Payroll is one of the most important responsibilities for small business owners.
In this episode of Small Business Smarts, discover why getting payroll right from day one matters to manage compliance, build employee trust and protect business health for the long term.
For more information, visit ADP.com/SPARK
Victoria Jordan, founder of Pureworks Studio
As a small business owner, payroll always seems simple. You pay people on time and you keep it moving. But the more I look into it, the more I realize that I don't know what I don't know. So I'm connecting with an expert, Erron Stark from ADP.
Erron Stark, ADP vice president and general manager, small business services
Hey, Vicky, how are you doing?
Victoria
I'm good, Erron Thanks for hopping on. I wanted to connect about payroll. I've been doing some research, and I'm starting to see that it's a little more complicated than I thought.
Erron
Well, the good news is you're not alone. And based on what you've seen and the research that you've done, just curious. Scale of 1 to 10. How would you grade your payroll expertise?
Victoria
One.
Erron
One. All right, well, I don't feel bad. What I found is that most people don't go to school for payroll. And this also tends to be one of those, areas that people take for granted. Like paying people accurately can actually be one of the greatest benefits that you could offer to an employee, especially when you consider some research that was done recently that two of every three employees are actually living paycheck to paycheck.
So there's a couple things that I would start to consider. The first one is how you classify that worker that you bring into your organization. Are they a traditional W-2 employee or are they a contractor? But the next one might seem simple. Do I pay them weekly? Do I pay them biweekly? Maybe monthly? However, based on the state that you're in or the type of work that they do that might be out of your control, somebody else might actually dictate how frequent that you pay them.
And then the last one is around what method would I actually use to get them paid? Is it a check? Is it direct deposit? Do I even provide a pay card? And when you consider that stat that I mentioned before, imagine a world where you could actually provide another benefit in something called early wage access, where I can get paid before that weekly, bi weekly or monthly check date.
Victoria
It sounds like I'm just trying to create, stability for my employees.
Erron
Totally. Listen. Running a small business is hard enough. And this is where partnering with organizations like ADP and having the right resources can shift some of that burden over to a partner. So you could focus on what you do best in running and growing your business.
Victoria
Thank you Erron. You're giving me a lot to think about and a great place to start. I may need to get back to you with a few more questions, but I'm starting to understand.
Erron
If you go to ADP.com/SmallBusiness, you can learn a little bit more about some of the topics that we talked about today.
Victoria
That's great. Thank you so much Erron. Payroll is more than just paying people. It's the foundation of your business. And getting it right starts right away.
