Small business owners should be aware of the benefits of small business payroll. Owners have many decisions to make, but often lack time and resources they would like to have. At these moments, it’s helpful to have partners that understand your goals and challenges. Business owners often overlook payroll services as one of those partners. Mention payroll, and most will think of large corporations, disconnected and uninvested in their individual success. If you want to know more about payroll as a whole, visit here.
In this article, we’ll discuss how and why small and local payroll companies can often offer more than their corporate competitors.
What are Benefits of Small Business Payroll Providers?
The biggest benefits of a local, small business payroll provider is that they know you. This is hard factor to quantify or qualify. That said, anyone in business for any significant time can attest to the value of personal relationships. Sharing a community, patronizing the same businesses, and even knowing the same people makes a difference! It’s also great to call them and have someone pick up the phone that knows your name, voice, and business. Instead of calling up with an account number, you can just say, hey, it’s me. I have a quick question…
You save time by quickly getting on and off the phone, or knowing your provider will call you back today. Living in this reality means no time spent chasing down representatives and more time spent growing your business. Well, that part is actually quantifiable. People who have spent hours trying to get answers from bigger providers can tell you about it.
In a nutshell, it’s that you know each other. You and your provider have a shared experience of living in a community and the challenges of running a business.
But that’s the broad, conceptual benefit. What are the specific, tangible benefits?
Local Payroll Providers are Accessible to Handle Changes
Changes to your payroll don’t happen everyday, but when you need something, it’s usually important. It’s the reality of business: people make changes! Sometimes employers make mistakes or forget to add hours someone forgot to punch in. Sometimes new regulations and laws require new withholding for things like retirement programs. As employees work for you longer, sometimes you need to make changes to their pay rate. At other times, business owners simply want to understand a certain aspect of the payroll process a little bit better. The number of reasons why someone would need to contact their payroll provider are quite varied. Whatever the reason, when you need to speak with someone, you really need to speak with someone. Being able to get your provider on the phone is one of the primary benefits of small business payroll companies.
Your Concerns are Their Concerns, So They Move Quickly
Because of their size, small providers have limited clientele. Your business is a far bigger percentage of their business than it would be to larger providers. This means that businesses in your area share your concerns more deeply. That’s not to say that everyone that works at big providers are completely indifferent to your concerns. Nor is it a suggestion that local payroll companies will care about your business more than you. That’s your job to do. What it does mean is that you’re more likely to get a resolution to any issue you have, more quickly. In some cases, small providers will even hand-deliver documents and checks to their clients when necessary.
Small businesses know each person that works for them, and can usually double-check their own employees’ work each day. Any payroll provider worth their salt do, and the most committed will hang behind to finish up whatever needs finishing. This stands in contrast to large providers where employees and the people they serve are far apart. The two groups will probably never even see each other.
Small Business Payroll Companies Usually Cost Less
Unlike larger providers which have thousands, if not tens of thousands of employees, smaller providers have lower overhead costs. Your community payroll provider probably has a lawyer, but not teams of them. They have an office, but not multiple corporate complexes. They advertise and use social media, but they don’t spend millions on production teams to create content. The amount one large provider spend on advertising was a more than 50% of their revenue! That means that half of what you pay them only goes towards more ads.
This lower overhead certainly caps the level of exposure and growth local providers see, no doubt about it. The truth is, many are perfectly happy serving their community and maintaining manageable growth within it. The benefit to you in this situation? The lower cost they’re able to provide their services for. It’s also nice to know that half the money you give them doesn’t go to soliciting more business.
Yes, bigger companies offer a la carte services where you can pick only what you need. The problem remains, however, there are sometimes hidden fees, sometimes ones your employees have to pay. Even this article that supports a big provider admits it’s impossible to know what it will cost your business. Local providers can give you a price, and you’ll be able to reference who gave you that price. It’s not a nameless, faceless experience. Very often, it’s going to be the owner themselves, the buck stops there.
Local Payroll Companies Understand Local Regulations
No one knows new regulations when it comes to payroll better than a payroll company in your community. They will know what happened, why, and what you need to do to stay in compliance with the law. While they learn it first and foremost for their own business, they will share this information with you. In many cases, you’ll simply get an update that a new law took affect and an indicator of what changed. This is a time-saver and an excellent way to stay in the driver’s seat of your business.
Further, as a bonus feature, local companies will often let their clients know of programs that could benefit them. EIDL loans, the employee retention credit, and the WOTC are all examples of programs that can benefit business owners. The ANCHOR property tax program is one that doesn’t apply to business, but could affect their personal life and finances.
New Jersey’s 2022 minimum wage increase or the recent plastic ban are things that employers need to know about. Is it payroll? Not exactly. Is it something you could probably turn to your local provider to understand? Yes, absolutely, and they’re not going to charge you for every bit of information. Yes, there’s a difference between payroll and accounting, but payroll companies can often clarify confusing aspects just as an accountant would. The positive thing about utilizing a local provider, is that anything you need, their other clients probably need, too. There’s a very good chance your payroll partner has already researched the topic and can give you answers
Wrapping Up
At the end of the day, every small business owner needs to decide what payroll provider is best for their business. The biggest benefit to choosing a small provider is that you can access them. You won’t be struggling to find someone who know you. There are instances in which a small provider isn’t the best choice, and a larger provider would suit your needs better. A really good person to consult on that topic would be small provider, they’ll always tell you when your needs exceed their capabilities. I wouldn’t expect the same from a large provider, however.