Entrepreneurs and Professional Employer Organizations

It’s All About Building Winning Teams

You may think that this is a bold statement, but the reality is that most entrepreneurs achieve success not because they are visionaries, although many are, but because they are intensely focused on doing what they do best. In an earlier blog “No Man is an Island”, I explain how achieving one’s goal of launching a new concept, product or service requires diverse talents and experience that no single person can master.

Jeff Stibel, author of “Wired for Thought” in his article “Entrepreneurship is a Disease” published in the Harvard Business Review Blog offers this observation “What makes some entrepreneurs successful is the same thing that makes others successful: relying on strengths and avoiding weaknesses”.

“To be sure, entrepreneurs have an upper hand (or at least I like to think so): the energy level is higher, the confidence level is higher, and with time, entrepreneurs have a higher tendency to acquire subject-matter expertise. But success comes not from those things alone, but by leveraging core competencies. What makes me successful (sometimes) is that I combine my entrepreneurism with my strengths in taking calculated risks, decision making, and building teams of people I admire.”

So what does this have to do with entrepreneurs and professional employer organizations? Building a great team of dedicated and talented people often requires a structure that involves employees. With the advances in technology, these teams can involve people not only with vastly different backgrounds and skills, but located in different states across the country, or even other countries around the globe. As we know, administering any staff of exceptional people presents employers with a wide range of issues daily. Learn more in our video “Employees Are A Strange Animal”.

Leveraging Core Competencies

Entrepreneurs and small business owners shouldn’t be expected to know all the intricacies’ involved with employee compensation and payroll tax administration. Don’t expect them to stay abreast of changes in government regulations, employment practices and HR compliance issues. Business leaders can’t waste time securing workers compensation and general liability insurance, or developing a comprehensive employee benefits plan that enables their firm to attract and retain the valuable talent required to ensure success. Successful entrepreneurs outsource these functions to comprehensive HR outsourcing companies called professional employer organizations.

Many entrepreneurs engage the services of companies like ADP Totalsource, Alphastaff HR, Insperity and TriNet. These companies provide small and growing firms with a “turn-key” package of payroll administration, HR compliance, risk management, and a Fortune 500 employee benefits package for all of their employees. Professional employer organizations allow small business owners to eliminate multiple vendors, gain expertise and streamline HR operations; reduce exposure by minimizing costly mistakes, transferring risk and liability. These are only a few of the advantages that enable small business owners and entrepreneurs to save time and money. The most important benefit of outsourcing HR administration is it allows busy executives and entrepreneurs to focus their attention on what they do best …..

Building a winning team.

Find a Professional Employer Organization at PEO.com

Leading Website to Locate PEOs and Employee Leasing Companies

Are you a small business owner or busy executive searching for assistance with managing your employee administration, benefits, and HR compliance responsibilities? Discovering the right solution has never been easier. Today, help finding an employee leasing or professional employer company is just a click away. Just type PEO on Google, Bing, Yahoo or your favorite search engine. Usually PEO.com appears first or second in the natural search, testimony to the site’s authority, content, and duration.

Click on the logo above to go the the PEO.com website  

The website is the brainchild of industry veteran and visionary Rod Diekema, who developed and launched PEO.com in 1997. The interface has changed over the years, with each new version contributing to an easy and safe user experience for the busy HR manager or business owner. Vistors to the site are treated to a soft and welcoming home page which offers the choice of searching for an HR outsourcing company by location or keyword. Trying to find local employee leasing companies in your state? Simply scroll down and pick the city nearest you.

Does your company require the services of a large national professional employer?  A search of PEO.com’s extensive database reveals Accord HR headquarted in Oklahoma City, OK has offices in Littleton, CO, New York and Syracuse, NY, Tampa, FL, and Tulsa OK. Boise, ID based Employers Resource serves clients with offices located from Anaheim CA, Atlanta, GA, to Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, Tx.

Maybe your the owner of a  small family business who is looking for a local “hands-on” HR company to relieve you of your payroll, HR administration, and employee benefit problems? High touch, high service professional employers like St. Louis, MO based Simploy HR or Employee Capital Management serving Michican and Illinois can be found with the click of a mouse.

Don’t take my word for it. Find an employee leasing firm or professional employer company that is right for you at PEO.com today. Not sure which types of PEO or HR organization is right for you? No problem. Knowledgeable PEO consultants and industry veterans are available to advise you of all your HR outsourcing options, and will help you find the best personnel management company for your company.

Small Business Payroll Grows in July - Intuit Small Biz Index

Intuit’s Small Business Index Shows Increase in Hours and Compensation

Intuit, developers of the popular accounting software program QuickBooks®, is also the nation’s leading provider of online payroll administration and processing for small business owners. Intuit has a wealth of information about small business employment serving more than 1 million small business payroll customers.

Intuit launched their Small Business Employment Index to provide a unique view into small business employment trends. Their index is one of the few to compile employment statistics for companies with fewer than 20 employees, which represent 87 percent of all U.S. employer firms and employ nearly 20 million people.

Small business employers added 50,000 people to their payroll and significantly increased both hours worked and compensation. Small business hourly employees worked an average of 110.2 hours in July, making for a 25.4-hour workweek. This is a 0.7 percent increase from the revised June figure of 109.5 hours.

Click on this link http://www.intuitinc.com/payrollindex to read the entire report.

Is this report a clear indicator of things to come? Small business owners and entrepreneurs across America struggle to grow their business, and contribute to revitalizing our economy. Like the red locomotive in the children’s story “The Little Engine That Could”, small business remains this nation’s only hope for a recovery. Small businesses are truly the builders of our economic wealth.

Unfortunately, our government and multinational corporations are selling us short. In the last month large corporations like Boeing, Cisco, Merck, RIM, as well as state and local governments reported layoffs in June of more than 140,000 employees. The news reports of the last week have never been grimmer. Growth in the last two quarters averaged less than 1 percent. Credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s downgraded the AAA rating on America’s debt, flaming the fears of a global “double dip” recession.

Politicians continue to fiddle while Rome burns. History has shown that when true adversity strikes, America rises to the challenge. One of this country’s most loved and respected leaders said in an address “When written in Chinese the word crisis is composed of two characters - one represents danger and the other represents opportunity”. That was in 1959 by soon to be President John Fitzgerald Kennedy to voters in Indianapolis.

In his 1961 inaugural address, President Kennedy gave his famous speech challenging Americans to “Ask not what your country can do for you — Ask what you can do for your country”. He continued “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the feedom of man. Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deed, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing here God’s work must truly be our own”.

Pray for our leaders to come together …. history is watching.

A Small Business Holiday Story

Credits: Prevent Child Abuse - New Jersey

For many of us, the holidays are a time to reflect. In business … and in life, it is a time for us to look back, as if in a rear view mirror, and see where we have been, and how far we have come. It is a time to take stock of where we are today, and chart a path for a brighter future.

2009 has been a very challenging year for many small and midsize business owners across the country. Employers Rx would like to take this time to welcome all of our new associates, clients, and the friends that we’ve made this year. We will always remember, and sorely miss the clients we’ve lost.

For one of those clients, 2009 could have been a very different year.

Reflections of the Past - A Client’s Story

It was the first week in December 2002 when I received a phone call from an accountant. He wanted to know if I could help his client Bill Webster, who with his brother Bob, owned and operated a sucessful sporting goods distributor called Webster’s Team Sports. Bill’s workers compensation carrier had just notified him that because of a large claim, his coverage would not be renewed. His broker looked everywhere, but come January 1st, 2003, at 12:01am, Webster’s Team Sports would no longer have coverage.

Webster’s Team Sports opened it’s doors in 1946, and had supported three generations of Websters. During that time, brothers Bill and Bob had built Webster’s into a industry icon among little league, high school and college teams across South Florida. They contributed generously and widely to community events as their business and reputation continued to grow. The brothers had followed a family tradition for providing customers with quality equipment, exceptional value and personal service. Now, the Websters’ were faced with few options. They could purchase coverage from Florida’s JUA, (the state insurer of last resort), but, paying premiums 3 times higher than what they were currently spending could put them out of business. Without workers compensation coverage, they would have to stop operations. They had less than 4 weeks to make a decision. When, and how would they tell their loyal staff and employees?

Introducing Employers Rx

Following a brief conference call, I met Bill and his brother Bob at their offices the next day. I discussed with them how a professional employer organization could provide a possible solution to their problems. I explained how employee leasing companies and PEOs purchase workers compensation coverage with large deductibles, how they manage claims, and implement risk avoidance programs to minimize incidents in the future. We told them about our RFP process, outlining the payroll and WC data we required, and how qualified PEOs would compete for their business. After an hour, we left with everything we needed. A few days later, we were happy to report back to Bill and Bob that we had secured three bonafide offers from leading PEOs, and we could have them enrolled before the new year.

It had been more than six years since Webster’s Team Sports decided to outsource their payroll, HR, and workers compensation resposibilities to Selective HR. In the beginning, Bill and Bob where impressed by the fact that Selective HR was owned by the Selective Insurance Company, an A+ rated insurer, who was providing their workers compensation coverage. As time went on, they realized the value of Selective HR’s technology platform, human resource services and ongoing support. This is why I was surprised when I received a phone call from Selective HR informing me of the loss of one of my clients. It was Webster’s Team Sports.

The Dream Lives On

After receiving the “bad news”, I tried reaching the Websters. I wanted to tell Bill and Bob thanks, and let them know how much we appreciated their business for the past six years. Unfortunately, the phone number I had was disconnected, and a new number only allowed me to leave a message. I wanted to learn more about the fate of Webster’s Team Sports. While searching the internet I came across this press release.

Sport Supply Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: RBI) today announced it has acquired substantially all of the assets of Webster’s Team Sports (A.K.A. Webster’s Sports Center) of Pompano Beach, Florida. Webster’s, founded in 1946, is South Florida’s leading team sports distributor to the school, college and youth league markets.

The announcement continued with a quote from Bob Webster of Webster’s Team Sports. He said: “We are thrilled to now be part of the Sport Supply Group family and excited to bring our customers the best in product, service and selection. This is the start of a wonderful new chapter in the long history of Webster’s. We are committed to making it a win for our employees and the hundreds of high schools, colleges and youth programs across south Florida.”

This holiday season we lift our glasses to Bill and Bob Webster and the employees of Webster’s Team Sports. We want to wish you a bright and prosperous 2010, and thank you … not only for your business, but for reminding us how important our mission is, and the impact we make in the lives of our clients. To you and all our friends and clients. Thank you.

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2010.

May you enjoy peace and prosperity through the year.

PEOs Adjust to Group Health Renewal Rate Increases

Health Insurance Premiums for Employee Leasing Companies & PEOs Surge. Small and mid-size companies are not the only ones who have been hit with unusually high group health renewal rates this year. Many employee leasing companies and professional employer organizations have seen their health insurance carriers announce rate increases that are 2 and 3 times what they have experienced in the past. Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield are the predominate health plans offered by employee leasing companies and PEOs across the country. With few exceptions, PEOs are reporting rate increases of 16% to 24%, much higher than the 6% and 12% premium hikes they have been accustomed to.

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