Business
Builders

The New Year is a Good Time for a New Approach to Payroll

For one small business in Rochester, New York, the attraction of outsourcing payroll to a company like Paychex boils down to efficiently keeping up with all the details of running a business. Government regulations and payroll tax payments are some of the things that really keep business owners awake at night. "If you let one slip you've got a problem or a fine comes at you," explains owner Dianne Bloch. "As a business person, you just want to say, do you realize which hat I'm wearing today? Give me a break! So, the more little things that Paychex can pick up and take care of makes it easier. Any small business person who tries to do it themselves is nuts," she says. "What are you doing people? You've got much bettering things to be doing with your time."

Specific benefits vary with the size and type of business, but in general outsourcing provides peace of mind, safety, cost savings, and more freedom to concentrate on profit-making business activities. In a survey conducted by The Outsourcing Institute, actual outsourcing end users ranked some of the top reasons in this order:

• Outsourcing helps reduce and control costs.

• It improves company focus.

• It helps gain access to world-class capabilities.
  
  

• It frees internal resources for other purposes.

• It is necessary because resources are not available internally.

• The function was difficult to manage in-house (or was out of control).

• It helps share risks.

New Year's Resolution: Deliver Service Excellence

The hospitality business is an exciting yet demanding one and today’s economic outlook has challenged many restaurants. To survive and grow, differentiation is a requirement.  One way to stand out is to consistently provide exceptional guest service. What if you could accomplish this while also increasing revenues and reducing operating expenses?

Server paging is a proven solution that accommodates all sizes of restaurants with all types of service. Your business may be large, small or somewhere in between. It could have an open kitchen/open floor plan or multi-room/multi-floor layout. You may be using team service, scatter system or server-managed delivery. In all cases, server paging can streamline your business, increase customer loyalty and reduce the costs of running a successful restaurant.

Server paging allows you to:

• Keep servers on the floor with your guests

• Increase check averages

• Reduce chaos and stress in kitchen
  
  

• Eliminate “plate auctioning” at the table

• Boost wine sales and beverage refills

• Retain quality servers with better tips

Financing 2008: Every Good Business Needs a Back Up Plan

We hear about it every day.  It’s on television; it’s in the newspapers; it’s in the magazines we read.  A Credit Crunch is enveloping our economy. Credit Crunch Moves Beyond Mortgages, Individuals See Higher Rates, Harsher Terms (Wall Street Journal, Aug 22, 2007); Credit Crunch Strangling Small Business? Entrepreneurs …may no longer be able to get funding (CNNMoney, Aug 30, 2007).

No matter how well run your business, regardless of the previous relationship you have established with your bank, the time may come when you need cash fast and your traditional sources of funding are no longer available.  That is why every business needs a back up plan.  Smart business people across the nation are establishing lines of credit well before the need arises…just in case.  Many are also looking at alternative sources of funding because their traditional sources are tightening their credit standards, raising their rates and in many cases, denying previously extended credit.