literally just I still got I still I I got I got my business cards from every job I've ever worked Yeahs and I've got all the business cards for people I've met who knows where uh people whose names I don't even recognize anymore so first of all just so we know I mean if you have a business card you just download the LinkedIn app and if somebody says hey look me up say great find them on LinkedIn and then connect with them that way because then you could do so much more with them than just exchanging a business card and you have to carry it around and secondly by the way um you know is I guess the BBC is making the case that like oh business cards are because they've got they're filthy and they have germs on them and everybody's going to get sick and die because we're exchanging a business card and to that I'm like that that's absolutely ridiculous I can't imagine it being unhealthy I think the only thing that it's unhealthy for is the environment and also for my time carrying around these business cards and having to like you know transcribe them into my CRM system well you know I think there was a time early in the in the pandemic when we weren't sure exactly how this thing was spread and people were wary about um shaking hands you know anything like that and I think it it started there um and you know I'm not I'm not sure it's uh it's coming back there are new technologies I wonder if you've tried any of you know there you you think you could touch phones and exchange uh data there uh there's another one that uses QR codes have you tried anything like that no first of all there was a time as well when a lot of humans thought that lightning storms were assigned from the gods you know I mean so things do things do change secondly yeah I've been through all these different business card these contact apps where you touch phones and you know touch fingers and you know kiss each other on the ear or whatever it takes to like pass you know the information back and forth no one has the same app or people don't have it all together everybody's pretty much got LinkedIn I'm just saying it's just what it is it's just it is LinkedIn at the very least I mean if somebody you know you know I on other occasions I've made a note on my phone Lauren Felman you know what I mean I I write your name and then I know to look you up on LinkedIn and then I find you there I'm just telling you that the whole business card approach is it's you know it's way too old school too time consuming um I if you if you just dedicate yourself towards managing your network on LinkedIn um and I'm not I don't sell for LinkedIn but it just happens to be a great it's a great social site uh do that I think you'll be way more productive thank you genan marks great talking to you as always Lauren it is always fun to talk with you and I look forward to talking with you next week as well I'll make sure to have more opinions and piss off more people yes you can learn more about Jean's business at markg group.net and you can hear his weekly podcast small Biz ahead at sb. harford.edu