You may have survived the Black Friday rush, but the holiday shopping season has only just begun. Whether you're a brick-and-mortar store or an online retailer, the next few weeks are critical for driving those important year-end sales.
While you're probably already relying heavily on social media to spread the word about holiday promotions, focusing on image-based platforms like Instagram and Pinterest can take your marketing efforts to the next level. That's because images are an incredibly powerful communication tool: According to a recent MIT study, the human brain can process and identify images seen for as little as 13 milliseconds.
"It's anthropological," said Apu Gupta, CEO of visual social media marketing platform Curalate. "Our ancestors communicated through pictures on cave walls, and now we're doing the same thing [on social media]. There are so many things competing for our attention today, and you need shortcuts to process it. Images allow us to do that. They're mental shortcuts that allow us to understand our world better and faster."
If you want to use visual marketing to your advantage this holiday season, follow these expert social media tips.
Use eye-catching images. Product images can be extremely valuable on social media, but if those pictures are small, uninteresting or low-quality, you're doing more harm to your brand than good. Noelle Federico, chief financial officer of stock photo provider Dreamstime, advised using bright, vibrant images that jump out and catch consumers' eyes.
"All of your social content has to have visual appeal and draw attention," Federico told Business News Daily. "Pictures that aren't done well or don't look good [will only] deter people from shopping [your brand]."
Make use of user-generated images. Perhaps even more powerful than brand-produced images is user-generated content from real consumers. Customers love getting recognized by their favorite companies on social media, and in most cases, they're happy to create and share content to be used by a brand.
"During the holiday season, it's advantageous to run promotions that are all about your fans creating content," Gupta said. "Having people take photos [of your products] around the holiday season that show how much they're enjoying them is a great way to spread awareness."
"By running a holiday social media campaign, you can almost guarantee an increase in sales," added Nicole Bandklayder, co-founder and chief marketing officer of jewelry retailer Bijouxx Jewels. "[For example, host] a contest to win something, and [to enter], you have to post a photo with the campaign hashtag."
If you do decide to run a contest, Bandklayder said, make sure to publicize it well across all social platforms, to make sure your followers know about it.
Pay attention to your analytics. As with any marketing effort, keeping a close eye on your metrics — to discover what works and what doesn't — is the key to creating holiday social media campaigns that stick. This is especially true on Pinterest, where most pinned photos are taken and shared from brand websites, Gupta said. If your followers are sharing photos of specific products, you can use those insights to plan your next move.
"You can learn a lot just by observing which photos [customers] take from your brand and share," Gupta said. "[If you see] what's trending for you are holiday photos or photos of sweaters, [you can] use that to inform your advertising this holiday season and make better decisions."
The Passport sports a big, square display that provides better dimensions for viewing documents. BUY Blackberry Passport >>>
The BlackBerry Passport is a truly unique business phone, and you can get it for free if you trade in your iPhone. The company announced a new deal in which users can trade in their iPhone right now and get the Passport, which sports a physical QWERTY keyboard and a big square screen, potentially without paying a dime. Depending on which model of iPhone you're giving up, you might actually come away with an extra $50 in cash after all is said and done.
Here's how the deal works. BlackBerry is offering up to $400 for each iPhone traded in, depending on which model it is. On top of that, the company will pay you an extra $150, so long as you buy the Passport online from the BlackBerry store between Dec. 1, 2014, and Feb. 13, 2015. The Passport costs $500, so you can potentially get it for free, or even with a $50 bonus on top of that, if you trade in the top-end model of the new iPhone 6. Check out the chart below to see the trade-in value of your iPhone, or click here to use the offer.
What makes the deal so noteworthy for business users is the Passport's unique set of productivity features. As previously mentioned, it has a full physical keyboard, which should satisfy business users who prefer tactile feedback while typing. In my full review, I noted that my typing accuracy improved on the Passport, though the physical keys slowed me down a bit. The other big draw is the Passport's large, square display, which provides better dimensions for viewing documents, spreadsheets and even your email inbox, at least compared to rectangular smartphones. And like all BlackBerry devices, the Passport supports top-notch security features, like automatic encryption, which helps keep your business data safe.
Daniel Catullo, owner of Catullo Prime Meats in Youngstown, Ohio
When Judith Irving decided to start selling her family's caramel sauce online, there were a few kinks to work out.
The caramel sauce, made from goat's milk on her family farm in Vermont, comes in breakable glass jars. She needed to find a way to ship them across the country without the jars arriving in a thousand pieces, so she sent sample packages to a FedEx test lab to be examined for strength.
"The smaller jars were less of an issue," said Irving, co-founder of Fat Toad Farm, home to 80 goats that are milked exclusively to make the caramel sauce. "The first iterations of gallon jars I sent, well, they broke."
Goats (and friends) at Fat Toad Farm, Brookfield, Vermont
As it turns out, there's a science to designing packages that makes it possible to ship perishable and fragile foods. Major shipping companies like FedEx and UPS have test labs where they put sample packages through the wringer for their business clients who sell food products online. At the FedEx labs, packages are put through everything from free-fall drops to compression tests by a team of engineers and technicians.
Some companies invest their own time and resources into testing. That could involve leaving packages out on a doorstep in the heat to see how they fare, or setting up complex mathematical pie charts to balance different R-values — which measure insulating value — against the cost of the packaging.
Gourmet Gift Baskets, a New Hampshire-based company, has employed both of those tactics, among others. The company sells perishables from fruits to sweets online in its gift baskets. It also runs the subsidiaries Cheesecake.com and KingOfPOP.com. When the company bought the cheesecake business three years ago, months of testing went into figuring out the proper packaging, the right amount of dry ice and the number of days the products could survive shipping, Ryan Abood, CEO and president, said.
"It really is a science in a lot of ways. There's definitely some trial and error, and there's a lot of empirical evidence to show your processes are working," Abood said. "We haven't had a process fail because we do so much testing in-house."
The tricky part for companies like Gourmet Gift Baskets is that different products require different packaging, temperatures and handling procedures. Fruits have to be purchased the day they are shipped and cold-stored until the trucks arrive in the evening. Cheesecakes last longer in the freezer, but they need to be packaged and shipped to exact specifications so that they arrive at around 50 degrees.
"It's not a one-size-fits-all process," Abood said.
Melissa Ben-Ishay, founder of Manhattan-based Baked By Melissa, also used the trial-and-error process in designing packaging that would get her miniature cupcakes to customers across the country in the same shape as they're sold in the company's 12 stores in and around the city. The company designed a patent-pending clam-shell packaging with tiers to hold the cupcakes in place.
"I literally threw them up the air and made sure they were still perfect," said Ben-Ishay, who was inspired to pursue her dream of opening a cupcake shop after being fired from an advertising agency, which she describes as the best thing that could have happened. "We wouldn't ship our products until we had the packaging that we have now."
Melissa Ben-Ishay, founder of Baked by Melissa, New York
Baked By Melissa is among a growing number of small food companies expanding their footprint by selling online. Local food businesses are realizing they can increase sales by selling to restaurants, retail stores and consumers across the country. However, aside from the packaging challenges, these business are finding themselves swamped with orders at this time of year, as customers buy specialty foods for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Becky Huling, vice president of marketing for FedEx, said many of the small food businesses they serve see a 40 or 50 percent increase in sales this time of year due to Thanksgiving and Christmas orders. They're looking for advice on how to design packaging that will get all these food products to customers intact, she said.
"For small businesses, one of the fastest-growing categories is specialty food items," Huling said. "We act as a consultant on a lot of cases. .... We ship it all. We ship a lot of cheesecakes and cupcakes and cheeses.
Ohio-based Catullo Prime Meats, which sells specialty meat products like turduckens —a Thanksgiving turkey stuffed with chicken, duck and specialty dressing — had the difficult task of figuring out how to get very perishable meats to customers across the country without spoiling, and on time. Thanksgiving and Christmas meats are of little use if they arrive too late.
Owner Danny Catullo said he knew the idea of selling meats online was good in theory, but the logistics of how to ship them took some serious thought and testing. The company figured out that some items could be shipped on regular ice, while others required dry ice, depending on the location.
"We try not to ship anything longer than four days. Preferably, one to three. We pack everything so that it has an extra day, just in case," Catullo said. "If someone is local you can drive them a new prime rib if something isn't right. When you're shipping to California, you can't do that."
If you don't get along with your boss, you're better off coming to terms with it, rather than trying to pretend that everything's OK, new research suggests.
Job performance and motivation improve when employees and their supervisors are up front about a bad relationship, according to a study recently published in the Academy of Management Journal.
"Seeing eye to eye about the employee-supervisor relationship is equally, if not more important than the actual quality of the relationship," Fadel Matta, lead investigator on the study and a management researcher at Michigan State University's Broad College of Business, said in a statement.
When examining 280 employees and their bosses, researchers found that motivation suffered when an employee believed he or she had a good relationship with the boss but the boss saw it differently. The same held true if the boss believed the relationship was good but the subordinate did not.
The study examined a wide range of employees, from cashiers to senior managers, in a host of industries, including automotive, retail and financial services. Researchers surveyed both the workers and their bosses separately, so neither knew how the other felt about them.
When the two saw eye to eye about the relationship, even when it was poor, not only was employee motivation higher, but the workers were also more likely to go above and beyond their basic job duties, the researchers found.
While it's human inclination to want everyone to like you, it's tough for boss to have a good relationship with every single employee, Matta said. In the end, it's most important that supervisors and workers don't misrepresent how they feel about their relationships.
"Some people would say it's better to fake it, but our results indicate that the opposite is true," Matta said. "At the end of the day, it's better for everyone to know where they stand and how they feel about each other."
The study was co-authored by Brent Scott, a professor at Michigan State, and Joel Koopman, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati.
For a small business owner, year-end tax preparations are just one more headache to add to the already-busy holiday season. When you're trying to do your own payroll, it can be even more difficult to keep track of all the documents to file, deadlines to meet and regulations to follow. But mistakes on your payroll, whether intentional or not, can really cost your business.
"There are many hard deadlines related to tax deposits and filings," said Phil Noftsinger, CPA and president of business services provider CBIZ Payroll. "All of these come with painful penalties for noncompliance, so employers doing payroll in-house should make sure they are very comfortable with all of the deadlines and reporting requirements for year-end."
"There can be hefty fines attached to incorrect filings, along with payroll audits," added Shelley Ng, vice president of product management at payroll and HR solution provider Ceridian.
Noftsinger and Ng outlined four common but costly errors small business owners should avoid as they wrap up their payroll for 2014.
Improperly handling taxable gifts and rewards. Taxable business expenses, such as company property and life insurance, are typically reported at the end of the year, but other items, such as reward trips and employee gifts, should be taxed more closely to the time they were received.
"Tangible items provided as holiday gifts, or even items provided related to contests [employees] may have won throughout the year, fall into this category," Noftsinger said. "[Also] tripping up many employers are the new 'points websites that allow employers to deposit points into an associate's account for him or her to spend through the website as they see fit. Once employees select an item for which to use their points, this becomes a taxable event and should appear on the associate's payroll stub."
Not researching legislative changes. Federal and state governments frequently change their tax legislation, rates and forms throughout the year, so it is critical that you understand these obligations, Ng said. She advised employers to research legislative changes and ensure that they've downloaded the latest versions of tax forms.
Ng noted that cloud- and Web-based payroll software are updated automatically through the service provider, but if you have local software installed, be sure that you have the latest version that reflects the legislative changes.
Missing ACA-related regulations. The rules regarding year-end reporting for health insurance have become more complex with the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Employee and employer portions of health insurance costs must now be reported on associates' W2 forms — a rule that Noftsinger said employers may miss.
Incorrect employee classifications and calculations. The IRS has been cracking down on employers that knowingly or accidentally misclassify employees as independent contract workers. Ng emphasized the importance of providing everyone on your payroll with the proper tax filing form for their classification, whether it's a W2 (employee) or 1099 (contractor/freelancer). Ng also noted that, for companies with out-of-state employees or multistate locations, employers need to be in compliance with state-specific filing rules and tax calculations.
"Set up your employees properly in their current state to ensure state taxes and unemployment insurance are properly calculated, and the appropriate tax form is generated for each employee," Ng said.
If you're considering outsourcing your payroll processing to an outside firm, Noftsinger advised finding a processor that you can trust.
"Hold them accountable to making sure your relationship is important enough to them to provide a quality service," Noftsinger told Business News Daily.
Most important, as you take your business into the new year, be sure to maintain good habits and keep up your records and files right from the start.
"Don't treat year-end as an event," Ng said. "If you have good payroll, housekeeping and reconciliation processes in place throughout the year, you will mitigate headaches at the end of the year."
The Nokia Lumia 830 has an aluminum frame that adds a premium look and feel. Credit: Nokia
In September, Microsoft unveiled the Lumia 830, its new flagship phone that's packed with premium features at a midrange price.
Marketed as an "affordable flagship," the Lumia 830 is now available for only $99 with a contract on AT&T. Could this entry-level smartphone be the Windows Phone for your business?
Here's what the Lumia 830 has to offer small businesses.
Display and design
Sporting a 5-inch, 1280 x 720-pixel LCD Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display, the Lumia 830 gives you plenty of screen real estate to help you work on business apps and stay productive on the go. It measures 5.48 x 2.78 x 0.33 inches and weighs 5.3 ounces.
In a hands-on review by our sister site Laptop Mag, the Lumia 830 was found to have a "crisp and bright" display, and was described as lightweight, thin and comfortable to hold.
Operating system
The Lumia 830 runs on Windows Phone 8.1, offering several features that make it easy to run your business on the go:
Native integration with Microsoft Office, so you can easily work on Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations wherever you are.
Cortana, Windows Phone's voice-activated digital assistant, so you can set alarms, take notes, perform Web searches and complete other tasks using voice commands.
15GB of storage on OneDrive, Microsoft's cloud storage service.
Power and accessories
Equipped with a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB of RAM, the Lumia 830 is powerful enough to keep up with the business apps you use the most. It ships with only 16GB of storage, but if you need more space, storage is expandable to up to 128GB via microSD.
The device comes with a removable 2200-mAh battery, which Microsoft says has a maximum talk time of 14 hours and 48 minutes on 3G.
Camera and accessories
The Lumia 830 also comes with several features business users will love, including a 10-megapixel rear-facing camera for stunning photos and high-resolution videos, a 0.9-megapixel front-facing camera for videoconferencing and online meetings, and support for Microsoft's new Lumia accessories:
Nokia Wireless Charging Stand. Wirelessly charge your phone by setting it on the stand. There's no need to plug it in, and it remains upright so you can easily use the device while it charges.
Screen-Sharing for Lumia Phones HD-10.Use this during business presentations to beam your display to any HDMI-supported monitor or projector.
The gap between men and women in the corporate world is nothing new. In many industries, men still earn more money, occupy more leadership positions and advance more quickly than women do. While the growing number of female executives, especially in Fortune 500 companies, is a promising sign, the gender gap is still affecting women's careers in a significant way.
A new report by the American Management Association suggests that this disparity doesn't simply exist because men have "always been" the dominant force in the workplace. Female CEOs may actually be held to a higher standard than male leaders, which causes them to be passed over and left behind when advancement opportunities arise.
Despite the fact that female leaders are, on average, better educated and more qualified than their male counterparts, they still aren't earning as much or advancing as quickly as men. According to the report, women are 33 percent more likely to earn a college degree than men, with 36 percent of women (versus 28 percent of men) in leadership positions holding STEM degrees. In addition, the study found that female executives attended colleges and graduate schools that were ranked higher on average than the schools attended by men. And yet, just 4.8 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and only 1.1 percent of women earn $150,000 or more per year, compared with 4 percent of men.
"These statistics seem to show that women are held to different, if not more demanding, standards than men," Jeremey Donovan, chief marketing officer for AMA and author of the report, said in a statement. "What we learned suggests this applies to women at all levels. There's discrimination, conscious or unconscious. Corporate culture is still male-dominated, a phenomenon women are surely aware of, even if men may not be."
To help organizations of all sizes level the playing field between men and women in their C-suites, Donovan offered a few suggestions for developing strong female leaders.
Evaluate your policies to ensure that gender discrimination, whether intentional or not, isn't occurring in your organization. This includes compensation guidelines, hiring practices, career development programs, etc.
Provide networking opportunities to the women in your company through internal affinity groups, lunch-and-learns and company events.
Assign a mentor to your female employees with leadership potential. As AMA's research shows, women who make it to the top are often hired internally. A relationship with a mentor can help women navigate the politics of an organization and expose them to new opportunities. You can also offer them private coaching to provide the benefit of outside advice.
Get women involved in projects designed to groom future leaders, and be sure to establish clear guidelines. Women need experience with high-profile and complex projects to build confidence and credibility, and gain visibility within the organization.
Offer flexible-work arrangements. While men are increasingly sharing the role of primary caregiver with women, many women still feel pressured to successfully juggle motherhood with their careers. Flextime, job sharing, telecommuting, compressed schedules and other flexible work options can really make a difference to working mothers. Donovan noted that some companies even offer women a slightly different leadership track, allowing them to take a less- demanding job during childrearing years with the option to revert to a more demanding role later.
To download the report with the full list of tips for women's leadership development, visit AMA's website.
Today's technological advances allow businesses to brainstorm, communicate, and share and innovate from anywhere in the world, in ways that were never before possible. These capabilities have brought with them the promise of seamless project collaboration among members of an increasingly global workforce.
But as many businesses know, collaborative efforts don't always work out as planned. A recent pan-European study commissioned by collaboration solution provider Projectplace found that inefficient project management practices cost organizations 20 working days a year, which can jeopardize a company's revenue and reputation.
"Project success requires a balance of elements, including building a motivated team, easy collaboration and getting things done on time and within budget," Tobias Andersson, chief operating officer of Projectplace, said in a statement. "It takes just one of those elements to slip, disrupting the balance and resulting in chaos. If the team misses a single email, the knock-on effect can be a delay in the project, a disgruntled customer, and even lost revenues."
Communication and technology hassles are among the top reasons that collaboration breaks down in organizations. Of the 1,240 project managers surveyed by Projectplace, 37 percent said a lack of communication with team members is a major headache. Three-quarters of respondents use email as their primary communication method, and limits on mailbox sizes (26 percent) and tracking down specific emails in a thread (38 percent) are two big pet peeves for workers. While the majority of project managers feel that investing in new technologies could reduce time, money and stress, only 52 percent of their IT departments support the use of new tech solutions.
James Bindseil, president and CEO of file-transfer software company Globalscape, noted that multiple versions of files and failure to properly track documents can also hamper the innovation and teamwork that collaboration is supposed to enable, especially when workers are geographically dispersed.
"With a myriad of users across locations, companies face major hurdles in managing multiple networks and preventing redundancies in employee workloads," Bindseil told Business News Daily. "[If one user is] editing a document that is currently being accessed by another team member across the city, country or globe, [it] can lead to multiple, inconsistent documents and a slower project completion time.Organizations that can't control and track their documents often find that collaboration can be cumbersome and inefficient."
Perhaps even more concerning than any of these issues is the inherent information security risks associated with poor collaboration practices. A Globalscape study revealed that nearly two-thirds of employees use unapproved file-sharing methods like Dropbox and personal email accounts, and 80 percent of these workers do so at least once a month. Bindseil advised organizations to choose collaboration software that will give them more control over their documents and information.
"Alack of enterprise-grade security puts data at risk of compromise or corruption if it falls into the wrong hands," Bindseil said. "[Find a solution that] can move or synchronize information from one location to another, protect data in motion, prevent redundancies by locking files and allow controlled remote and offline access to critical documents."
Andersson also emphasized the important role of the right tech solutions in ensuring safe, efficient and productive collaboration.
"Project management chaos is harmful for businesses because it can damage their reputation and bottom line," Andersson said. "Businesses have everything to gain by addressing the chaos, and technology plays a central role in this. By exploring new methods and tools, they can propel smarter, goal-driven collaboration."
After conducting extensive research and analysis of online payroll services, we recommend SurePayroll as the best online payroll service for paying household employees.
Ready to choose a payroll service? Here's a breakdown of our complete coverage:
Payroll Service Buyer's Guide
Roundup: The Best Payroll Services
REVIEW: Best for Small Business Overall
REVIEW: Best for Sole Proprietors or S Corps
REVIEW: Best for Very Small Businesses
If you have a full-time nanny, caregiver, housekeeper or other household employee working for you, you might be asking yourself why in the world you would need a payroll service. How hard could writing one check a week be? The answer revolves around taxes. In essence, your home is now acting as a business that needs to withhold taxes and make tax payment to the state and federal government, just like all other businesses do. That's why a payroll service might be a good idea.
Why SurePayroll?
Cost-effective
For household payroll services, you have a choice between providers that solely handle household payroll needs and those that also provide small businesses with payroll services. SurePayroll, however, provides both services, making it one of the most cost-effective payroll providers.
If you want to pay your nanny or senior caregiver weekly, SurePayroll costs $72 per month. If you only want to pay your employee once a month, the fee drops down to $49 per month. Included in both of those monthly costs is a $2 charge per employee. So, if at some point you decide you want to bring on a housekeeper, a full-time landscaper or a second nanny, your cost would only increase by $2 per month. That is a significantly cheaper increase than some of the other services we examined, specifically those that are household specialized, which charge anywhere from $20 to $75 per additional worker. For that monthly price, you are able to pay your household worker every week or month, depending on the package you choose, and have all of their payroll tax responsibilities handled for you.
While there are some significantly cheaper online payroll services for household employers out there, none of the others offer a full suite of tax services like SurePayroll does. Those that do offer full tax services were comparable in terms of monthly costs, but charged much more for additional workers. SurePayroll's monthly cost also includes the option to pay your employee either by direct deposit or printed check. Some services charged extra for that option. There is also no initial setup fee with SurePayroll, while many of its competitors charge as much as $100 for setting up an account.
Tax services
One of the biggest benefits to using an online payroll service is the tax services provided. Many of the services we considered either did not offer tax services or charged extra for them, but SurePayroll handles all of your payroll tax responsibilities for no additional charge. That includes calculating and deducting Social Security, Medicare, and federal and state unemployment taxes, along with filling out and filing your federal, state, and local tax forms and payments. In addition, SurePayroll files a quarterly 1040-ES on your behalf, and provides you with a signature-ready Schedule H that you attach to your annual 1040 filing. These services are completed automatically, without any extra input from you.
In addition to taking on the responsibility of completing these services for you, SurePayroll also guarantees that it will be done correctly and on time. The service takes on the full liability for your payroll taxes. Should an error be made, the company will pay any of the fines or interest fees that you incur. Not all of the services we reviewed offered this type of guarantee.
Customer service
When analyzing SurePayroll's customer service, we contacted the company multiple times by phone and email. We found the level of customer service to be extremely high. Both times we called, a representative answered in fewer than three rings. Some of the services we examined had long wait times, which didn't reassure us that we would be able to get the help we needed when we needed it. During our calls to SurePayroll, once about its small business offerings and once about its household payroll services, the customer service representatives were extremely helpful and insightful. They answered all of our questions in great detail and made sure we fully understood exactly what they were saying. They gave a clear description of what their service offers and how the company is different from its competitors. After our calls, both representatives sent emails to see if we had any follow-up questions and to highlight some of the services provided.
In addition to providing links to videos that outline how their service works, this was the only payroll provider we contacted that offered to let us test drive the system. The customer service agent gave us temporary login credentials that allowed us to see exactly what it was like to use the service. The representative had us log in during our call and then walked us through each part of the system to demonstrate how easy it was to use. While you can glean a lot from the numerous online videos payroll providers offer, these pale in comparison to actually using the system. We got a great feel for what it would be like to set up the system, enter in new employees, and run payroll every week or month. What was nice about this was that the customer service agent offered this test run unprompted. It wasn't even something we needed to ask for, which was a pleasant surprise, and something none of SurePayroll's competitors offered.
SurePayroll provides customer support six days a week. Monday through Friday, it's available between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. (CST) and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (CST). We like that the help lines are open later in the evenings and on Saturdays, which is something many of the other services didn't offer.
Ease of use
Since we did get the opportunity to test out the system, we were able to see just how simple it is to use and navigate. When you log in to the system, the first page you see is your account-center home page. On this page, you see your payroll status and any reminders you need to know, such as your upcoming payroll processing dates and any bank holidays. This page gives you a clear overview of where your payroll needs stand.
When you need to add your nanny, caregiver or other household employee into the system, you simply click on the Employee link at the top of the page. Once on the employee page you select Add Employee, and you are able to easily enter all of the worker's personal information, such as name, birthday, Social Security number and emergency contact details. Once all of that information has been added, you can enter the employee's bank account number, if the worker will be getting direct deposit, how much the individual is getting paid either by the hour or week, and the tax-withholding details. Once all of that is saved into the system, you are ready to start running payroll.
This can be accomplished in three steps: After clicking on the payroll tab at the top of the page, you select your employee and add in the hours they worked. Since you have already established the employee's pay rate in the setup process, all of the calculations are done for you. If the employee is salaried, you only need to enter the weekly, or monthly, amount owed. After that, you just need to click on the Preview Payroll link at the bottom of the page to review all of the details and make sure everything is accurate. On the preview page, you will see a breakdown of the employee's gross pay and how much is being taken out of the worker's checks for employee and employer taxes. If everything looks good, you click on the Submit for Approval link at the bottom of the page, and your payroll will run. At that point, you will be provided details on when the money will be transferred for direct deposit or when you can print out the checks for your employee.
A nice feature of the system is that your household employee will also have access to the account to review pay stubs and pay history. To learn more about using the system, you can watch videos on the SurePayroll website and on YouTube.
Other benefits
A nice added benefit of the SurePayroll system is that it can be run completely via mobile devices. The company offers mobile apps for both Android and Apple devices that allow you to enter earnings, deductions, hours worked and benefits (such as vacation and personal time), all from a smartphone or tablet. This gives you the ability to run your payroll from anywhere.
We also found it appealing that the company provides payroll services for small businesses, too. Rather than simply focusing its offerings on household services, this company is also responsible for maintaining a service that is sophisticated enough for a small business to use. Even though you may only by running a household payroll each week, the system is the same as that provided to small businesses. You might think because you're only running payroll for your nanny or caregiver you won't receive the same attention as a business with 10 to 20 employees does. However, we found otherwise. We received the exact same high level of support when we called inquiring about the small business service as we did when calling about the household services. That is a sign to us that SurePayroll values each of its clients equally, regardless of the size of your payroll.
Limitations
One potential downside of the SurePayroll service is that it isn't offered in different packages like some of the nanny-specific payroll services we reviewed. Some of SurePayroll's competitors offered cheaper plans for lower levels of service. For example, they gave you the option to pay less if you only wanted the service to calculate your tax withholdings and prepare your tax documents. If you would rather handle paying your employee on your own and send in your tax documents for yourself at a lower cost, you don't have that option with SurePayroll.
Another slight negative with SurePayroll is that it doesn't offer live chat assistance via its website. Some of the company's competitors give you the ability to immediately start chatting with a customer service agent directly from your payroll page. That means you don't have to stop what you're doing to make a phone call or write out an email asking for help.
We chose SurePayroll from a pool of the dozens of payroll services we considered. To read our full methodology and for a more comprehensive list of payroll services, visit our best picks page here.
Last month, Facebook unveiled Rooms, the social network's version of message boards and discussion forums. The company issued its first update to the Rooms app for iOS today (Nov. 25), adding new features to help Room owners monitor activity and drive engagement.
Though owned by Facebook, Rooms is a standalone service outside of the social network. It lets you create, join and participate in "rooms" about any topic you're interested in. Each room contains a feed of content — photos, videos and text — about that topic, much like Instagram and other social networks.
Rooms offers businesses a new venue to market their brands, showcase their expertise, and spark conversations with current and prospective customers. Users can invite their friends and share content, just as you would with any other social network.
What Rooms isn't is an advertising channel. For instance, if you own a yoga studio, you wouldn't create a room for the sole purpose of promoting classes, workshops and merchandise you offer. Instead, you'd create rooms to discuss specific yoga-related topics, such as the benefits of practicing yoga and advice on improving one's practice.
The challenge with Rooms, however, is keeping up and keeping them active. With this new iOS update, businesses have a better way to monitor their rooms and stay up to date with the latest conversations — using push notifications and a new activity dashboard.
Push notifications
Receive alerts for new activities. The app can now send your phone push notifications whenever someone posts in a Room you create or belong to, so you always know when there's something new to talk about.
It can also alert you whenever members tap the Like button. These alerts are customizable, allowing you to designate different sounds for different members.
You can turn the alerts on and off in the settings menu.
Activity dashboard
Get insights on room activities and member behaviors. The new activity dashboard offers several metrics to track activity and measure engagement, such as how much time members spend in your room, as well as the number of posts, comments and Likes your room received in the past week. Use this information to make improvements, up your own activity and increase engagement.
The update also comes with several bug fixes to make the Rooms iOS app work better and faster. The Rooms app is currently only available on iOS. An Android app has yet to be announced.
Whether it's through Kickstarter or an equity platform, startups that have launched a crowdfunding campaign show how effective it can be to raise money through small contributions from a large number of people. As the popularity of crowdfunding continues to grow, startups and small businesses will be able to take advantage of the various trends that emerge in this space in the coming years. Here are three to watch in 2015.
Crowdfunding will go mainstream. In years past, crowdfunding as a means of financing a business was a novelty, a rare exception to the traditional methods of bank loans, venture capital and borrowing money. Today, announcing your crowdfunding campaign is just as common as any of these other options, if not more so.
"Many major news organizations are now highlighting noteworthy campaigns," said Bill Clerico, CEO of WePay, a payment service provider for crowdfunding, marketplace and small business platforms. "That's not just good for the campaigns, but it also normalizes the behavior and leads to more people [giving to] crowdfunding [campaigns]."
Nonprofits will benefit more from crowdfunding. The nonprofit and charity sector has particularly benefited from the growth of crowdfunding.
"This entire industry is being disrupted with the introduction of crowdfunding of donations," said Anisa Mirza, CEO and co-founder of charity crowdfunding platform Giveffect.
"Charities are seeing a twofold benefit from crowdfunding," Clerico added. "First, it's proven to be an extremely efficient way to solicit and manage donations compared with other methods. Second, the additional social and viral potentials of crowdfunding campaigns can give smaller charities a cost-effective way to create awareness for their cause."
Equity crowdfunding will grow (in states with crowdfunding exemptions). In 2012, Congress passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act to bring equity crowdfunding to the forefront. A federal crowdfunding exemption under the JOBS Act is currently stalled, meaning that true, nationwide crowdfunding is not possible. However, Jonathan Wilson, an attorney at Taylor English Duma LLP, noted that about a dozen states have adopted their own in-state regulations for business crowdfunding.
"These intrastate offerings have had some success raising funds for real-estate projects, especially for construction financing and rehabilitation financing in deals where a bank loan would be difficult or not well-suited to the deal," Wilson said.
Gus Schmidt, attorney with Gunster law firm, noted that unless you're in a state with such crowdfunding rules, you can't truly take advantage of the proposed federal benefits of equity crowdfunding.
"Sites like GoFundMe and Kickstarter aren't true equity financing websites," Schmidt said. "You pre-sell products, and once the company gets up and running, the people who contributed will get the product. But they're not buying shares in the company. Once the SEC rolls out [a final] version of the JOBS Act, we'll see if it becomes something mainstream."
If you're hoping to launch a crowdfunding campaign in the New Year, you'll want to read the fine print on the platform or site you want to use. Not all crowdfunding platforms are created equal, and before you launch a campaign, you should know the ins and outs of each platform before you make your account.
"Truly understand the platform you are choosing," Mirza said. "From traditional crowdfunding venture firms like BrightSpark to platforms like AngelList, or even general platforms like Indiegogo and Kickstarter, there are a myriad of options. And chances are there is one that is better than others for your startup."
You'll also need a solid marketing plan to get your campaign off the ground.You may have a great idea that people are willing to fund, but if they don't know about it, you'll never see a dime of their money. Clerico reminded campaigners that crowdfunding is a challenging marketing exercise, and you need a strong, well-executed plan to raise the capital you require.
"Calculate how many people need to give at a specific amount to achieve your goal, and then devise a marketing plan to reach that many people," Clerico told Business News Daily. "Be sure to identify early champions, those who can rally their network to help you reach your goal. Reaching out to media outlets and blogs can help your campaign get distribution as well."
Wilson agreed, noting that, although communicating with potential investors is easier than ever before, you need an organized campaign to make it work.
"Campaigns fail that don't have their business plans fully baked before they launch," Wilson said. "Invest the time to complete a business plan and all of the related contracts before trying to tell [your] story through crowdfunding."
While crowdfunding may never fully replace traditional funding options, Clerico said that small businesses, especially those outside of the tech industry, will continue to benefit tremendously from this method of raising capital.
"Crowdfunding is here to stay," Clerico said. [According to the World Bank,] "by 2025, the global crowdfunding market potential could be between $90 billion and $96 billion. Crowdfunding will grow dramatically as a way to finance nontech businesses that have been traditionally financed by bank loans and friends and family. The opportunity here is enormous, and crowdfunding has barely scratched the surface of the small business financing opportunity."
These tools help you tighten the security on your Google for Work accounts. Credit: Google
If you use Google apps for work, two new online tools can help you make sure your accounts are secure. The first is the new Devices and Activity dashboard, which gives you a rundown of all the devices that have accessed your Google for Work account in the last 28 days. That way, you can quickly see whether any unauthorized devices have logged in to a company account. And if any suspicious activity is noticed — say, an unknown login in a different country, or a sudden influx of logins on new devices — you'll be alerted automatically and prompted to change your password or security settings.
The second new Google for Work tool is called the Security Wizard, which helps you set up new work accounts or ensure that existing accounts have been optimally secured. It works by guiding you through the steps to turn on or adjust security features, such as providing contact info for account recovery, or reviewing account permissions. It takes just a few minutes, and your employees can do it themselves, saving you time.
If you're not familiar with Google for Work, it's a solid all-in-one platform for small businesses that don't have much of an IT budget. Subscriptions include software to create, edit and collaborate on documents in real time; cloud storage with unlimited space; a good videoconferencing app; shared calendars, so you can schedule appointments and meetings; and tools for tracking sales.
Managing devices and cloud-based apps isn't easy for small businesses. In addition to managing users, administrators have to maintain security and troubleshoot cyberattacks. But not all small businesses can afford to hire IT professionals to manage these security tasks. If you use Google Apps or Google for Work, however, there are new tools that can help.
Google launched two new features today (Nov. 24) to help Google business users take more control of their security. The new Devices and Activity dashboard and security wizard provide businesses with improved tools to better manage and beef up the security of Google Apps devices and Google for Work accounts.
"Security in the cloud is a shared responsibility, and keeping your company information secure is at the core of what we do every day," wrote Eran Feigenbaum, director of security for Google for Work, wrote in a blog post announcing the launch. "By making users more aware of their security settings and the activity on their devices, we can work together to stay a step ahead of any bad guys."
Here's what's changing and how the new security features can help your business.
Devices and Activity dashboard
Having mobile access to Google Apps lets users stay productive anytime, anywhere. But it also poses a huge security risk if devices are hacked into, lost or stolen. Keeping an eye on these devices and their activities is key to maintaining security.
To help businesses monitor devices, the new Devices and Activity dashboard delivers enhanced security insights by providing a comprehensive list of all devices that are currently signed in to Google Apps or have accessed it within the last 28 days. The dashboard also tracks activities to help identify suspicious behavior. If anything seems unusual or if there is a security breach, a separate setting lets users immediately change passwords and secure accounts.
Security wizard
Businesses with Google for Work accounts can now boost their security by updating their security settings with the new security wizard. Step by step, the wizard guides users through different security areas to better secure their accounts.
Completing the security wizard will only take a few minutes, Google claims, and administrators can update the following security areas:
Account recovery. Add a recovery phone number so Google can reach and alert you if they detect any unusual activity on your account.
Recent activity. Monitor activities and identify suspicious behavior.
Account permissions. Check, set up and change account permissions for what users can and can't do with their accounts.
App passwords. Check passwords across apps and Google for Work accounts.
Any settings assigned through the wizard are considered as administrator settings. This provides even more security, as these settings take precedence over any security changes that individual users make on their accounts.
To start using the security wizard, sign in at g.co/accountcheckup.
If you ask many of today's business-to-consumer companies about their target market, "women" and "millennials" are likely to come up a lot. The fact that marketers are going after these two segments should come as no surprise: The buying power of consumers who belong to these groups — especially those in the intersection — is rapidly growing as Generation Y continues to grow up and enter the workforce. But reaching female millennials successfully isn't always as easy as you might expect.
Where many marketers go wrong is casting too wide of a net with this group, and making broad assumptions about the individuals within them. In fact, two Advertising Week 2014 panels said that marketing strategies that rely too heavily on stereotypes about millennials and women are becoming less and less effective. Gabie Boko, executive vice president of marketing at accounting software provider Sage, agreed that these tactics need to be scratched from your playbook.
"When marketing to millennial women, one size does not fit all," Boko told Business News Daily. "Not every woman is a mom. Not every woman is a high-powered executive. Not every woman likes pink. Stereotyping in your marketing is one of the quickest ways to alienate potential buyers. Instead, you need to tap into their true buying needs and preferences."
"Marketers often loop all millennials into one large target group and make the assumption that they act and behave in all of the same ways, which is just not true," added Michael Dill, managing partner of integrated marketing firm Match Drive. "Millennials are like colors — they are all different shades, and marketers need to understand what particular shade they are selling to and why."
If you're trying to market to this fast-growing, highly coveted group, here are a few tips to keep in mind.
Research, research, research. In order to think beyond the stereotypes of millennial women, you need to do your research. Speak with them directly and learn about what they want — and whether that aligns with what your company offers.
"Narrow your focus to the women who will likely be the early adopters or best fit for your product," Boko said. "You must understand their community deeply and try to see your brand through their perspective. The effort you put into learning about and understanding the women in your market will show in your marketing."
Leslie Canter, a marketing representative for audience intelligence tool People Pattern, noted that listening to social media conversations is incredibly important in helping you learn about your target group and discovering what motivates these people.
"[Find out] what people are actually talking about," Canter said. "[In terms of] shopping habits, what really resonates and is important to these people?"
Think about the screen and context. One challenge brands face in reaching the millennial generation is the dramatic shift in communication habits ushered in by the digital age. Dill noted that marketers have had to rethink their traditional advertising and retail models and adapt them to the multiscreen world of Gen Y.
"When millennials watch TV, they don't just sit there, staring at the screen," Dill said. "They often watch two different screens or more, or they engage with their friends while watching. They stop, they go off and then come back."
Ilana Stern, founder of wedding fashion retailer Weddington Way, said that the context of brand connections — browsing on a smartphone while waiting for the subway versus shopping on a desktop during work, for instance — makes a difference in how you should choose to reach out to millennial women.
"Millennials are consuming content in a variety of [ways, and] their goals and mind-set change depending on the context," Stern said. "Brands need to meet them where they are, with simple and straightforward messaging and experiences that cater to these contexts."
Make a connection. As more millennials shift to online and mobile shopping, ensuring a seamless experience across all devices is important. But just as important is finding ways to authentically connect with millennials through your marketing efforts.
"Millennials interact with brands differently than prior generations," Stern said. "It's not about push marketing and brand endorsement. They value the opinions of their peers and community. Millennials wants to feel informed and involved, not just someone you're marketing to. Connect [with them through] values that drive them, such as happiness, passion, diversity, sharing and discovery."
"Millennials care as much for what a brand stands for as they do for the product that the brand makes," Dill added. "To millennials, both the brand story and the company's integrity matter a great deal.Think about [millennials] first, rather than thinking about how you want to sell."
Note-taking apps can be your best friend: You can quickly jot down ideas, create lists, save images and perform other tasks on the spot, to help you stay organized and at the top of your game. But many note-taking apps are either too complex or have too few features for small businesses. The new Google Keep strikes a good balance that makes it a great choice for small business users.
Whereas previously, Google Keep was only good for note-taking and creating lists, Google recently updated it with a brand-new look and several features to help users better collaborate and easily find what they're looking for. Now sporting the new Material Design user interface (UI), Google Keep also features sharing capabilities and new ways to keep your life and business under control.
Here's what the new Google Keep has to offer business users.
Material Design
The Google Keep revamp comes with Material Design, Google's new UI that the company is pushing across devices and Google apps and services. Material Design first appeared on Android 5.0 Lollipop and features clean lines, bold colors, a simplified layout and a more intuitive user experience.
In addition to a much more visually appealing UI, this redesign helps users stay organized. You can now color-code notes, lists and other content, making it easy to find and edit them as needed.
Sharing capabilities
Before the update, Google Keep was a one-dimensional app that focused strictly on taking notes, jotting down ideas and creating lists. Now, Google wants to take it a step further by offering collaboration capabilities.
Google Keep's new sharing capabilities make it easy to not only share your Google Keep content, but also to keep everyone updated in real time. For instance, say you send your team a list of to-dos for a project. You're not just sending them a plain old list that requires calls and messages back and forth to see how everyone is doing — as you and your team members finish and check off items, everyone who has access to the list will also see others' progress in real time.
Here's how Google Keep sharing works:
Quickly and easily share content by clicking on the Share button and adding recipients' names.
Recipients get a mobile and email notification about the share, which appears immediately in their Google Keep account — no confirmations required.
Senders can also control who has access and assign privileges to shares, such as the ability to view and edit content, invite additional collaborators and remove team members.
Search and organize
Note-taking apps like Google Keep are a blessing and a curse. It's great that you can just jot down ideas, create lists and save content on the spot, but after some time, browsing through all that content can be a pain. Google Keep aims to solve that problem with an enhanced search feature.
Google Keep's simpler search function is more intuitive, helping users save time by giving them the ability to stay organized and easily find what they are looking for. To make searching easier, users can filter notes by attributes, such as note color, type of content (list, image or audio, etc.), shared content and whether they've set up reminders in their notes or lists.
Cost and availability
Google Keep is available for free on Google Play for Android-powered phones running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and up. For those who don't use an Android device, Google Keep is also available as a Web app and Chrome app.
Whether you work for a large company or for yourself, a retirement plan is important. Having your own retirement plan (or offering retirement plans for your employees) may seem out of reach, but there are actually a lot of options to choose from.
"Independent professionals may assume that they do not have access to the same types of retirement savings plans offered at large corporations," said Terry Dunne, managing director of automatic rollovers at financial services company Millennium Trust. "Similarly, small business owners may feel less capable of offering attractive retirement plan options when they are looking to attract talented hires to their organization."
However, Dunne explained that this is not the case.
"In reality, there are a number of choices available for both [independent workers and small businesses], as well as a range of service providers that offer the supporting tools and guidance necessary to select the best options to meet a range of retirement saving needs," he said.
So what are your options? Here are the three main plans available for small business owners and self-employed individuals.
Self-directed or personal IRAs
"In a self-directed IRA [Individual Retirement Account], the account owner directs all investment decisions on behalf of the retirement plan, while a qualified trustee or custodian holds the IRA assets on behalf of the IRA owner," Dunne explained.
Dunne noted that, often, individuals who have left a job and want to move retirement funds from their former employer's 401(k) plan typically choose to roll over their assets into an IRA plan.
When considering a self-directed IRA, you need to know that there are two types: traditional and Roth. What's the difference?
"The traditional IRA allows annual tax-deductible contributions that depend on the individual's modified gross adjusted income," Dunne said. "Withdrawals are taxed. However, earnings on principal and interest accumulate tax-deferred until funds are withdrawn from the account penalty-free after age 59 and a half. Minimum required distributions are mandatory after age 70 and one-half."
The traditional IRA is a good choice for individuals whose tax strategy is to defer taxes until after retirement, or for those who anticipate that tax rates during their retirement will be lower than their current rate, Dunne said.
Roth IRAs have distinct tax benefits, Dunne said, noting that contributions are not tax deductible, but can be made past age 70 and one-half.
"Earnings from a Roth IRA accumulate tax-free, and unlike a traditional IRA, withdrawals are free of tax and penalties, provided certain conditions are met," he said.
Solo 401(k)s
Solo 401(k) plans are similar to self-directed IRAs in that there are traditional and Roth types. However, Dunne said that they're a lesser-known retirement plan option. Why? They don't cover employees.
"These plans are suitable only for single-employee businesses," Dunne said. "Only the business owner and their spouse may participate and make contributions to the plan."
Because of this, these plans work well for working professionals like attorneys, CPAs (certified public accountants) and real estate agents. These types of plans are ideal for those businesses' structures, Dunne said. The plans also offer more generous annual contribution limits than any of the other options; tax-deferred contributions can be up to three times that offered by other plans, Dunne explained.
Employer-sponsored IRAS
Employer-sponsored IRAs are the least-familiar retirement option plan, Dunne said. These plans work for small business owners who would like to offer retirement benefits to current employees, or to potentially attract new hires through benefits packages.
There are two options for employer-sponsored IRAs: Simplified Employee Pension IRAs (or SEP IRAs) and Savings Incentive Match Plan IRAs (SIMPLE IRAs). So how do they work?
SEP IRAs allow employers to make contributions to their employees' retirement accounts of up to 25 percent of the employee's compensation, or a maximum of $52,000 in 2014, whichever is less, Dunne said. They are also funded 100 percent by the employer; employees do not contribute.
"The employer is not required to make a contribution every year but must contribute the same percentage for employees that they may contribute for themselves in a given year," he said.
SIMPLE IRAs enable employers with fewer than 100 employees to establish an IRA for each participating employee, Dunne said.
"The SIMPLE IRA has requirements similar to a traditional IRA," he said. "However, with a SIMPLE IRA, employees can make salary deferral contributions of up to 100 percent of their compensation, not to exceed $12,000 in 2014 and you, as their employer, must also contribute to their accounts."
You can either match your employees' contributions dollar for dollar for up to 3 percent of their compensation, Dunne explained, or contribute 2 percent of each eligible employee's compensation.
"Before deciding on a plan provider, it is import for individuals and small business owners to determine what kinds of investment options they would prefer to have," Dunne said.
Dunne also advised employers to ask themselves these questions before they decide on a retirement plan:
Do you prefer simple administration?
Do you expect to have employees?
Is it critical that your employees be able to contribute to the plan?
Will it be important to attract and keep good employees?
Do you want to maximize your contributions?
Will you want to contribute every year?
Do you want plan contributions to be deductible as a business expense?
Your answers to these questions can help you better evaluate which plan works best for your business.
