As many who run small businesses have come to find over time, they wish they would have spent some more time involving themselves in the hiring process, finding that the wrong candidate was hired without their knowledge.

In order to improve the chances of getting the right candidate the first time around, keep these factors in mind:

# 1. Personality

It is important to remember that not all personalities in your office will click, so finding the right person each time you make a hire is critical. You don’t necessarily need your employees to be best of friends, but they do need to cooperate to get the job done. You want someone who is a team player, someone who will roll up their sleeves in give you an honest day’s work. Finally, you need an individual who will not disrupt your office culture, that is someone who does not come into your company and mess up what is hopefully a good thing already going;

# 2. Skills

Everyone you or your team interviews will have a different skill level. Some individuals catch on quickly to what you need, others will take more time. Keep in mind that having to train a new person each time costs your company time, money and effort, so never overlook the skill set of each person you bring in for an interview.

# 3. Reputation

In today’s social world, more small business owners are looking at the reputations of each and every candidate that comes through their doors looking for a job. While federal officials have ruled recently that employers have limited reach when it comes to reviewing an applicant’s social media footprints, that has not and should not stop you from seeing what is online. If a candidate has questionable comments and/or images on their social media pages such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, how and should that impact your decision on hiring them? Take note, they could bring such questionable habits to your company if you hire them, habits that could lead to legal issues for you;

# 4. Long-term goals

Finally, you yourself have probably been asked over the years before you began a company where you see yourself three to five years from now. While it is an age-old question that most applicants get on an interview, it still ranks as an important one. You don’t want a revolving door of employees for a variety of reasons, most notably due to the fact mentioned earlier that it costs you time and money to train each new person. If you are not working with contracts in place, at least get a feel for how long this employee plans to work with you. If you get the impression that you’re just a road stop on their career path, think twice before hiring them.

As a small business owner, what do you look for each time an applicant comes through your doors seeking a job?

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Either way, your focus towards payroll should be one of your top missions the day you began running a business and hiring employees. Without a smooth payroll set-up in place, you stand the chance of there being problems and even moral issues in the office.

Payroll In-House

In the event you decide to have someone in-house doing your payroll, the person handling your payroll should be adept in mathematics, have an open personality, work well under stress, and have attention to detail. Reasoning includes:

Numbers

Compiling and issuing company payroll obviously involves many numbers, so a mathematics background is certainly helpful. The individual should also be experienced and comfortable with using different computer programs, including Excel sheets and MS Office;

Personality

Your payroll person also should be personable, especially given the fact they will be dealing with various employees at your company. If they are not a very open person, it can be hard for them to interact with workers who need questions answered when it comes to payroll, benefits, workers comp, taxes, and more. Given there will be times when stress is inducted into the job, they also must work well under pressure.

Attention

Finally, attention to detail is especially critical in this line of work. Keep in mind that things do change from time to time, including tax regulations, health benefits, and workers comp rules. Your payroll person needs to be up to speed on the latest rules and regulations so that payroll is dispensed properly. If it is not, you and your small business could be hit with penalties and interest charges.

Seeking an Outside Payroll Service

For those small business owners who opt to outsource their payroll needs, keep in mind the pros and cons of doing such, along with knowing what you need to look for:

Less work in-house

By having your payroll outsourced, that is one major task taken off the plate of an in-house employee. Oftentimes, an individual in the HR department will be saddled with payroll, so outsourcing that need frees them up to help you with other tasks, including hirings and firings, disciplinary actions, and helping to promote the company;

Shop around

Just as you would want several quotes and offers when buying products and services in your own life, the same holds true if you outsource payroll. Make sure you get quotes from several different payroll providers, along with checking their customer service, financial stability, and to see if they have any issues over time with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). If you can get a provider to do a trial run for you before agreeing to a longer-term deal, all the better;

Review the process

Another important item to remember when outsourcing your payroll needs is to review the process. Since payroll is being done off site, you do not have as much daily interaction with the person or persons handling it. Make sure that you review the process from time to time to make sure everything is in order. As noted earlier, changes to tax regulations, the workers comp system, health insurance benefits etc. can make it easy for errors to crop up. Given how you want your workers to be properly compensated, it never hurts to review the process.

Whether you go in-house or outsource your company’s payroll needs, it always pays to get it right the first time.

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In a day and age when many more consumers turn to the Internet to browse and buy goods and services, your online reputation needs to be as clean as possible.

Take note of the fact that 97 percent of consumers turn to online media when reviewing goods and services in their local area, according to a survey from BIA/KelseyGroup. Meanwhile, 90 percent of consumers report using search engines, with 48 percent turning to Internet Yellow Pages.

With those numbers in mind, stop for a moment and think about how a bad online reputation for you and/or your business could hamper your ability to pull in more customers. Whether the information is true or not, it could have serious repercussions for you and the business you have spent so much time building.

So, how can you go about determining if your online reputation is positive or negative?

Among the factors to keep in mind:

# 1. Define the problem

Your first task in understanding why your online reputation needs first aid is targeting the problem. Do you have an unhappy employee, upset customer or rival making bad waves for you online? If so, is the information they have put out there true or false? If it is the latter, you may think about possible legal action. If it is true, what can you do to combat this? Always know what and who you are dealing with before acting. It may be something as simple as a customer spoke negatively about you and your business in an online forum and the information has spread;

# 2. Fix the problem

Oftentimes the biggest challenge is how to properly address and rectify the matter. You will likely first ask yourself if you or an outside consultant/firm are best suited to handle the problem. In the event you do the work in-house, do you or your team know how to go about it? You may hesitate in spending money to hire outside help, but it could be one of the best investments you make over time.

Should you choose that option, be sure you get quotes from several companies, check their background history of serving customers, along with financial stability, and make sure you fully understand what they will do for you and at what price. Most consultants/reputation companies are trustworthy and qualified to fix your Internet reputation, but always do your homework when searching for one.

# 3. Pieces of the puzzle

Once you determine who will fix the problem, the next step is putting the pieces of the puzzle together. In order to tamper down negative details about you and/or your company, make sure you fill the Internet with the good stuff. Items including blog posts, testimonials from satisfied customers, press releases, and any other positive material should be placed online. As this material gets traction, it will become more prevalent when consumers Google your name. In the meantime, the negative material will begin to descend in the search engines, meaning it will not be the first thing people see when inquiring about you or your business;

# 4. Don’t make the same mistake twice

Once you have worked to repair your online reputation, try avoiding to make the same mistake over again. Maybe you were not spending enough time overseeing what others say about you online over the last 12 months. If that is the case, take the time during the year to Google your name and that of your company, checking to see if any negative comments are coming up. If you focus in on having a positive online reputation, you could very well see the results in an increased revenue stream.

What suggestions do you have to enhance your online reputation?

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That being said, some business owners are sometimes found asleep at the wheel when it comes to making sure that any and all employees are properly insured the minute they leave their office.

As 2013 gets set to debut, now would be a good time for small business owners to sit down and review the coverage they have. In the event they do not have the proper protection in place, fix that problem immediately before an accident involving one of your employees could put your finances in reverse.

When looking for a commercial auto insurance plan for your business, consider the following tips:

# 1. Your real coverage needs

It is not uncommon for small businesses to have employees making deliveries, pick up supplies, meet with clients and more. Employers may assume that their business owners policy and/or personal auto coverage covers business vehicles, however it does not. With a commercial auto insurance plan, business owners will have protection for autos, trucks and vans that are used by them and/or their workers towards business functions.

Many providers will offer normal auto liability, the option for comprehensive and collision coverage, along with uninsured motorist protection. Finally, check to see if rental coverage is available in the event say a delivery vehicle is temporarily put out of service;

# 2. Vary your quotes

Just like you would obtain a number of quotes for any sizeable purchases for your small business, make sure you do the same for commercial auto coverage. Along with using any referrals, review each insurance website you contact and compile information from them in any notable online insurance forums, along with running them past the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Look for how long they have been in business (including the experience of the specific agent that you deal with), the company’s relationship with customers, any financial stability issues, and pricing options (see more below), including looking for any “hidden” fees;

# 3. What will I pay?

One of the most important factors will obviously be the price involved for coverage. Among the things you want to look at include whether or not you will pay monthly, every quarter, every six months or once a year. Also define if the company offers flexible payment options, online billing and payments, along with automatic deductions from your company’s bank.

# 4. Customer service

Just as you try and provide your customers with top-rate service, you expect and need the same from a commercial auto insurer. In the event you or one of your employees is an accident with a company vehicle, you need immediate claims service, not one that will take many days or even weeks. Again, this is where getting referrals, along with some homework on your part will be important. You need a provider that makes you its first priority, not the other way around.

With the right commercial auto insurance policy for your small business, you can drive forward knowing both you and your company are protected each time you hit the roads.

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What may be stopping you from obtaining a merchant account and offering the plastic option is your own credit history. Did you run up a decent amount of personal debt over the years? Did you make some bad decisions in a prior business, therefore resulting in a large amount of credit card debt? Have you defaulted on one or more credit cards and essentially did not pay the bill?

In any of those situations, you can certainly be viewed as a bad risk by a lending institution, therefore making it hard for you to secure a merchant account. Without a merchant account, what are your chances of increasing your customer list and growing your company in 2013?

Should you find yourself in the position of needing a merchant account with a bad credit history, there are options for you. Among those include:

# 1. Plead your case

A bad credit history does not automatically eliminate you from obtaining a small business merchant account. Face it, lending institutions who offer merchant accounts need to do business too, so they may be more than willing to work with you. Explain (honestly) why your credit score is what it is (a score of 700 or better these days is pretty much a threshold for having a good shot at getting the account).

If you went through a divorce, major illness, or other event that had a negative impact on your credit, point it out. Above all, be honest about why your credit is in the spot it is at;

# 2. Tout your history

If you have been in business for a while and are now trying to get a merchant account, highlight the good side of your business history. The person reviewing your application will have something else to look at besides your personal credit report, whereas a new business is pretty much riding on getting the account despite the negative personal credit history.

In the event you have cash reserves, they can also work in your favor, be they in your business or personal banking account. Whatever positive attributes about you and your small business you can produce, all the better;

# 3. Research providers

As noted, there is no shortage of providers who offer merchant accounts to business owners with bad credit. The key is in finding the ones who have your best interests, not their best interests alone at heart. If the offer sounds too good to be true, there is a high possibility it is. The last thing you want to do is get into a deal where you end up paying a number of “hidden” fees and fall further into debt. Review all the details, check out the provider’s history too, seeing if they have been brought to the attention of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and/or have a trail of customer complaints.

If you are having trouble finding a provider, consider applying through the banking institution you already do business with. There is also the option of teaming up with an independent sales organization (ISO), someone that will essentially act as middleman, working with both you and the merchant provider. While this could lessen the perceived risk from the view of the merchant provider, you could wind up paying a significant fee for the service of the ISO.

# 4. Consider someone cosigning with you

There are pros and cons of having a family member, friend or business associate cosign on an account with you. On the plus side, having someone with a good credit record cosign can speed the application process through more quickly, typically resulting in approval. On the down side, what if you run into more financial woes and have to default, leaving the cosigner stuck with a mess? In that case, it could lead to a problem with the relationship. If you can sign off on the account on your own despite past credit issues, all the better.

In the end, offering customers the plastic option is something you want to take credit for.

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For some, the year will have brought more revenue, less hassles and most importantly, more customers. Others, however, will lament that they should or could have done more to make it a successful one.

Whichever group you fall into, the coming New Year offers up opportunities to expand on your efforts and results over the last 12 months.

One area that you should surely review is did you offer your customers the best options possible for shopping with you? Among the items to check include speed and ease with which customers could buy from you.

Why Mobile Payments?

If your small business has not been offering mobile payments up to now, is 2013 the time for you to become more mobile?

Research firm Gartner points out that the potential is there for mobile payments to hit approximately $617 billion in sales by 2016. In this year alone, mobile payments were projected to top $171.5 billion.

With such huge numbers being amassed, is your lack of mobility preventing your company from taking its piece of the mobile pie? This question is especially relevant given the fact that many customers tend to buy on impulse; offering mobile payments makes it easier and quicker for them to shop on the spur of the moment.

In the event you feel like becoming more mobile, keep the following in mind:

# 1. Invest the search time

Finding the right mobile payments provider is critical so that you are not hit with excessive fees (see more below regarding costs) and bad customer service. Shop around and examine the customer service track record and financial stability of each provider, seeing who best fits your needs. Google the name of each provider and see if they have a backlog of customer complaints, along with running their name past the Better Business Bureau.

# 2. Costs

While you stand to gain long term from offering your customers mobile payments, you do not in the short term want to compile large expenses. Check with each provider regarding monthly fees (charges can accrue for not meeting a monthly minimum for transactions), as some will also charge for the card-scanning hardware. Lastly, look into what you may face with percent-of-sale and per-transaction costs. If too many fees begin to add up, you have to question if that specific provider is worth it or not.

# 3. Provider options

Which features you get from a provider matter too, so look to see how the various items could impact your business. Do you want print out receipts for your customers or will you immediately email them the data? Do you want real-time tracking sales and on the spot crediting for your account. How about things such as a free app and reader, along with linking your transactions to the software used to manage your business? With a variety of features, finding the provider who offers the best ones for you.

# 4. Security matters

Finally, offering customers mobile payments means nothing if they are not secure. If the system in place for your company’s mobile payments is not secure, customer data could be exposed, meaning you may lose business because customers don’t have faith in you. You need a provider that can maintain data security, be it in the form of encrypting card details right when it is scanned to those who utilize a PIN-number security process to protect credit card transmissions.

If one of your goals is to be more mobile in 2013, make it pay off for you and your small business.

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