As your business grows, you will need to hire employees. When it comes to hiring, you want to find the best talent, encourage longevity, and stay within legal parameters to avoid any trouble down the road. It is important for you to understand the law when it comes to hiring. Here are three areas to be aware of.
Laws Against Discrimination
Discrimination of any kind is strictly prohibited within each stage of the hiring process. This includes your job advertisements, recruitment, the application, referrals, interviews, and selection. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) defines discrimination as treating someone differently or less favorably because of their race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age, disability, or genetic information. It is also illegal to retaliate against a person for submitting a discrimination complaint against you.
Payroll Regulations
The EEOC also has payroll regulations. You are obligated to act in compliance with all federal, state, and local regulations for how employees are paid. These include minimum wage rates, overtime rates, payroll taxes, and the equal pay act. The equal pay act exists to prevent wage discrimination based on sex. It states that people of both genders must be paid equal salaries for equal work. There will also likely be regulations regarding pay frequency. There may be federal or state laws outlining common pay schedules.
Employee and Contractor Designation
It is important to understand the differences between an independent contractor and an employee. This distinction matters because of differing tax laws for each. Employers are required to withhold various taxes for each employee. Independent contractors, on the other hand, are required to pay self-employment taxes. You can distinguish between the two by looking at the behavioral control, the financial control, and the relationship between the parties. With an employee, there is much more behavioral control involved, such as how, when, and where to work. Employees receive more training and are evaluated based on how the work is done, rather than just the end result. With an independent contractor, there is less financial control. They work on their own equipment, their expenses are not reimbursed, and they are generally paid by the job. Finally, your relationship with an employee is generally considered indefinite, and they will perform key functions for the business. You can get into trouble with the IRS if you hire someone as a contractor when they would be legally designated as an employee.
Be certain that you understand and comply with all the regulations surrounding the hiring process. You don’t want to find yourself in legal trouble down the road.
No matter what industry an employee is working in, they want to feel valued, satisfied, and fulfilled. Sometimes, certain business environments or experiences can make it difficult for employees to stay long-term without sacrificing their mental health and stability. If you’ve been struggling to hold on to your employees, here are a few things that you can do to reduce your employee turnover.
Create a Healthy Culture
First off, it is so important that you create a healthy culture at your business. You need to make sure that each of your employees feels valued, like their voice and opinions are heard. If your employees feel criticized, threatened, judged, or belittled, they won’t want to continue working for you. Make sure that you are sufficiently training your employees and praising and encouraging them in their different responsibilities. The communication patterns and methods that you use in your business are also very important. If you need to correct an employee, make sure that you use constructive criticism, and that you praise their strengths. Always be conscious of the tone of voice that you’re using and be careful to not use any vocabulary that could feel unhealthy or attacking. Work on building a coaching culture.
Offer Good Benefits
Next, you need to make sure you’re offering good incentives and benefits for your employees. This will help to convince them that they want to stay at your business because the benefits will make it worth it for them. These benefits could be anything from paid time off to employee vacations to raises to a company retirement plan. These different benefits can really persuade your employees to stay at your company. For example, a safe harbor 401(k) plan can avoid non-discrimination testing. This can make all of your employees feel seen and cared for.
Be Flexible
Finally, make sure that you are sufficiently flexible with your employees. Of course, you have a business that needs to be run and shifts that need to be covered, but you need to remember that your employees are human beings with personal needs. If you want them to stick around, you need to be flexible with them. When your employees have a personal emergency, family commitment, sick day, maternity leave, or any other kind of unexpected responsibility, make sure that you let them take care of those needs. If you don’t, they’ll end up feeling frustrated and burnt out, and won’t stay with your business.
So, whether you’re just starting up a small business or you’ve been running one for years, remember that everything you do determines which employees will continue to work for you. Make sure that you create a healthy culture, offer good benefits, and are flexible with your employees. This will create an environment that your employees will prosper in and want to be loyal to.
Running a small business takes a lot of effort. You work hard for your money, and it can be frustrating to see how much of that income goes toward taxes. Learning how to reduce taxes for your small business can help you retain some of that money to invest in more advanced equipment, put more money towards better advertisement, or pay your employees more.
Do Business in a Low-Tax State
One of the greatest things about doing business in America is that you can choose which states to do business in. Each state has unique tax percentages for things like mortgages, sales, and businesses. States with the lowest taxes for businesses include Wyoming, Alaska, and Florida. If you don’t think you could do a lot of business in these or other states with low business taxes, consider moving your headquarters to one of those states but still doing out-of-state sales to reach your target audience(s). Online sales have steadily increased over the past years, so you will not have a problem doing business online.
Understand Different Business Entities
As an entrepreneur, you have many freedoms. One of these includes the freedom to choose how to classify your business. Research the different classifications your business could fall under and what the different benefits of each are. For example, with an LLC, you get to choose how you are taxed. If you classify your business as an LLC, you can have much greater control in reducing your taxes.
Account for Home or Small Office Deductions
Most small businesses are run from home or a small office space. You can make tax deductions for office space needs such as electric bills, internet services, printer services, or better functioning computers or other technology if you need those things in order to run your business. A lot goes into creating and maintaining a successful small business, so it is important to keep track of these expenses with receipts and bills in order to make these deductions on your taxes.
Getting charged high taxes for your small business can be very overwhelming. However, with a little research and knowledge about small business taxes, you can greatly reduce your taxes without making major changes to your business. Learning about small businesses taxes will not only help you become more knowledgeable about the laws pertaining to your business, but help you allocate your financial resources elsewhere to keep growing your business.
Becoming an entrepreneur is full of risks because there are always risks when you are trying something new. But just because you are faced with risks on a regular basis doesn’t mean that you need to face them all at once or that you can’t be prepared. When you use your tools to prevent risk and keep it at a minimum, you can ensure that you and everyone you work with has room to experiment and innovate without hurting your business.
Limited Liability Structure
From the very earliest days of your business, you can start protecting it and decreasing the risk you are facing. The main way to do this is to make sure that you structure your business appropriately. The limited liability company or LLC is a great option that reduces the risk that you personally face if something goes wrong. That way, your business is liable for any mistakes that are made, rather than you personally. This can protect your assets and give you room to figure out what works for your business.
Insurance
You also need to make sure that your business is properly insured against the various things that could potentially cause problems. Some kinds of insurance may be federally or locally mandated for businesses while other things are just a good idea. When purchasing insurance, try to take a holistic view of your company so you don’t miss any important areas for coverage. For example, cyber liability insurance is increasingly necessary in the event of data breaches, and many companies fail to invest in that kind of insurance.
Start Small
One part of minimizing your risk as an entrepreneur is not taking risks that you can’t afford to have potentially fail. When you are first starting out, your risks will need to be smaller because your business won’t be as profitable. But as your business grows, you can increase the risks you are able to take. Just make sure that your risk is always within a manageable range that your business can recover from.
Risk taking is a big part of owning a business, but you don’t have to take on more risk than you can handle. As you carefully assess risks every step of the way you can make decisions that will improve your business. Think of risk as a way to make opportunities for your business, but remember to keep those risks within reason.
Opposed to what some people may tell you, you don’t actually need a college degree to have a lucrative, successful career. There are many successful people out there who never graduated from college and have great careers and ZERO student loan debt. I, unfortunately, am not one of those people… But, here are three popular jobs that don’t require a college degree—and that are actually enjoyable and in high demand.
Digital Marketer
Every year, humankind is becoming more and more dependent on technology. Rather than traditional advertising, most businesses have gone completely online. Therefore, there are a lot of people who need help promoting their brand via social media and other online mediums. A digital marketer is someone who uses the internet to help businesses promote their services or products. So, if you have a knack for navigating various social media platforms, digital editing tools, etc., then becoming a digital marketer is a great way to go (and is in very high demand).
Real Estate
The need for buying and selling properties will never go away. In fact, it is an expanding, diversifying industry that could probably use someone with your skills and perspective if you are a critical thinker who can listen effectively and negotiate like a pro. Working in real estate is a very flexible job option. It allows you to work with a variety of people on a regular basis (which is great if you consider yourself a social person) and act as your own boss. To become a realtor, you need to get your real estate license. Each state has its own requirements for getting your real estate license. Therefore, be sure to do your research ahead of time on what requirements are necessary for your location.
Police Officer
Perhaps you enjoy watching reality crime shows (who doesn’t like murder porn, amirite?) and have always thought about being the one solving those crimes. You may even consider being a police officer to be an awesome job. But did you know that it could totally be the career for you—and you don’t even need a college degree! A career as a police officer is a dynamic and hands-on career where you get to help people. There is a lot of growth potential too. In fact, after several years of experience as a police officer, you may have the option of becoming a police detective.
These days, more and more people are realizing that a postsecondary degree from a traditional educational institution is not enough to land a successful career. Many employers are preferring experience to education instead. So, don’t fret if you don’t have a degree. There are plenty of great options for you without one!
If you are thinking about joining the world of entrepreneurs, it can feel kind of overwhelming, especially if you haven’t done that kind of work before. However, all entrepreneurs have to start somewhere and most try their first venture without any meaningful experience working for a startup. Making the transition from working a regular job to becoming an entrepreneur can be complicated, but you can take steps to make sure you are as successful as possible.
Go in With a Partner
Just because you are starting your own business, doesn’t mean you have to do it entirely on your own. In fact, you can increase your chances of success if you simply find a partner to work with. Your partner could be someone more experienced, who has started a business before. Or you could choose a partner who has a different skillset from you so you each can bring different benefits to the table. Finding a good balance with a partner can be an effective method for getting your new business off to the right start.
Look for Franchising Opportunities
If you want to start your own business but you also want to make things a little bit easier for yourself with a built-in structure, you could start out with a franchise. That way you get to start building up experience as an entrepreneur while you are engaging in that kind of work. You won’t have to make as many decisions about how to manage your business, so you can focus on finding a great location and making things run smoothly. According to Franchise Gator, commercial real estate is more available now than it was before the pandemic.
Make Sure You Know About the Industry
When you are new to the world of entrepreneurship, it isn’t usually a good idea to start a business in something you don’t really understand. Choosing a business in a sector that you know a lot about can help to balance out your inexperience, according to YourStory. Then you can take your industry-specific knowledge and use it to increase your chances of success.
It’s okay to be new at starting a business, and in some ways, it can be an advantage. Don’t be afraid to experiment and take risks, as well as apply the knowledge you do have to your new venture. When you can find a great balance, it will help your new business to flourish from day one.
