It is not unusual for mid-sized companies to outsource most or all of their payroll functions. They are not big enough to warrant maintaining their own payroll staff, but they are much too big to continue doing payroll in-house. But what about small businesses? What about those businesses with fewer than a dozen employees, businesses that still leave payroll and HR to the boss?
Outsourcing payroll to third-party provider, like Dallas-based BenefitMall, certainly has its advantages. For example, modern payroll tools make cloud-based payroll solutions more efficient and intelligent than ever before. Outsourcing also tends to save small businesses money in the long run. But perhaps the most important benefit is one of time.
Payroll processing is a time-consuming exercise involving time sheet calculations, data entry, calculating deductions and withholding, and so forth. Far too many small business owners spend countless hours at their desks handling a task they barely understand. On the other hand, a third-party payroll provider is an expert in all things payroll. That provider can handle payroll tasks a lot more quickly and efficiently.
Finding Better Ways to Serve Customers
Imagine you are a small business owner who recently made the switch to outsourced payroll. What would you do with the extra time? You might start by finding better ways to serve you customers. That is the whole point of being in business anyway, right?
Small business owners are experts at whatever they do. Unless a business owner actually runs a payroll company, payroll is not his area of expertise. The time he saves outsourcing payroll to the experts is time he can put into his own area of expertise. It is time that can be spent improving customer service, developing new products and services, and improving the overall customer journey.
Conducting More Staff Training
Time saved by outsourcing payroll is time that can be spent conducting more staff training. Training is a fantastic way for small business owners to turn extra time into a revenue-generating tool. Better trained staff members are better positioned to create happy customers. And happy customers translate into more business.
Moreover, staff development and training are key components to long-term business success. Ownership gets out of them what it puts into them. As such, any amount of additional time that can be devoted to staff development and training is time well spent. It will return future dividends on multiple levels.
Developing a Strategic Business Plan
It is amazing to realize just how many small business owners don’t have a strategic business plan in place. This is not by design; it is just something that happens due to the time constraints placed on business owners. Yet without a strategic plan, it’s quite difficult to develop a business over many years. Having time to put into developing a plan makes a real difference.
What if just one of those weekly hours normally spent on payroll were devoted to strategic business planning instead? Small business owners and their management teams could brainstorm on a consistent basis. They could craft a reasonable vision and implement policies to achieve that vision. They could intentionally drive the company forward instead of allowing nature to take its course.
There are certainly lots of other ways small business owners can use the extra time freed up by outsourcing payroll. The point of all of this is to say that payroll is a time-consuming exercise that often weighs small businesses down. Outsourcing it to a payroll expert gives precious time back to business owners, time that can be better spent on more important things.