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The First Step of Selling Your Closely-Held Business

Posted: 26 Apr 2019 09:30 AM PDT

After years of running your business, you've decided to sell.  Maybe the "next generation" doesn't want to take over the business, or you've decided to retire or start a new business; maybe you just feel the time is right.  If you've never sold a business before, you're probably wondering what you need to do to get from "I've decided to sell" to "congratulations on the closing." Putting together the right team should be your first step.

Your best chance of having a smooth and successful transaction is to put the right team together, which will consist of an accountant, a lawyer, selected key employees and in all likelihood, an investment banker. Yes, the outside members of the team are an added expense, but it will be money well spent. Let's take them in order.

An accountant

Of course, you already have one.  He knows you, and your business. He's done your taxes, and helped you keep the business's books and records. He may very well be one of your trusted advisers. It goes without saying that he is going to be involved in the sale of your business. But you need to ask yourself whether he has experience with mergers and acquisitions. If the answer is "no," then you should consider retaining an accountant with "M&A" experience.

The buyer is going to have an accountant with that experience, and your accountant has to be able to "talk the talk," and deal with issues relating to taxes, financials and results of operations as they come up in the course of the transaction. If you are in doubt as to whether your accountant can do the job, sit down with him and have a serious conversation. If you determine that he can, great. If not, then you and he together should determine what additional accounting help you need to retain.

A lawyer

Here too, you probably already have one, but the same analysis that we used above regarding your accountant applies here as well.  If your lawyer does not have M&A experience, he will have to learn on the job, and that is not in your best interests. Issues will come up in the course of negotiating the deal documents and in the due diligence process (more about that later), and your lawyer needs to be familiar with those issues so he can deal with them appropriately. Do not underestimate the potential ill effects on the deal if the buyer and its counsel become frustrated by having to work with a lawyer who is a novice in the field of M&A.

In one sale transaction that I was brought in to substitute for the seller's lawyer, the buyer had become so frustrated with the lawyer that they refused to proceed with the transaction unless the seller retained a lawyer with M&A experience. This is probably a good time to point out that you may need more than one lawyer, because you may need lawyers with a particular expertise. Does your business potentially have environmental problems? If so, you'll probably need an environmental lawyer. Intellectual property issues? You'll need an "IP" lawyer. Without a doubt you will need a lawyer to negotiate the deal documents, oversee due diligence and manage the deal process so you get to a closing.

Key employees

Your accountant, your lawyer and your investment banker are your outside team members. You're also going to need one or more trusted employees to join the team. Unless you have co-owners who can fill this role, you'll need one or more of your employees to help respond to the buyer's due diligence investigation (in many transactions this person is the company's CFO). The "due diligence investigation" is the process by which the buyer and its team investigate your business to establish its assets, liabilities, problems and prospects. Depending on the nature and size of your business, this can be a major undertaking.

They will look at your financials, books and records, contracts, legal issues, litigations and a host of other matters. One or more of your people are going to have to help in responding to these due diligence requests. Keep in mind, you will not want word of the potential sale to leak prematurely to your employees, customers and suppliers, so you'll want to think carefully about who to add to the team; in addition to being able to help, they have to be people who you can trust to be discrete.  

An investment banker

Some deals get done without an investment banker on the selling side. Yours may be one of them, and if it is, you will save investment banking fees. But ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do you know the value of your company to a potential buyer, or will you need help in valuing the business and coming up with the purchase price?
  • Do you have a buyer lined up, or will you need help in finding a buyer?
  • Do you need to maintain the anonymity of your company in the course of finding a potential buyer?
  • Are you, your accountant, or your lawyer going to negotiate the business terms of the deal and the business issues that will inevitably arise during the course of the transaction, or will you want someone else to take the lead in that negotiating?  

The right investment banker adds real value in all four areas. 

When selling your business, it's important to put a good team together. If you start by adding an account, lawyer, key employees and an investment banker, you'll be starting in the right place. 

Taming Your Post-Vacation To-Do List

Posted: 26 Apr 2019 09:23 AM PDT

With summer just around the corner, many employees and managers find themselves taking vacation or celebrating holidays without thinking about work. This is great for morale and a necessary recharge for most, but what happens when you return from vacation?

Some people return to hundreds of unread emails, dozens of unaccomplished tasks and the to-do list from hell. What started as an enjoyable time away from the office ends with skyrocketing stress levels and a sense of dread. While there might not be a perfect fix for taming the post-vacation to-do list, there are a few strategies you can employ to make sure your first few post-vacation workdays are manageable.

"Nothing wipes out that post-vacation glow faster than a packed inbox and an endless to-do list upon your return," said Gemma Roberts, who runs The Work Life Blend, a site devoted to finding a better work-life balance. "It leaves you asking what's the point if you end up coming back to even more work than before you left."

We spoke to business professionals, like Roberts, about their best tips and tricks for both preparing to take a vacation and eventually catching up after the vacation. [Related: 6 Tech Gadgets for Your Working Vacation]

1. Plan for the backlog of work well before you leave. 

"If you want to minimize your to-do list and feelings of stress, preparation is key," Roberts said. "Start by managing expectations prior to your holiday."

Many workers have found themselves in that pre-vacation scramble to get as much done as they can in the day or two leading up to their trips. Maura Thomas, an attention-management expert and author of Personal Productivity Secrets (Wiley, 2012), recommends prepping your out-of-office work a week in advance and contacting the appropriate colleagues to make arrangements for your time away.

"If you're heavily involved in a project or working extensively with a particular team, let them know you'll be on the road, even if you still plan to work," said Thomas. "Request that they hold anything that isn't urgent until you get back. This will minimize your backlog."

For voicemail messages and automatic email replies, schedule your official "away" dates for one day before and one day after your actual trip. If your contacts expect a delay, it relieves some of the pressure to answer them immediately before you leave or upon your return. You may well end up answering those messages earlier, but it's always better to under-promise and over-deliver, Thomas said.

Getting ahead of the post-vacation to-do list is critical. If you enter vacation behind on work, you'll return from your trip with an intimidating to-do list. The best way to prevent this is by preparing thoroughly before taking time off.

Don't leave preparation efforts until the day before you leave for vacation. Start preparing days, or even a week, in advance of your trip. This limits stress during the preparation process and ensures that you'll be fine going back to work after your vacation. 

"Make sure you give your colleagues as much notice of your vacation as possible and remind your manager," Roberts said. "That way, your workload can be managed. Discuss with your manager whether it would be possible to delegate certain tasks to other team members. Cross-training within teams is always a good idea in order to minimize the risk of dependency on one employee. This not only helps when someone takes a vacation but also helps to cover periods of sickness and staff turnover."

2. Limit obligations on your first day back. 

"Before you take off, block out time on your calendar for the morning of your return," said Justin Hale, speaker, training designer and master trainer at VitalSmarts. "Then use that time to get up to speed. Now, this does not mean you do all the work in front of you. The purpose of this time is not to work, but to get clear on your work."

Don't schedule a handful of meetings for your first day back from vacation, at least not early in the day. While it may help you understand what you missed, it's best to spend a good portion of the first day working through and planning your to-do list. If you wait to organize your work and push off responsibilities, you may find yourself even more stressed out two or three days after you've returned. That being said, you don't want to overdo it your first day back.

"I think it's a fairly common mistake to expect yourself to be able to accomplish everything on your to-do list at the drop of a hat upon returning from a vacation," said Deborah Sweeney, CEO of MyCorporation. "Give yourself as much breathing room as possible to readjust. I would advise accomplishing as much on your to-do list [as possible] before you leave for vacation so the list is a little bit easier to tackle upon return. Organize your to-do list by order of importance and work your way through each item accordingly by doing a little bit each day until you're gradually back in the swing of things."

Preparation matters, and it's important to create a plan that allows you a manageable first day back at work. This means limiting meetings, if possible, to allow time to work through your to-do list. This doesn't mean you'll finish everything in one day, though. If it takes you an extra day or two to efficiently cross items off your list, that's OK.

One of the better ways to limit your stress on the first day back from vacation is to break down your to-do list, according to Vivian Young, senior content manager at Website Greenlight.

"Split it into three sections: to do today and tomorrow, to do by the end of the week, and to do whenever," she said. "Limit the amount of items on the first list. Too much too soon doesn't make for a productive first day back on the job. Include at least two things that are easily accomplished – like undo your 'away' messages on your voicemail and email and look over unopened mail or documents on your desk."

A strategy like this makes it easier to feel comfortable during the process of catching up on work. Sorting tasks into to-do lists for later in the week can make your first day back feel less daunting.

3. Approach your inbox intelligently. 

One of the most dreaded post-vacation tasks is going through the hundreds of emails received while away. You can quickly catch up on your overflowing inbox with what Thomas calls the "four-pass process."

  • First pass: Sort by subject. For multiple messages with the same subject line, delete everything but the most recent one, and then, after taking all your "passes," read that one from the bottom up. This will likely eliminate dozens of messages in just a minute or two.
  • Second pass: Sort by sender. This will allow you to quickly delete or file the newsletters, coupons, advertising and any other mail that isn't from an actual person.
  • Third pass: Sort by date received. Work from the oldest to the newest. This may be contrary to how you usually view your messages (newest to oldest), but when you've been out, think about who's been waiting the longest for a reply.
  • Fourth pass: Respond. When processing what's left, resist the urge to "skim and skip." It's important to deal with each message, because it won't get any easier if you leave the message there to read again later. If there's anything you truly can't handle now, move it to your task list for later completion.

Creating a schedule for before, during and after your trip – and sticking to it – will give you the peace of mind you need to truly enjoy your time out of the office and come back feeling refreshed instead of stressed.

"Catching up on that backlog is a lot easier and less stressful if you actually plan for it," Thomas said.

Additional reporting by Nicole Fallon. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

The Inner Workings of Credit Card Processing Rates

Posted: 26 Apr 2019 09:18 AM PDT

The credit card processing fee is the cost merchants are charged to process credit card payments – which sounds obvious, but there's a lot more to them than meets the eye. If you're not careful, your business could wind up spending thousands of dollars on processing fees. Here's what you need to know about the basics of credit card processing fees.

What is the credit card payment process?

The customer makes a purchase from the merchant using their credit card. The merchant runs the sale through the payment gateway, which sends the credit card payment to the credit card processor. The credit card processor submits the payment to the credit card association and then finally to the credit card issuing bank. These are the parties involved in the whole process:

  • Merchant account provider: This is the company that manages the actual credit card processing, usually with the help of an acquiring bank. The merchant account provider's role usually overlaps with the credit card processor.
  • Payment gateway: This is the portal that routes transactions to the credit card processor, usually for online shopping carts.
  • Credit card processor: Also known as acquiring banks, the processor acts as the go-between for the merchants and credit card associations and passes information and authorization requests to the merchants to complete their business transactions.
  • Credit card association: This is the company that sets the rules for the credit card payment process and also creates credit cards, such as Visa, Mastercard and American Express. Some credit card associations also function as issuing banks by developing and issuing their own cards, such as Discover and American Express.
  • Credit card issuing bank: This is the financial institution that issues the credit cards, such as Chase, Wells Fargo and Citi.

Editor's note: Looking for information on credit card processors? Use the questionnaire below and our vendor partners will contact you to provide you with the information you need.

 

 

How do credit card processing fees work?

Credit card processing fees, or qualified merchant discount rates, are the fees merchants pay for each credit or debit card sale. This fee is determined by your merchant account provider and has three components: interchange fees, assessment or service fees, and payment processor's or markup fees.

Interchange fees

For each credit or debit card transaction, the card issuer charges the merchant a commission to be able to accept credit cards as a form of payment – usually a percentage of the transaction plus a flat-rate fee. This is called the interchange fee, and it's the largest component of credit card processing fees. Interchange fees are set by each issuing bank, helping it cover potential risks associated with the sale, such as fraud, handling costs and actually approving the sale. Factors that affect interchange fees include the payment processing method, the type of card used as payment (reward, business, consumer, EMV chip, etc.) and your type of business. Visa's and Mastercard's interchange rates, which change twice per year in April and October, are listed on their sites.

Mobile wallets and EMV chip cards

In recent years, credit card payment options have evolved from just debit and credit cards to include mobile wallets and EMV chip cards. Mobile wallets, as the name suggests, are digital versions of a physical wallet. While there are variations on the kinds of information they can hold, most mobile wallets are equipped to hold the digital information for credit and debit cards, coupons, store rewards and loyalty cards, and personal identification.

There are multiple benefits to businesses of all sizes accepting mobile wallets as a viable form of payment. One benefit is decreased fraud, since it's more difficult to steal the digital information from mobile wallets. Also, the processing fees for mobile wallets are expected to decrease over time.

While EMV chip cards are increasingly common, the United States was the last major market to migrate from cards with magnetic strips to EMV chip cards, which can be identified by the embedded chip. The chip acts as a miniature computer that holds the debit or credit card information. The chip is harder to replicate than a magnetic strip because it creates a unique impression every time the card is used.

Assessment or service fees

Assessment or service fees cover the credit card association's operating cost of managing its network. These fees differ from the interchange fees in that they're based on the merchant's total monthly sales rather than individual transactions. While they're typically lower than interchange fees, the assessment fees vary by network and certain specifics, such as if the card used was credit or debit, transaction volume, and if any international transactions were processed. Similar to interchange fees, assessment fees are reviewed twice per year – check your credit card statement to see the changes to your assessment fee.

Payment processor's or markup fees

The payment processor's or markup fee is what the merchant pays the credit card processor to use its product. These are either flat-rate fees, interchange-plus fees or tiered fees, and they are the only fees that the merchant can negotiate. With flat-rate fees, merchants pay a flat rate for every transaction to cover the interchange and assessment fee. For interchange-plus fees, your payment processor adds a fixed markup to the interchange fee (hence the name "interchange plus"). With tiered fees, the payment processor categorizes fees into one of three buckets: qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified. Qualified means your business is qualified for credit card swipes, mid-qualified means your business is set up for key-entered transactions and for accepting some specialty cards, and non-qualified means your business is set up for all other transactions, including online sales.   

Clear as mud, right? In case you'd like a visual depiction of some of this information, here's an infographic to help you keep everything straight.

Do you need a merchant account to be able to accept credit cards?

You don't actually need a merchant account with a merchant service provider to accept credit cards as a payment option. Signing up for a merchant account requires you to complete an application and await approval from the merchant service provider's underwriting team. It can be a time-consuming and potentially frustrating process. Instead, small businesses or startups with few items to sell can accept credit and debit card payments via payment facilitator, or PayFac. A PayFac, such as Square or PayPal, is a merchant account that serves multiple merchants so that each merchant doesn't need their own merchant identification number.

PayFacs are very quick and easy to set up, and merchants often receive instant approval on their accounts. Because PayFac transactions are part of a shared merchant account rather than an individual account, fees are usually set at a flat rate, so merchants pay the same transaction fee – a percentage of the total transaction amount charged – for each sale regardless of how many they process. This may be fine for small businesses, but as their number of transactions increases, it may be more beneficial to apply for a merchant account. A merchant account gives businesses the opportunity to select from a variety of flexible-rate plans that reward higher transactions with additional savings.

However, if your business is thinking of canceling its merchant account before the end of your merchant processing contract, beware of early termination fees. There are two types of termination fees: flat cancellation fees and liquidation damages. With a flat cancellation fee, businesses are charged a flat, pre-negotiated sum to cancel their merchant account. While there is no standard flat cancellation fee, they usually start at a few hundred dollars. Liquidation damages are much more expensive. With liquidation damages, you are charged the amount the processor determines it will potentially lose in revenue due to your account closing. For example, if you have a five-year contract and you decide to close your account after two years, you could pay a cancellation fee equal to three years' worth of credit card processing fees.

The Benefits of Face to Face Business Meetings

Posted: 26 Apr 2019 09:00 AM PDT

The life of a business professional can often be hectic, especially when work demands frequent meetings in a variety of locations. Naturally, video conferences have changed the way meetings are conducted. No longer must professionals and entrepreneurs hustle from one city to the next to conduct meetings. In many ways, it seems video conferences are just another way digital technology has improved normal business functions.

While video conferences are certainly useful tools, the benefits of face-to-face meetings should not be discounted. Unfortunately, there are elements of an in-person meeting that video conferences simply cannot replicate. These elements can have significant impacts on business relationships and potential deals, which is why I've often made it a point in my career to schedule in-person meetings whenever feasible. Here are some of the key benefits of meeting face to face that I've recognized in my more than two decades as a business founder and executive.

1. Feeling out the room

In a video conference, there are often people off camera or so far away from the screen that you cannot visibly see their facial expressions and non-verbal cues. When you're in the same room, their emotions are palpable. There's no better way to feel out the whole room than physically standing in front of your audience. Video conferences do not create the same emotional connection.

You're also likely to get a more thorough introduction to each person sitting in, which is not always the case in a video conference. Once you are acquainted with everyone, you can often pinpoint who the major decision-makers and influential people are in the room and gauge their reactions accordingly. This information is useful whether you're trying to make a sale, strike a partnership deal, or even just conduct a basic fact-finding mission.

2. Getting beyond the meeting

Once a video conference is done, the screen is shut down and everyone goes their separate ways. When you meet someone in person, especially in a different city than your own, they are likely to show you around or take you out for a meal. The importance of connecting with others in these more informal settings cannot be overstated. In my career, the breakthrough conversations have very frequently happened casually, before or after the meeting itself. While video conferences might be convenient and save you a trip, they never provide for the interactions that occur on a tour, at dinner or during a chance encounter.

3. Opportunities for small talk

 Along with chances to get to know your meeting partners outside the conference room is the opportunity to engage in small talk with a broad range of members across the organization. Many people dismiss small talk as a waste of time, but it can often be more revealing than it's given credit for. Whether it's an aside with a business executive or coffee pot chatter with rank and file employees, small talk can often provide you with details that you otherwise would not encounter.

In business, the personal can also be powerful. Remembering things about another professional's family or the things affecting their life could be key to ultimately working together in a productive and fruitful way. People work with those they like and trust, and the best way to establish trust is through remembering personal details about someone and showing them you care. Those details are often initially revealed through small talk, but small talk rarely occurs through a video conference.

4. Understanding context

Flying to another city to see someone else's office or meet with their team helps give you an understanding of the context that surrounds their business operations. What is their company culture like? What kind of problems are they facing? Are their employees satisfied? Where does your skill set fit and where are the opportunities to work together? It's tough to answer these questions with a quick video conference, but when you're immersed in a work environment, even just for a day, you can start to get a better idea. When you better understand the context in which an organization is operating, you start to better understand the organization itself. Armed with that understanding, you can better pitch your ideas, products, services or whatever it is that will ultimately cement your working relationship.

5. Establishing stronger relationships

Each of these elements feeds into the main point I like to emphasize when promoting the need for face-to-face meetings: they help build stronger relationships. One of the most important lessons I've learned as a business founder and leader is that relationships are everything. Your internal relationships to your team members are critical, of course, but so too are your external relationships with clients and partners. Making it a point to see these important people in person at least once a year (if not more often) can help strengthen your relationships and develop them in a way that is mutually beneficial. After all, when you're working with someone who is just a face on a screen, it's harder to feel connected to them. But when you have real memories of the times they came to visit, whether it was in the conference room or outside of it, that person becomes a real, tangible acquaintance and, many times, even a friend.

For all these reasons, face-to-face meetings remain superior to video conferences. While I often employ video conferences myself, I still prefer face-to-face meetings, whenever possible. The difficulties I experienced when frequently traveling as the CEO of a multi-million telecom company, though, led me to found Flewber, an on-demand air taxi service that lets passengers skip the crowds and security at major airports to get there and back quickly and easily. While video conferences make it easy to meet from a distance, our goal at Flewber is to make it easy and affordable to meet face to face.

In-person meetings simply have more to offer in the way of forging relationships and picking up on information that isn't on the meeting agenda. For the serious business professional, travel and relationship building is an integral part of work. It shouldn't be relegated to the past simply because new digital tools exist – to do so would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

How to Become a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)

Posted: 26 Apr 2019 07:56 AM PDT

Corporate America and the U.S. government have been sounding the cybersecurity alarm bell for years: There's a significant shortage of skilled information security professionals in this country. Although numbers vary among various sources, it's safe to say North America is lacking almost 500,000 security professionals (as of 2018), and the global shortfall for such jobs is expected to reach 4 million or more by 2021.

Almost every day, around 10,000 positions are available on U.S. job sites that request a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). This clearly points to a need for skilled infosec workers, and CISSPs in particular, which is great news for aspiring CISSP candidates.

A CISSP is a seasoned employee or consultant, usually with a title such as security manager, security analyst or chief information security officer, to name just a few. This person has been on the job for five or more years, and has thorough knowledge of the IT threat landscape, including emerging and advanced persistent threats, as well as controls and technology to minimize attack surfaces.

A CISSP also creates policies that set a framework for proper controls, and can perform or oversee risk management and software development security.

Here's what you'll need to become a CISSP through (ISC)2:

  • Obtain five years of security work experience: You must be able to show proof of five paid full-time years of work experience in at least two of the eight CISSP CBK (Common Body of Knowledge) domains, which are Security and Risk Management, Asset Security, Security Engineering, Communications and Network Security, Identity and Access Management, Security Assessment and Testing, Security Operations, and Software Development Security. On-the-job experience is crucial for both the exam and the certification process.

  • Prepare for and pass the CISSP exam: Complete the CISSP exam with a minimum score of 700 out of 1,000. The exam is six hours long and includes a mix of multiple-choice and advanced innovative questions. It costs $699. The (ISC)2 CISSP webpage offers a download of the exam outline as well as a link to a Study App (available through the App Store and Google Play for about $10), a study guide, practice tests, and a host of other exam-prep aids. You can also obtain the official textbook and test your knowledge with CISSP Flash Cards. If you need more than self-study materials, (ISC)2 and a lot of third parties offer CISSP classroom and online training. Training costs vary widely, but the online self-paced course costs $2,795 through (ISC)2. Classroom-based training will cost appreciably more. Before scheduling your exam with Pearson VUE, go over the background qualifications, which might exclude you from sitting for the exam.

  • Get endorsed to become a CISSP: Once you complete the CISSP exam, you'll have to subscribe to the (ISC)2 Code of Ethics and complete an endorsement form to become a CISSP. The endorsement form must be signed by another (ISC)2 certified professional who verifies your professional work experience. You must submit the completed form within nine months of passing your exam to become fully certified, because passing the exam doesn't automatically grant you certification status.

After you become fully certified, you'll have to maintain your credential by recertifying every three years. CISSPs are required to pay an $85 maintenance fee during the three-year cycle ($255 total). They must also submit 40 continuing professional education (CPE) credits each year, for a total of 120 CPEs per three-year cycle. For more information on the steps to becoming a CISSP and maintaining your certification status, visit isc2.org.

Other certifications that can help you attain the CISSP

If you are certain that the CISSP path is right for you but you have no relevant work experience, look into becoming an Associate of (ISC)2. The program is ideal for students and career changers. It also allows you to take advantages of educational opportunities, forums and peer networking offered through (ISC)2. Another approach is to get the entry-level A+, Network+ and Security+ certifications from CompTIA. With that foundation, you can apply for a security-related position and get some much-needed hands-on experience in the IT arena.

If you've been working in IT security for a year or two, consider pursuing the (ISC)2 Systems Security Certified Professional (SSCP) credential. Although it's not an official prerequisite, the SSCP is considered a precursor of sorts to the CISSP, covering many of the same topic domains. In theory, achieving the SSCP can also lead to the kind of security position needed to fulfill the CISSP work experience requirement.

Beyond the CISSP

It seems that go-getters are always looking for a way to move on or up. Once you get your CISSP, you might be interested in specializing in architecture, engineering or management, perhaps for another boost in pay. The (ISC)2 program offers concentrations in those areas for CISSP credential holders, called ISSAP, ISSEP and ISSMP, respectively.

Considering that cloud computing and virtualization security has become extremely important in the IT space over the last few years, there's one more advanced-level (ISC)2 certification to consider: the Certified Cloud Security Professional, or CCSP. This certification, formed in cooperation between (ISC)2 and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), aims at folks who procure, secure and manage cloud infrastructures or who purchase cloud services. The CCSP requires five years of relevant on-the-job experience, but you can use the CISSP to substitute for the entire requirement.

Be sure that a CISSP is the route you want to take, and that you can complete the credential, before embarking on this long and expensive journey. However, if you set realistic certification targets, and manage your time wisely, you can't help but succeed in this hot sector of the IT job market.

It's Time for a Universal Business OS

Posted: 26 Apr 2019 07:00 AM PDT

Small business owners usually start off on their own because of a vision and a passion. For most budding entrepreneurs, that passion isn't for payroll and accounting.

Even so, those time-consuming tasks end up taking up a substantial amount of a founder's time. In a National Federation of Independent Business study, small business owners listed accounting and other administrative tasks as one of their top three biggest time-wasters and said they spend less than 15 hours per week on actual business services.

So, if you're a barber, how can you spend less time going over the books and more time cutting hair? Or if you're a yoga studio owner, what can you do to stop stressing about payroll? The answer is simple. It's time for a universal, one-stop business operating system that makes it easy to automate back-office tasks and turn backlogs of data into usable small business insights.

Why standard operating systems are coming up short

With a standard operating system, small businesses often find that they need a long list of software add-ons in order to manage their day-to-day operations. A typical small business owner may use separate, siloed small business solutions for each administrative category. For instance, he or she may use QuickBooks for accounting, Gusto for payroll and Salesforce for customer relationship management. While each of these platforms provide valuable services, there are incredible inefficiencies which result from the fact that none of them have the ability to "talk" to each other.

In today's world, where everything can be automated, logging into a half-dozen platforms to manually review and update each application that you use to manage your small business is indefensibly tedious and labor-intensive.

Additionally, building a tech stack from scratch to handle business operations is a gargantuan task even for the most tech-savvy Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Demanding the same from every small business owner that wants to open a coffee shop, a personal training business, or any other venture totally unrelated to tech and finance becomes an unreasonable impediment to setting up shop.

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The benefits of a one-stop shop approach

What if, instead, there was a universal business operating system that linked all of these different functions together, offering a one-stop shop with access and insight into all of your daily operations? A ready-to-go, user-friendly business operating system would eliminate the administrative frustrations of having to build a network of siloed systems from the ground up.

Business owners should only have to have one all-encompassing operating system. That's right. Just one. That system should give them all of the tools they need, right at their fingertips. Want to set up system to help you manage your business? The process should be as simple as: use this operating system, follow the instructions, do what the system prompts you to do and then go focus on doing what you do best.

With a more integrated approach, accounting operations should also be a breeze. Payroll expenses could feed straight into accounting. Business expenses could be processed, logged and categorized automatically in real time. Invoicing programs could automatically track which invoices have been paid, highlight those that are overdue for follow-up and calculate taxes accordingly.

Business owners should never under any circumstances have to enter the same piece of information more than once. With siloed systems, that happens all the time. With an intelligent operating system, it wouldn't. A single operating system would automatically populate each piece of information you enter into all relevant programs. Not only would a single linked system cut down on administrative time, but it would also ensure that all information is accurate and up-to-date.

The insights that intelligent data aggregation could provide

In addition to seamless accounting processes, perhaps the most exciting prospect of a universal business operating system would be the ability to take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) insights. Using mountains of data from across multiple record-keeping categories, a universal business operating system would be able to aggregate and examine that data to offer an intelligent analysis of your small business's operations.

The end result for small business owners would be an easily readable, holistic overview of how their business is doing, along with actionable steps they can take to give themselves an advantage.

For example, AI could use prior data to accurately project future cash flow, alerting small business owners to potential upcoming shortages. That information could inform a wide range of business decisions, from whether an owner should consider taking a loan to how much they need to be charging for products or services. Equipped with the power of real-time data analysis, entrepreneurs could make smarter, more informed business decisions that enable them to take their companies to the next level.

The time you could reclaim with a universal business OS

We can already imagine the benefits of one united operating system in our personal lives. For example, whether we're Mac aficionados or avid Microsoft devotees, we expect that right out of the box, our computer will have all of the functionality it needs to empower us to do what we need to do. A business operating system should be that simple.

But, in many cases, it's not, and it causes headaches and hellish hours for small business leaders that want to succeed. A full 20% of small business owners work seven days a week, and 14% don't take any vacation days during the year. Where's the fun in being a business leader when you can't even give yourself a day off?

Between automating back-office tasks and simplifying onboarding, a proper universal operating system may just be able to change that reality. Who knows – maybe small business owners will even have time for a proper vacation.

How to Optimize a 404 Error Page

Posted: 26 Apr 2019 05:00 AM PDT

Google defines an error page as what a user sees when they're trying to navigate to a specific webpage that is non-existent. It's usually seen as a negative thing when a webpage can't be found, even though it isn't always the fault of the website owner. It could be as simple as typing in the wrong URL. But, too many webmasters don't take advantage of all the ways they can optimize the error page to boost their SEO and move visitors down the conversion funnel.

Because you want to be able to provide the best user experience – no matter what part of your website people are on – it's essential to enhance your error page. The goal is to dissuade users from clicking the back button as soon as they're hit with the 404 message. If you can do that, you'll be able to redirect them to more content, boosting your traffic and engagement rate.

Here's how you can modify your 404 error page to create a better experience for your website visitors and increase your SEO.

Design a visually appealing webpage

Who likes looking at a boring 404 webpage when they're looking for specific content? Absolutely no one. Not only does it provide a negative user experience, but it also fails to accurately represent your brand and generate leads.

Use visually appealing imagery to create a 404 page that represents your brand. Use the same color scheme, typography, and other components that match the rest of your website so users aren't confused. This won't directly affect your SEO, but it will encourage users not to exit out the second they're hit with an error message. It may even convince them to keep browsing, which will increase user engagement.  

Insert CTAs

If you don't tell visitors what to do after they've encountered the error, they'll likely exit out and go somewhere else. Users don't want to guess what they should do next after they can't find the webpage they're looking for, so it's up to you to lead them in the right direction.

Add call to action buttons (CTAs) that lead to popular blog posts, your contact page, homepage or other content that you think is useful to your target audience. This will encourage users to check out other content instead of exiting out of your website. The longer they browse, the further down the sales funnel they'll go, which brings you one step closer to a conversion.

Add a search bar

When users encounter a 404 error, they're looking for a specific webpage. You can help them find what they're looking for and increase user engagement by adding a search bar to your error page.

Placing this feature on your 404 page makes it easy for visitors to look up the topic they were interested in without having to go back to the homepage, contact you or simply exit out of your website altogether. This could greatly reduce your bounce rate so that your Google ranking isn't negatively affected.

Explain the error

It's always frustrating trying to navigate a website or webpage only to find that it doesn't exist. The best way to keep users happy is to keep them informed. The more they know about why the error happened, the more in the loop they'll feel, and this will encourage them to continue browsing your site.

Of course, you can't always know why a particular user is encountering trouble, but you can include a list of possible reasons why an error may have occurred, such as the webpage being moved or deleted, the URL typed incorrectly or a broken link.

How Paid Leave Policies Can Help Small Businesses

Posted: 26 Apr 2019 04:47 AM PDT

Paid leave includes a variety of benefits, including paid sick time, paid family leave, and a parental leave policy that allows new mothers and fathers to bond with and care for their infants without sacrificing the bulk of their weekly wage. These benefits are designed to allow employees to take a leave of absence for approved reasons, and it is increasingly common around the world for companies to offer these types of benefits.

The U.S. is alone among industrialized countries in that it does not maintain any federal paid leave policies. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires companies with 50 or more full-time employees to provide unpaid time off to certain employees, but there are no regulations for smaller businesses. And there is no federal requirement to offer compensated time off. [Want to learn more about FMLA compliance? Check out our guide on what small businesses need to know about the FMLA.]

In many cases, this means workers needing to take time off to care for themselves or their family members must do so without pay or the job protections that many paid leave regulations offer to eligible employees. This lack of leave benefits leaves many people vulnerable, particularly low-income workers. However, in recent years, a movement in local jurisdictions and state legislatures to implement a patchwork of paid leave policies has grown.

While advocates of paid leave policies ultimately have their sights set on a uniform federal policy, many have settled for slowly filling in the gaps at lower levels. But what do these policies mean for workers and small businesses? Are they going to unbearably balloon entrepreneurs' budget or make their staff more satisfied and productive, thereby reducing turnover?

What are paid leave policies?

Paid leave policies, as the name suggests, are regulations that extend job protection and paid time off to workers for certain situations, such as illness or family emergencies. There are different kinds of paid leave policies, including paid sick leave, paid family leave and paid maternity or parental leave policy.

Given the patchwork nature of their implementation in the U.S., a consequence of no set policy from Washington, D.C., the exact provisions of these laws tend to vary widely on a state-by-state – or even locality-to-locality – basis.

Here's a quick look at two of the most common types of paid leave policies.

Paid family leave

Paid family leave policies generally create a fund as an extension of a state temporary disability insurance program, which is supported by payments withdrawn as a small percentage from every employee's paycheck. These insurance funds are generally 100% funded by workers and don't require any added investment from employers or taxpayers. Rather than offering full paid days off, paid family leave insurance funds typically offer wage replacement, generally worth about two-thirds of the employee's weekly pay.

Karen White, director of policy analysis and community engagement for the Rutgers Center for Women and Work at the School of Management and Labor Relations, said that five states currently offer a temporary disability insurance program that can be expanded to support paid family leave. New Jersey's paid family leave policy requires a mere 0.1% deduction from workers' paychecks up to the first $33,700 in pay to support itself. That means the maximum deduction from each employee amounts to a lowly $33.70 annually.

"In return, workers receive wage replacement at a rate of 66.7% of weekly wages up to a maximum of $637 [per week] in 2018," White said. That amount, she said, will be paid to workers for up to six weeks under the current state law.

While the policy doesn't cost employers anything, it is often viewed as favorable, because it offers an added layer of financial security for workers on leave. Their absence, White said, was generally already permitted by most small businesses; employers simply could not afford to pay the employee during their time off.

Paid medical leave

Unlike paid family leave, paid sick time is usually an employer-supported expense required by the government. Paid sick leave laws are designed to require a basic protection for workers who fall ill or have loved ones at home that require care. In some states, the legal requirement is quite minimal, White said. Simply put, if an employee gets sick, they can take time away from work without fear of reprisal. In New Jersey, sick employees can take five consecutive days off from work, all of them paid.

"The thing about [paid sick leave] is that it is a basic standard," she said. "In New Jersey, in the municipalities that have passed the law, workers are provided with five job-protected, paid days off. Those [days] do not accumulate over time; they are for use in the year in which they are earned. It's a minimal standard at a minimal cost to employers."

However, because paid sick leave laws are implemented at the local or state level, it means they are different everywhere. New Jersey is home to 13 municipalities that have implemented a paid sick leave law, White said, and most have tried to create a uniform set of policies to ease adoption and with the ultimate goal of achieving a statewide policy.

One municipality went its own route, however. The City of New Brunswick tailored its own paid sick leave policy with slightly different provisions than the rest. This is an example that has replicated itself in other jurisdictions throughout the country.

Implementing a paid leave policy for your company

Implementation has many moving parts. "The key to crafting a well-balanced paid leave policy is to ensure that your policy aligns with the mandatory requirements. Then it's a matter of considering whether you, as an employer, want to add any additional coverage for your employees," said Dave Berndt, senior client advocate for G&A Partners. "For companies that have operations in multiple states, it can be a complicated process to comply with various versions of paid sick leave laws."

Often, when a company does business in multiple jurisdictions with paid leave requirements, they might just choose to adopt the most stringent requirements to ensure compliance across the board. Those that operate in both jurisdictions with paid leave policies, as well as those with no regulations, might enact a company policy only where it is required. Ultimately, it is a question of strategy. However, Berndt noted that while paid leave might represent a degree of new difficulty for employers, the changes should also be viewed as an opportunity.

"When states pass legislation mandating paid sick leave, this creates new regulatory burdens for employers,"  said Berndt. "However, employers should also look at these new requirements as an opportunity to support their workforce, boost morale and provide a better work-life balance."

What does the research on paid leave demonstrate?

So far, research into paid leave policies where they have been implemented supports Berndt's notion that paid leave policies also benefit employers. In New Jersey, researchers found workers subject to paid leave protections boasted higher morale and productivity, and businesses that offered paid leave experienced a significantly lower turnover rate, White said.

"In return, the benefits for businesses … far exceed the costs," White said. "The research shows that workers are more motivated, they are more productive, they have higher morale. The employers are better able to retain workers, and they reduce their turnover costs. It really is a win-win."

According to research conducted in 2012 by the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers, parents receiving paid leave were more likely to remain employed a year after their child's birth and were less likely to require public assistance in general. Researchers made the following recommendations in their conclusions:

  • Expand national job-protected family leave policy to include wage replacement for a broader pool of eligible workers.
  • Document potential cost-savings for employers and employees through improved and expanded data collection.
  • Provide outreach and education to employers and employees about the health and income security benefits of existing paid family leave policies.
  • Enlist employers in efforts to improve job retention and competitiveness in hiring through the adoption of paid family leave policies.

According to White, however, at least in New Jersey, outreach has been lacking, and many people are largely unaware of the policies in general or the full extent of the rules. There are also more direct gaps in the existing policies, she added.

Workers often expressed that wage replacement and the job-protected period were not enough to address unmet needs, and the protections only served employees of companies that maintained 50 or more employees.

To address those gaps in existing sick and family leave policies, Gov. Phil Murphy recently expanded the state's paid leave policy to double the number of consecutive weeks of leave for eligible employees to 12. The law also now applies to companies with 30 full-time employees or more, rather than the previous 50.

Popular support for paid leave policies

Support for paid leave policies is mixed. Among the general population, especially younger people and low-income families, support is high. According to a 2016 Pew Research survey, more than 60 percent of the population supported paid leave for workers caring for themselves or family members with serious health conditions as well as for parents of newborn or recently adopted children.

However, support for paid leave policies is lower among entrepreneurs. According to a 2018 survey conducted by Paychex, 48 percent of small business owners said they would support some form of legislation requiring paid family leave, while 18 percent opposed the idea outright.

"No matter how large or small the organization, most employers want to create a workplace culture that supports employees in times of need," said Martin Mucci, Paychex president and CEO. "However, for small businesses, mandatory paid leave may present challenges. Whether it's having a key member of a small team out of the office for an extended period of time or the back-end administration of such a program, mandatory paid leave will introduce new dynamics small business owners will have to navigate."

Out of all respondents to the Paychex survey, 43 percent of those who supported paid family leave policies felt the federal government should make the rules while 40 percent said businesses should be in charge of crafting the rules.

Generally, popular support is translating into an expansion of paid leave policies throughout the U.S. Employers wanting to get ahead of the game should consider drafting a paid leave policy ahead of time and tweaking it to conform with local standards as they develop.

"As for the future, we anticipate that more states will adopt similar mandatory paid sick leave laws, since these have become so popular from a political perspective," Berndt said.
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