Ok....trying this again. Nothing Like posting a great post and somehow it didn't save!
So here I am back to the fall craziness of my business. The last two years I have worked myself to death. It's only for a few months and clearly at some point I just can't produce anymore than I can physically do. So what do I do?
Hire someone right? Work even more hours? Do less? As I was preparing for the fall holiday season and ordering my blanks for my embroidery business I wanted to order more than last year so that I could produce more. My brilliant husband commented on my decision making..."why are you buying more if you can't produce more"? Good question right? We all want to make more, but if you can't physically make more what is the point?
So it was time, I needed to hire someone even if it was just for the holidays. I talked to someone who had a online quilt shop who had successfully hired, employed and grew her business. She gave me advice and told me how she did things etc. I talked to my friend Lisa who has a friend who 1099's her workers etc. I talked to my accountant about hiring an employee versus 1099 and read a lot of articles online as to what to do.
Well it comes down to one thing, an employee is an employee and should be hired as such. Does it necessarily make smarter financial sense? However, I am a rule follower and want to make sure I am not getting fined for not doing what I should be doing.
First thing I did was tried to compare and look up companies that do payroll and take care of the majority of the work for me. I found Zenpayroll and found that they seemed to be a good fit for me. It costs $29 for the monthly fee and $6 per employee after a 2 month trial period. Although I don't like having a monthly fee of any kind, I didn't find anyway to avoid this unless I wanted to file and pay all the tax stuff every quarter. I think it probably makes sense in the long term if you have more employees than the big ONE I am hiring, but I have to start somewhere right?
The next step and maybe should be the first step, is finding the right person? Where do you look to hire people. I mean I worked in retail for years and I know how we found people, but where do you find someone to work in your home business? I found mine in my babysitter. I pay my babysitter well ( I mean she watches my 4 nutballs and that's a lot), she has helped me with my craft show (the only one I do) the last 2 years and has done a great job. I told her I would pay her what I pay her to watch my kids. Yes, I wasn't really thinking at the time of all the extra fees and costs associated with having an employee. So i'm saying it here BIG MISTAKE...I should have paid her more than minimum wage, but not what I pay her to watch my kids. I am true to my word and won't go back on that, but hindsight is 20/20 right?
So I filled out all the information on the Zenpayroll and discovered some other things I need to add to some government websites for Ohio. I believe I got all of those setup, which was fairly easy to do.
I then started remember all those posters I used to have in my employee break room? Did I need those too? I mean this is in my house. Why yes I do and found a nifty little government tool that helps you figure out which ones you need, found here: click . It is FREE, did you hear that FREE (print on your printer)! So although you will find websites that will offer to send you the posters for a nice large fee, I found this to be the best option for me.
Finally, I discovered I needed workman's compensation insurance? What?. Yes, it's there to protect you and your employees. In Ohio it's through the state, so I had to signup for that. So I believe I signed up for and completed all paperwork that I needed to.
My employee will come on Friday for an hour and then back again on Sunday for a few hours so I can get her involved in the production of my goods. I found a free app called "TimeStation" that is a FREE app that allows you to have your employee (up to 10 for free) clock in and out so that you can keep track of their time. I think this is the best option, considering I would lose a piece of paper with random times on it . With that being said, I know that I need to be able to double my production with the added cost of an employee. However I know it will be an investment in time and money onboarding a new employee and teaching everything I know about my business that has taken me years to figure out. So patience will be a needed virtue I'm sure.
I am sure this will be an expensive adventure, but it's time to learn if this will be beneficial to my business or just an expensive learning experience. There is only one way to figure that all out...and that's to do it! I think if I were to say the one thing I would do differently is, I would have factored in all these extra costs into the pay of my employee.
I'll report back in a few weeks as I do some payroll processes and can tell you how much this is going to really cost me ;)
So here I am back to the fall craziness of my business. The last two years I have worked myself to death. It's only for a few months and clearly at some point I just can't produce anymore than I can physically do. So what do I do?
Hire someone right? Work even more hours? Do less? As I was preparing for the fall holiday season and ordering my blanks for my embroidery business I wanted to order more than last year so that I could produce more. My brilliant husband commented on my decision making..."why are you buying more if you can't produce more"? Good question right? We all want to make more, but if you can't physically make more what is the point?
So it was time, I needed to hire someone even if it was just for the holidays. I talked to someone who had a online quilt shop who had successfully hired, employed and grew her business. She gave me advice and told me how she did things etc. I talked to my friend Lisa who has a friend who 1099's her workers etc. I talked to my accountant about hiring an employee versus 1099 and read a lot of articles online as to what to do.
Well it comes down to one thing, an employee is an employee and should be hired as such. Does it necessarily make smarter financial sense? However, I am a rule follower and want to make sure I am not getting fined for not doing what I should be doing.
First thing I did was tried to compare and look up companies that do payroll and take care of the majority of the work for me. I found Zenpayroll and found that they seemed to be a good fit for me. It costs $29 for the monthly fee and $6 per employee after a 2 month trial period. Although I don't like having a monthly fee of any kind, I didn't find anyway to avoid this unless I wanted to file and pay all the tax stuff every quarter. I think it probably makes sense in the long term if you have more employees than the big ONE I am hiring, but I have to start somewhere right?
The next step and maybe should be the first step, is finding the right person? Where do you look to hire people. I mean I worked in retail for years and I know how we found people, but where do you find someone to work in your home business? I found mine in my babysitter. I pay my babysitter well ( I mean she watches my 4 nutballs and that's a lot), she has helped me with my craft show (the only one I do) the last 2 years and has done a great job. I told her I would pay her what I pay her to watch my kids. Yes, I wasn't really thinking at the time of all the extra fees and costs associated with having an employee. So i'm saying it here BIG MISTAKE...I should have paid her more than minimum wage, but not what I pay her to watch my kids. I am true to my word and won't go back on that, but hindsight is 20/20 right?
So I filled out all the information on the Zenpayroll and discovered some other things I need to add to some government websites for Ohio. I believe I got all of those setup, which was fairly easy to do.
I then started remember all those posters I used to have in my employee break room? Did I need those too? I mean this is in my house. Why yes I do and found a nifty little government tool that helps you figure out which ones you need, found here: click . It is FREE, did you hear that FREE (print on your printer)! So although you will find websites that will offer to send you the posters for a nice large fee, I found this to be the best option for me.
Finally, I discovered I needed workman's compensation insurance? What?. Yes, it's there to protect you and your employees. In Ohio it's through the state, so I had to signup for that. So I believe I signed up for and completed all paperwork that I needed to.
My employee will come on Friday for an hour and then back again on Sunday for a few hours so I can get her involved in the production of my goods. I found a free app called "TimeStation" that is a FREE app that allows you to have your employee (up to 10 for free) clock in and out so that you can keep track of their time. I think this is the best option, considering I would lose a piece of paper with random times on it . With that being said, I know that I need to be able to double my production with the added cost of an employee. However I know it will be an investment in time and money onboarding a new employee and teaching everything I know about my business that has taken me years to figure out. So patience will be a needed virtue I'm sure.
I am sure this will be an expensive adventure, but it's time to learn if this will be beneficial to my business or just an expensive learning experience. There is only one way to figure that all out...and that's to do it! I think if I were to say the one thing I would do differently is, I would have factored in all these extra costs into the pay of my employee.
I'll report back in a few weeks as I do some payroll processes and can tell you how much this is going to really cost me ;)
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