Why use a payroll service?

A small business owner today faces challenges unknown in earlier days. There is no longer competition from other businesses within the same geographic area. The business must now compete with the rest of the world. It’s not enough to just do everything yourself and do a little marketing now and then.

That was the remnant of the business model from the old days of store merchandisers. In today’s world, a business owner must focus all his energies on growing the business, both in its financial health and in its sales. In your grandparents’ time, people made their own soap. Yes, they were being thrifty and doing essential tasks, but today we don’t have the time or inclination, it’s better to just buy the soap. Doing your own payroll every week or two is a chore that adds nothing to the growth of your business. It’s a chore, not unlike landscaping, cleaning, or machine maintenance. These are all the things that you could do it yourself but the question is, ought you?

One important difference is the sensitivity of the information involved. But how many times do problems occur when pay rates are leaked, or if you want to give a raise but don’t want the payroll clerk to know about it? About 28% of you end up doing the payroll yourself. That’s not being productive with your time. You also want it done right, so you do it yourself. This is not the way to grow up, doing everything yourself.

The task of paying employees and paying taxes is not add any value to what your customer buys from you, or the experience your customer has in dealing with your company! Small businesses become big businesses when the owner learns to delegate, when he starts working in his business, not his business, when he hires talented people to do specialized tasks for him.

He (I say “he” because 78% of business owners are men, although I think this is changing rapidly) works on how the company delivers something valuable to the customer, works on the marketing message that the world sees, works on the systems that make the business work in the eyes of your customers.

The growing business owner does not spend time on mundane tasks that customers are not interested in. His client couldn’t care less if he spends a couple of hours every Friday doing his own payroll. Look, he just gets the facts on the different ways to get the job done in the least amount of time.

I believe that small business is the backbone of our great nation. It’s people and their energy that make our economy work, even if they don’t get any attention. It’s where all the growth comes from, it’s where the action is, it’s where the work gets done, but don’t try to do it all yourself.