The Magic Wand of Business-Part I

"If I were to wave a magic wand over your business today and could solve any one problem, what would you choose to fix?" Years ago I worked for a management consulting service. In setting an appointment, that was always my most important question. Even though the businesses varied in size, scope, and type from manufacturing to service, 90% of the time the answer was always the same- employees.

The problems with employees were basically in just a couple of categories- hiring and retention, and motivation and professional behavior. The business's struggles always seemed to center around not their own performance, but the performance of their team.

Every business owner knows that the success of their business rises and falls with their employees. Oddly, however, I have found that even knowing that employees are the keystone of all business, many business owners don't invest time and money into growing their team. Allow me to take a second to help you focus on this topic.

Finding and Keeping Good Employees:

The facts are that currently 56% of all people asked in a recent survey will not even consider a job that does not offer health insurance. If your business does not offer health insurance, you have just lost 56% of all your possibilities. That is a HUGE number. Even more, guess which 56% is more likely to pass over your job? That's right, those who are the most qualified. So what are your chances of finding good employees and if you happen to find one, how long will it be before someone else's job that does offer benefits lures them away?

Additional benefits that employees look for that are very low cost to employees are employee discount plans, retirement plans such as a 401K or IRA and plans such as Legal Shield that provide legal protections and help.

I hear some of you now saying, "I'd love to offer those things to my employees, but I just can't afford them right now." I understand. I've owned small businesses and thought the same thing. Little did I know that I could provide my employees all of these things for less than $100 a month per employee. I just didn't know that there were ways to do that or where to begin to look. There are people who can do exactly that for you.

"But where would I get an extra $100 a month per employee to pay for it?" I'm so glad you asked. Do you realize that currently it is estimated that replacing an $8 an hour employee currently costs the company approximately $8,000 in advertising, interviewing, and training time and lost production while you get them up to speed? So if it saved you replacing one employee a year, that would pay for 6.5 employee benefits packages a year. It's not a matter of affording it, but in reallocating funds in your employee hiring/retention process.

Keep an eye out for the next article on how to motivate your employees and turn them into the professionals that you want to represent and grow your business. In the meantime, if you need someone to connect you to individuals who can put a benefits package together such as the one that I outlined so that you can offer health insurance, retirement plans, legal protection, and an employee discount program for your company at a cost of $100 per month per employee, please feel free to reach out to me. I'd be happy to connect you to some great people.

Until next time, here's to growing a strong and profitable business!