Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Internet Payroll, The Future is Here Now

By Charles Read, CPA and author

There was a time when payroll was handing out cash at the end of the day. That time is long gone. Payroll management has become complex and full of traps for the unwary or uninitiated. By outsourcing your payroll processing you are avoiding risks and taking advantage of all the advances in technology to save time and money. Here are a few advantages to having someone else manage your payroll.

Save Time
Using an Internet payroll provider will save you time. You will be able to input time anywhere and anytime from any Internet connected computer.

Your provider will process the payroll and can distribute it electronically. You won’t waste time and money distributing checks and payroll payment vouchers. You will never have to reissue a lost check or replace one that was run through the washing machine.

W-2’s are posted via employee self service on a secured and password protected server for your employees to view and print.

Save Money
Some business owners don’t realize the true cost of doing payroll in house. They don’t add up all the hours that are spent on various aspects of payroll and related activities that an Internet payroll provider would do.

Your internet payroll provider guarantees accuracy on calculating and filing your payroll tax reports and payroll tax deposits and will pay any penalties or interest charged to you through their error.

Your employees will no longer have to pay exorbitant fees just to cash their paycheck. Many can use Direct Deposit or payroll debit cards at any ATM or as a Point of Sale card with no cost to the employer.

Your Internet payroll provider will draft your company bank account for a single draft item eliminating the cost of payroll checks and the cost of reconciling of payroll checks.

Utilizing a paperless payroll solution they will send you all reports electronically, without delivery fees. There are no storage costs for old reports or costs to finally destroy them.

The cost for all this is lower than you think. It is a much lower cost than the cost of people, software, hardware, security and systems, training, forms, accounting fees, penalties, answering IRS inquires, etc. necessary to do a professional job in-house.

A good payroll provider will also be current on all changes in payroll and payroll tax laws and regulations and will have CPAs on staff that can give advice.

Greater Control
Your level of control increases with an Internet payroll provider.

Your complete reports are secure from prying eyes. They come to you via email or on the net. They are password protected and only you decide who gets to see them and when. Employee vouchers are on the Internet so you will never find them lying around on a desk again.

Greater Security
Paperless reports reduce the potential for identity theft. If someone gets a hold of your paper payroll reports with sensitive information about your employees, you may be liable for the damages.

Few or no paper paychecks reduces the chance that a criminal will target your company for a payroll check fraud scheme.

Conclusion
Internet payroll providers bring technological advances to the small businessman that only major companies used to enjoy. They make your payroll cheaper, faster and safer than ever before with greater control. This is one area where the Internet hype is not overdone.

About the Author
Charles J. Read, CPA has been in the payroll, accounting and tax business for 30 years, the last fifteen in private practice. Mr. Read is the author of “How to Start a New Business.�? To find professional internet payroll service at a budget price go to www.PayrollonaBudget.com a paperless internet payroll company. For a full service payroll bureau with CPA’s on staff visit www.CustomPayroll.com . See an excerpt of Mr. Read’s interviews from William Shatners “Heartbeat of America�? television show on the web sites linked above.

Related Topics: Money/Finance, Small Business    No Comments    

How to Get Googled

Q&A with Adam Sorensen, Co-Founder of LavaLinx.com

Most small business owners understand the importance of having a strong online presence. But increasingly, simply having a website is not enough; it must be easy to find on the vast World Wide Web through top search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN. That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes into play. We spoke with Adam Sorensen, an expert from LavaLinx.com about SEO for small business owners. He has shared some of his knowledge.

Q: What is so beneficial about SEO?

A: First off, SEO (search engine optimization) is about optimizing your web pages for specific keyword phrases and helping those pages rank well in the search engines like Google. Websites that can make it to the front page of a search engine (the top ten) get almost all the traffic, so you’ll want to get your web page into the top ten results if possible.

A few of the reasons SEO is beneficial are that:

1. It drives targeted traffic to your website
2. As opposed to PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising like Google Adwords, it has longevity. With PPC when you stop paying, your traffic stops too.
3. Searchers trust organic (or non-advertised) search results more than PPC sites because they know any company can pay their way to the top with PPC.
4. With the right strategy, you can obtain more than one listing in the top ten results.

Q: What does it mean to optimize for certain keywords?

A: It is important to understand that the single most important thing you can do before optimizing is to decide on the keyword phrases that you want to go after. You don’t want to spend a lot of time, effort and money on a keyword phrase that either drives little traffic or won’t produce the desired results.

Having said that, there are two ways to optimize your web page. The first way is to optimize the HTML and the content. You’ll want to include your keywords – in a conservative manner – in the your title, meta and header tags, as well as your file names and site map. It’s also a good idea to use your keyword phrases in the copy of your website.

The second thing you’ll want to do for your web page is actually the most important, which is getting backlinks for your web page. This means that you’ll want to have other websites link to your web page.

Q: Tell me more about backlinks

A: The algorithms of the major search engines put a lot of weight on links, and the search engines are programmed such that what other websites say about your site is more important than what you say about your site. So, you’ll want to have a good strategy for obtaining links. Here are a few ways:

1. Submit your site to respectable directories.
2. Submit articles or blogs to Digg, Reddit or other social sites.
3. Buy links. This is a viable solution, but can be expensive. Major search engines frown upon the practice, so if you do buy links don’t over do it.
4. Trading links with other sites.
5. Write articles and submit them to article submission sites like articledashboard.com
6. Write press releases and submit them to online PR sites.
7. Use an affiliate program that doesn’t use a redirect on the backlink. I would recommend using directtrack.com or fusionquest.com.

Q: Small business owners have limited resources. Is it really worth the time to optimize a site instead of pay for keywords?

A: If you have a website the obvious answer here is yes. Most people think nothing of laying down a few thousand for their website, but put no effort into marketing that site. They somehow believe that if they build it visitors will come. On the Internet, with potentially millions of competitors in your industry, you either market your site or plan on getting little, if any, traffic.

Q: Is there anything your clients should avoid doing?

A: Yes. Here a few things to avoid doing when it comes to SEO

1. Don’t do link trading unless you have a way of checking your backlinks. In my experience about 40% of link traders try and cheat on you in some way.
2. Don’t cheat on link trades.
3. Once your site is optimized for you keyword phrases don’t worry about tweaking and playing around with the content too much. Remember, the most important thing to do in SEO is to get backlinks.
4. Don’t spam your pages with your keywords.
5. Don’t trade links with just any site. You want to avoid porn, hate and questionable sites. It is best to have industry-related trades.
6. Don’t buy links from questionable sources.
7. Don’t try and create backlinks to yourself off of multiple sites on the same IP.

Q: What is the number one SEO myth?

A: There are a slew of SEO myths out there. I think the one that bothers me the most is this: Having content relevant to the chosen keywords on your site is THE most important factor in SEO. In other words, many people think content is king. Well, it isn’t.

If content really were king and you had ten sites that were all on the same subject, well written and optimized, how would the search engines determine which site was most relevant? One of those sites is going to have to be first and one of those sites is going to have to be tenth. Well, Google found an answer for this and that is off-site influences, specifically link popularity or backlinks - sites linking to your site. Each site linking to you is a “vote” for your site saying, “this site is about so and so.”

This off-site influence is so strong that sites can rank extremely well for terms that don’t even exist in the site’s copy. If you search “miserable failure” on Google the #1 site is Biography of President George Bush. But search the copy on the homepage you’ll find that the term “miserable failure” does not even exist on the page. If content is king how can a site rank #1 for a term that doesn’t even exist on the page? Isn’t this telling us that content really isn’t king and that link popularity is really the reigning power?

About the Author
Adam Sorensen is the co-founder of LavaLinx.com and Lavaball.com. He has six years of experience working in the SEM industry. He has worked for many large online companies including About.com. You can contact him at adam@lavalinx.com.

Related Topics: Internet, Marketing, Small Business    4 Comments    

8 Low-Cost (or No-Cost) Public Relations Strategies for Business Growth

By Margie Zable Fisher, President, Zable Fisher Public Relations

Need to jump-start your business? Here are eight low-cost public relations strategies to grow your business:

1. Send an E-mail Newsletter or E-mail Update. The only cost is your time and a bit of money (if you use a newsletter program like Constant Contact) – and the benefits can be huge. Not only will you be perceived as an expert, but you may also get direct business and/or referrals from people who see your name often. Jeff Gitomer, who writes a sales column for Business Journals around the country, sends out a weekly e-mail newsletter to over 100,000 subscribers. He directly attributes hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in new business just from his newsletter.

Consistency is important: If you can’t commit to a weekly newsletter, send it out monthly. Newsletters should contain valuable information that helps your readers, and promote your business as well. Providing timely information increases the likelihood that recipients will actually open, read — and act on — your E-Mail Newsletter.

2. Hold free or low-cost seminars. When you present a seminar, you gain instant credibility just by being the speaker. This can lead to new prospects, referral sources and strategic alliances. One local plastic surgeon (and former client) has been giving free seminars for years. He brings in actual patients who have had surgery, shows their “Before� pictures, then lets the audience see the patients after surgery. He has more business than he can handle.

3. Use testimonials. What’s more effective – you tooting your own horn, or someone else tooting it? Testimonials are powerful – use them as much as possible – in marketing materials, on your Web site, during promotional activities.

4. Send a personal thank-you note and/or gift. Nobody has ever gotten annoyed or insulted by a thank-you. An E-mail thank-you note is fine, but a hand-written, snail-mail note is even better. You have to decide whether or not to send a gift – some industries or businesses aren’t allowed to accept gifts. But a thank-you note is always welcome. Realtor Becky Woodbridge of Becky Woodbridge Properties is a master at this. Whenever I meet with her or help her with anything, she sends a thank-you note and sometimes a small gift (bottle of wine, t-shirt, backpack, etc.). This helps me think of her fondly, and often.

5. Remember birthdays. There’s only one company that sends me a birthday card every year, a local spa that offers a 20% discount on services during the month of my birthday. And every year I use the discount coupon. The moral of this story: Everybody (and every body) likes to be remembered on their special day. So if you don’t forget to remember, it can mean business for you.

6. Work with charities. You have lots of options here. Obviously, you can give money. But you can also give your time and talent, whether you help with fund-raising or sit on the Board of Directors. You can donate to silent auctions at events. You can sponsor an event or a local kids’ sports team. Or you can offer services or products that charities need, such as printing, food, etc. Whatever you do will establish you as someone who cares about the community. And studies have shown that people would rather do business with people who contribute to the community. Most important of all - it’s the right thing to do.

7. Write a guest column. In most Chamber newsletters, and often in business and industry-specific publications, you have the opportunity to contribute information that will help members. Sure, this takes time and effort, but it’s a free opportunity to showcase your own ideas and abilities. It’s also free advertising for you and your business, since your name and contact information are also included.

8. Get involved in a leadership position within your industry group. A few years ago, Milwaukee, WI-based Barb Friedman, owner of Organize IT, served as President of the Wisconsin Chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers. At that time, the Dr. Phil Show was putting together a story about a woman who was very disorganized and also happened to live in Wisconsin. Because Barb was President of the Organizers Chapter, she was the person contacted to appear on the show — reaping P.R. dividends and business ever since.

Here’s my promise: Any one (or more) of these strategies, done correctly and consistently, will put you in the driver’s seat. And what better place to be when you travel on the Road to Success!

Margie Zable Fisher is the president of Zable Fisher Public Relations (ZFPR), based in Boca Raton, FL. ZFPR is a virtual agency, with team members throughout the U.S., Canada and internationally. Each team member has a unique specialty, such as media relations, events and specialized writing. To get the Free Special Report, “10 Killer Publicity Ideas,” visit www.zfpr.com.

Copyright 2006 Margie Zable Fisher

Related Topics: PR, Small Business    No Comments