TPC Blog

Business owners were all punched where it hurts the most—the bottom line. Thanks to the Cares Act and other legislation, our government is giving you a fighting chance to swing back. It’s up to you. Will you keep getting punched or will you put your gloves on and fight back?

It’s time to stop whining and start re-tooling. But it has to start with you. Like many business leaders, I’ve been whining and sulking the past month until my wife shook me out of my pity-party and reminded me that now, more than ever, we can help businesses like yours thrive in a COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 world.

If you successfully applied for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), it’s time to get your people back to work. Technology, like paperless onboarding solutions, can be leveraged to help you onboard your new employees and rehires electronically from the comfort of their home or your office.

With unemployment spiking to astronomical levels, it has never been a better time to WIN the talent WAR and find those ideal new hires who are eager to work and who have the qualities and leadership skills you desire for your team. But, you might ask, how do I find these people if my office lobby is closed and most applicants are staying at home? The simple answer is to shop for the best Recruiting and Applicant Tracking solution that will connect you with hundreds of popular job boards like LinkedIn, Dice, Monster and Zip Recruiter. This will allow you to virtually connect with prospective new hires who will find you online while they are browsing the web in their sweatpants and T-shirt at home.

As you start getting your team back together, another area you might have overlooked in the past is HR. Not anymore! You used to not know what HR was or what your HR Department did for you. Well, you should sing their praises and give them a big fat bonus, because odds are they saved your patootie not once but multiple times in the past few weeks. And if you don’t have an HR Department or HR resource, now is the time to create an HR Position at your company—or hire an outside HR firm. Don’t let yourself or your company be caught unawares again.

One more word of caution here, because I see it way too often. HR is not simply a job title to give to your in-house bookkeeper, especially if they have no experience with anything HR. There is a lot that goes into HR beyond being people-friendly or overseeing staff. We’re talking extensive knowledge of tax and employment law, the ability to foresee and avoid pitfalls, and identify savings opportunities where they exist, and, well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Bestowing the title on someone without experience or training is essentially gift-wrapping yourself a ticking time bomb.

Lastly, and most importantly, you might ask, “how do we continue to pay our employees?” Easy. You apply for a PPP loan (after the program receives additional funding) then outsource your payroll. Outsourcing payroll ensures your employees will get paid accurately and timely, and no one has to come into your office anymore to process payroll, print checks, or issue direct deposits. One last huge benefit is you no longer have to keep up with the dreaded payroll tax calculations and State and IRS Tax payments. Offload that burden to your new payroll partner.

We all get hit from time to time. It’s what we do next that counts. How will you fight back?

If you would like to learn more about how TPC can help you identify these opportunities and plan your offensive for when you get off the mat, contact me - Jeremy Turley. I'm happy to assist.