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Company Benefits That Every Skilled Employee Will Look For

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Employee Benefits|Employee Benefits That Every Booming Business NeedsIn the workforce, it is not just the employee who has to compete for a job position. Companies should also have the mindset that they are competing for a limited number of skilled individuals. As such, they need to give themselves an edge over others by offering desirable corporate benefits.

A skilled employee that knows their worth will surely jump to the employer that will give them a better future. If you want to make sure that you don’t lose talent, make sure that you are open to offering these corporate benefits.

Health Insurance

In 2019, the number of Americans that do not have health insurance was roughly 25.5 million people, and that number apparently grew by 1.9 million by the end of last year. An alarming number of people don’t have coverage so despite being something so basic, it can be highly valuable to employees.

Health coverage is not just something to attract new talent, but it also helps existing staff to increase their overall productivity. This protects them from injury or sickness that can hinder their performance. Medical care can be quite expensive for a lot of people. One accident can put a person in incredible amounts of debt without insurance.

As an employer, you can also benefit from this, especially if you are a small business. They are able to offset some of the costs of healthcare by getting tax deductions.

Dental Coverage

Unfortunately, dental is often not included in health insurance. That is why most would get it separately. In some cases, dental care can be expensive, and it’s not something that can be easily ignored. Ideally, people need to get their teeth cleaned every six months. While most can afford that, the real problem is when procedures have to be done. Root canal and teeth removal can be almost like taking a minor surgery.

Additional dental coverage can be seen as a huge benefit for many employees. That, along with vision insurance, are one of the most in-demand benefits. Studies from Harvard even showed that 54 percent of people heavily consider the availability of these types of benefits when considering jobs.

Retirement Contributions

The best workers are those that are career-driven and look to the future, whether it is related to work or personal matters. Many people want to be financially secured in the future, which is why they diligently contribute to their 401k and other similar plans.

While companies are not required to offer retirement plans, this can be a huge benefit that can help retain employees. The existence of a plan such as this will make them feel more secure for their future. Employees who don’t have them will feel more anxious about their finances and would likely switch jobs as soon as something good comes up.

Paid Vacations

Long gone are the days where people believe that working long hours is the way to live. The younger generation highly values their work-life balance, and companies need to adapt to this. Having paid vacations is a big asset for employees, and those that don’t offer this will lose to those that do.

Unlike the previously mentioned examples, vacation leaves are actually the more cost-efficient benefits that a company can handle. A lot of traditional businessmen believe that time not working is time wasted, but that is far from the truth. In fact, an employee that had ample amount of time to rest and recoup becomes more motivated and productive in the long run.

Student Loan Assistance

The total amount of student debt in the United States reached 1.6 trillion last year. Most individuals, regardless of age, have some form of student debt that needs to be paid. Some even reach up to their 30s and 40s and still have student loan debt. If given the chance to pay it off in a more convenient way is available, that will surely be a good deal for them.

As a result, there are companies today that offer the option to directly pay off the loan as one of their benefits. They will not pay the full amount right away, naturally. What they will do is pay a certain amount every month, which is separate from the income they are receiving. The employees themselves can also continue to make their own separate payments.

This is an extremely valuable benefit as financial stress can have an income on employee performance and turnover. Individuals who have a lot of debt are often the ones with highly sought-after credentials, such as university degrees. It can be a way to attract these talents as well as encourage those already working to stay in the company.

Designing A Product That Doesn’t Suck

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StrategyDriven Innovation Article |Designing a Product|Designing A Product That Doesn’t SuckProduct design as a small business owner has to be one of the most exciting parts of the entrepreneurial process. When you start your own business and you finally get down to creating your product; it brings such a sense of achievement that cannot be replaced.

If you are new to product design and you need some help with the process, we have some ideas for you to help you create a product that is fun and will draw the attention of your customers.

Create a product that doesn’t suck by using these simple tips.

Get input from your team

When designing a product it is important to remember the value of other people. Two heads are better than one; and a whole room of heads is better than two! Make sure when designing a product that you have a meeting with your team and start brainstorming it together. You may find that your team has some amazing ideas you wouldn’t have thought of before and this will likely help you to succeed in a way you couldn’t on your own.

Collaborate with an artist

One of the things that can really help you in terms of product design is a stunning box. When designing your product, consider getting a local artist to help you design a pattern for your box to make it stand out from the rest. This is a trick companies such as Birchbox have done with great success because not only will you get more customers through better design; but as you promote the artist, the artist will also promote your product because it has their design on it. You can even make this into a community event where you have a new artist come and help you every few months. Building a community like this is a clever way to build your audience and sell more of your product – as well as make your product look amazing.

Use recyclable materials

It is so important these days that we consider the environment when making a product and this includes using recycled as recyclable materials. Source materials that are recycled and make a point that your product is made as such. This will draw in an audience who cares for the environment and you will gain support as a result.

Ask for opinions

When stuck between a few designs for a product or looking to create the final design – be sure to ask for opinions before you go ahead. Ask your team, a focus group, and even ask people online via a social media poll. Show people that you value their suggestions and you might get better responses, as well as a better looking product.

Keep it simple

There’s a reason why the Apple logo on a plain white box is so well loved and known the world over. Less is more. Keep your design simple and don’t ever make it too busy that it puts people off buying it.

Use our tips to make a killer product today and squash the competition.

The Basics of Franchise Accounting

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Franchising Your Business |The Basics of Franchise AccountingOwning a franchise is an easy and affordable way of starting a new business. As a franchise owner, a lot of the heavy lifting involved in starting a business is already done for you. Franchisees can take on an already established brand and don’t have to worry about marketing themselves, as this is done by the franchise centrally.

All the franchisee needs to worry about is dealing with the day to day running of the business, which includes the accounting. Many aspects of a franchise business will be managed centrally. In particular, the costs of marketing and developing new products don’t fall on the shoulders of individual franchisees.

Franchise accounting is similar to accounting for any other type of business, although there are a few extra steps. Let’s take a look at exactly what a franchise is and how they are run and managed.

How do Franchises Work?

A franchise location is owned by an individual, the franchisee. However, the franchise as a whole is owned by a larger corporation. For example, each individual McDonalds store is owned and operated by an individual franchisee. However, McDonald’s decides what’s on the menu, how the store functions, etc. They also handle all of the marketing and other costs of developing and growing the business.

franchising makes owning and operating a business accessible to people who would otherwise be unable to. Returning to the example of McDonald’s, a franchisee may be able to open a McDonald’s franchise as the first business that they run themselves. It’s hard to envisage most people launching a startup that has the kind of name recognition that McDonald’s does, or the existing infrastructure.

With the franchising model, new locations can be opened easily and quickly. From the perspective of the larger franchise business, this makes expanding a much simpler proposition. New franchisees will bear many of the responsibilities, and some of the costs, of opening a new franchise. If the new franchisee fails, the franchising corporation hasn’t lost as much in terms of time and money as it would if it had invested fully in a new physical location.

Franchisees, on the other hand, get to open a new business with an already established customer base, marketing strategy, etc. The franchisee will have to pay the franchising business according to their contract. This can either be in the form of a percentage of the profits, or it might be a flat rate.

Role of the Franchisor

The franchisor is the larger corporation that ultimately owns all the franchises. They manage the brand and business as a whole, deciding how to market the business and how to develop the available product ranges. The franchisor also provides assistance to their franchisees as and when it is needed.

Fees and Franchise Accounting

A franchisee owns the franchise location that they run, even though the business they operate is under license from the franchisor. They are required to follow all the guidelines set out by the franchisor. If they don’t, the license can be revoked and the franchisee can end up with a location but no business to occupy it. The franchisee will be required to pay fees to the franchisor; that’s how the franchising business makes their money.

The fees a franchisee pays are used to cover a number of costs. For example, these fees allow the franchisee to use the franchisor’s trademarks, brands, products, and services. Franchisors are legally required to set out all the fees involved in being a franchisee upfront and they cannot spring unexpected charges on the franchisee at a later date.

There will be an initial fee to pay the franchisor, which serves as a kind of entry charge. There will also be some form of ongoing fee, usually a royalty fee. Proper franchise accounting requires you to be familiar with all the expected fees and charges; you won’t be able to maintain accurate accounts unless you know what deductions and fees to factor in.

Initial Fees

The initial fee is the entry fee that grants the franchisee the right to use the franchisor’s trademarks, including brand, products, services, logos, etc. And, of course, the most important thing your initial fees will pay for is the right to use the franchisor’s name. Finally, your initial fee will cover some of the costs associated with opening a new business.

For example, the franchisor will cover the costs of training staff to use their point of sale systems, as well as any other in-house sales software. Initial costs are paid as a lump sum to the franchisor. Before you pay any initial fees, it is important that you establish exactly how much business capital you will need.

Amortizing Initial Fees

When filling out a business tax return, a franchisee can deduct their initial fee from their total profits; this is known as amortizing. Amortizing is similar in nature to depreciation, except that it deals with tangible rather than abstract assets. By amortizing a fee, its cost can be spread out over several years. This makes it possible for franchisees who can’t afford to pay a lump sum to instead pay the fee gradually over the useful lifetime of tangible assets, such as trademarks.

You can amortize the fee over a relatively long period of time, paying off fractions of it annually. For example, if you amortize your initial fee over a period of 20 years, you divide the total fee by 20 to work out how much of it you will pay per annum.

Royalty Fees

Royalty fees are the main way that the franchisor makes their money. Royalty fees are a little bit like a tax that the franchisee pays on every sale. This is the cut of the profits that the franchisor gets in exchange for essentially providing the core business. In some cases, royalty fees might be specified at a flat rate. However, the majority of the time they will be paid as a percentage of sales.

Marketing Fees

Some franchisors will further charge franchisees to cover the costs of marketing. Even though individual franchisees aren’t involved in the centralized marketing efforts, they still benefit from the effects of new marketing campaigns, so it does make sense that the franchisor would want to recover some of their investment.

Both franchisors and franchisees need to understand the intricacies of franchise accounting if the arrangement is to work. A mistake in a franchisee’s bookkeeping can end up in the franchisor being paid incorrectly and can lead to a distorted image of how healthy individual franchises are. For this reason, many franchisors are now centralizing their accounting and utilizing cloud-based accounting software. This allows individual franchisees to access and update their business accounts on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Conclusion

Franchise accounting needs sophisticated accounting software like QuickBooks Enterprise hosting which can be accessed on Citrix Xendesktop VDI that enables accountants to work remotely for franchise-based models to work from anywhere anytime.

Starting And Running Your Own Restaurant

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Do you want to get started in the hospitality services or cafeteria food services? Whether you’re operating out of a catering van or you’re running a restaurant, it’s a dream a lot of people can afford to do nowadays; years of family recipes being passed down through the generations and you’ve got yourself a time honored tradition that people love to indulge in. If you think it’s time to make money off Grandma’s mashed potatoes, here’s a couple of tips on getting started in the food business.

Make Sure You Love to Cook

Running a restaurant means you need to know your craft and know it well. If you don’t like the ins and outs of cutting up a chicken or frying off your vegetables without getting them brown, and you know inside you’re not willing to learn, this maybe isn’t for you. Of course you can bring in talented chefs and let them go to town with their skills, but if it’s a family run business you need to be personally invested.

Similarly, if you’re not invested in what you do, it’s very unlikely you’re going to be able to grow in the potential you should. You’re less likely to be on the lookout for opportunities, and you can more easily get bogged down.

Find a Good Place to Start

Location is everything in the food business, especially when you’re running a themed restaurant. You need to be able to attract people to your business and have free advertising from your shop front. Thankfully people like to eat, so this usually works in your favor.

Individual growth is also important for an ever growing market sector. Shop around for somewhere affordable that you know you can do something with. You may need to expand a seating or kitchen area at the end of the day, when you’ve drawn in enough customers and got yourself a good following. Plan for this from the beginning and you won’t be able to disappoint yourself or your clientele.

Know Where to Find the Parts

If anything goes wrong in your kitchen, you’re going to want to know what you can do to quickly replace any faults. The cooking area is your livelihood, so if that goes down, so does business! Don’t let yourself panic by doing a little preparation before you get yourself up and running; planning ahead is always the best way forward.

Let’s run through a quick example: for your cooking vats, or any part of your system that takes away waste oil and water, your waste storage systems are a very important part of your working life. Look into something like Simplex Pipeline Strainers when these stop doing their jobs and you notice a difference in the cooking ability of your oil.

Whilst food is serious, restaurants are lovely businesses to start and run, as you’re making good food for a mostly appreciative customer base. It just makes it all the sweeter if you can specialise on your local culture and climate as well.

Want To Outsource? Here’s How You Could Do It!

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When it comes to your business, you push it as hard as possible to do well and make a profit. You’re working early mornings and late nights and the days seem to run into each other without stopping. While this is wonderful, and you can see the dollar signs rolling as the profits come in, the better you are the more in demand you are – and this means more work to keep up with.

Outsourcing pieces of your business to others to lighten the load from you isn’t a bad idea to combat that extra workload. Taking the right approach to outsourcing your marketing team or your invoicing to an accounting service is important. You need to be able to trust the people you’re handing a piece of your business to, and so it’s important that you know the advantages of outsourcing and why you should do it.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Want To Outsource? Here's How You Could Do It!

Advantages of Outsourcing

Outsourcing is going to help you to combat the growth of your business. You want to be able to manage and control your business growth so that it goes in the way you hope it goes. You want to ensure that the time is right for your outsourcing, and if you know that it’s going to lower your costs and regain your focus properly, you’re going to do very well. On top of this, you could use outsourcing to develop your talent. A knowledgeable workforce is going to boost your bottom line and this will lead to even further growth. Now that you know the advantages of outsourcing with your business, let’s look at a few ways you could do it!

  • Know what to outsource. Before you do anything, you need to know what you should outsource. Look at your business functions and choose where you are weakest. If your social media marketing could use a boost, you know that choosing the right agency is the way to go. The same can be said for your IT, accounting and even your administrative tasks. You can check with your employees and your profit bottom line to know whether you need to outsource a function in your business.
  • Time it right. Sometimes, you can jump the gun and outsource too soon. You need to look at your long and short term needs and if you need help in the short term to help the long-term goals of yours, you’re going to do well. Once you have done this, communicate with your employees so that you can time this exactly right.
  • Cut ties gracefully. If you start outsourcing with an external company, you are more than within your right to cancel any agreements you have with them. No one enjoys firing a company, but you have to find the right provider to work with.
  • Communicate with your team. If you plan to outsource at all, you should consider talking to your team first. They will be able to tell you what they need and you can then decide whether to go ahead or to go another way. Communication is key and this will help you to get what you need for your business.