Risks to Avoid When Outsourcing Payroll

Outsourcing your company’s payroll has many of benefits, but many pitfalls as well.   I recently contributed to an article on Business News Daily on avoiding these risks. Read the article here. 

I'd like to thank writer, Brittney Helmrich for including my thoughts in her article.  

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Thinking About Outsourcing Your Company’s Payroll Services?

I recently had the opportunity to chime in on this subject for an article in Business News Daily.   If you’re thinking about outsourcing your company’s payroll this may be helpful. And, as always, we are here to help answer questions you may have.

Credit: Krasimira Nevenova/Shutterstock

Every business, no matter how small, needs to process payroll, and deciding how you want to manage payroll is an important step.

While some small business owners prefer to do their own payroll in-house, there are many benefits to using a payroll service. With so many options to choose from, however, finding the right one can be overwhelming.  >> Read more

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Kolbe Wisdom™ Changes the Game for Rose, Snyder & Jacobs

At Rose, Snyder & Jacobs, we use the Kolbe System to build our team and create our company culture.   This month’s Kolbe Connection highlights our success story – and features yours truly.

When Tony Rose learned about his M.O. it really helped him understand himself. “It permitted me to be me,” he said. At the time, his executive team was struggling to work together. The company was managing alright, growing and making money, but it just wasn’t easy.  Like many other companies, they promoted people to managerial roles without understanding that just because people are great at their job doesn’t mean they would be great managing people who do that job.

Read more >>

Be sure to visit Kolbe.com and follow @Kolbe_Corp on Twitter to learn more about how the Kolbe System may benefit your company.

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Five Eyes On The Fence

Some of you might know that I am in the process of finishing up a manuscript for my second book.

Manuscript. I like saying that word. It sounds prestigious and dignified. And the truth is that this book is the culmination of close to seven years of reflection. This book represents the challenges I try to solve when consulting with our business clients. You see, many of my partners and I don't solely give accounting and tax advice. Often, a simple tax question can turn into a complex discussion of the intricacies of doing business, so we help our clients with all five of their business’s capitals, not just their financial capital and tax-planning needs.

That’s right: A business has five capitals. Take RSJ, for instance. My first book, Say Hello to the Elephants, is an element of RSJ’s Intellectual Capital. The book explained our quadrant planning-process, which is a Structural Capital that we use to help our clients solve problems. Speaking of our clients, our network of clients, colleagues and associates represents a portion of the Social Capital of our company. And this sequential-step process (quadrant planning) helps us live up to the refer-ability standards that are part of the values defined by our Human Capital.

Buy Five Eyes on the Fence now

Intellectual, Structural, Social, and Human Capital: These are four of the five capitals that constitute a business, with Financial Capital being the fifth. It is one of my core beliefs that the effectiveness of business planning increases exponentially when an owner and her advisors keep an eye on each of these capitals—when they keep a total of five eyes on the fence, guarding their business.

I have read snippets about the different capitals. A number of authors, for example, have written about the importance of defining a family-owned business’s values (which are part of a company’s Human Capital). Tech company executives know that protecting Intellectual Capital is paramount. Yet, I’ve never read a book in which the author has integrated all five of the capitals in one place. This represents a huge gap in how advisors counsel their clients. And this is why seven years ago, I started to think about and actively seek guidance on how to deploy more effective planning.

You see, without an integrated system for evaluating a business’s five capitals, there are bound to be gaps. Opportunities will slip through these holes in the fence, so to speak.

Fast forward to today. I am much further along in understanding the integrated planning system that needs to be implemented if a business wants to grab a hold of its opportunities.The more I researched the book and worked through what each individual capital represented, the more I came to realize that each capital is complexly linked to the other. Like the links of a chain link fence, the five capitals are connected to one another and each is only as strong as the links that hold it together.

There are many good business consultants and I am certain that they, consciously or unconsciously, consider all five of the capitals when serving their clients. I am also certain that those advisors who fail to consider the effect of their counsel on each of the capitals can cause more damage than they can ever calculate. If a business increases its rates to improve its Financial Capital, but it fails to effectively communicate this rate-increase to the clients, its efforts will backfire as clients jump ship.

Need proof? Just consider the impact Netflix’s $6 rate increase back in 2011 had on the company. Surely, many of the customers who jumped ship—and according to several reports, the number was about one million more than Netflix intended—could have afforded the $6 rate increase. Judging from the slew of complaints that circled the social media world, many customers simply felt devalued, unappreciated, and … well, frankly, they had hurt feelings. The canceled their subscriptions on principle.

And who can blame them? If Netflix had focused as much on its Social Capital as it did on its bottom line, perhaps its Financial Capital would not have been so severely impacted back in 2011. Perhaps it could have communicated with its clients before the rate increase, showing paying customers that Netflix appreciated and honored them. Perhaps the company could have implemented the rate increase and lost only those customers who truly could not afford or did not value Netflix enough to pay the new rate.

You bet that this more-than-money approach makes planning more complex, difficult and sometimes even more costly. With equal amounts of certainly, I know that it also creates a higher probability of success because a business isn’t just money. It is the people, the values, the ideas, and the process within a business.

In writings to come, I intend to share with you some of my thoughts concerning each of the capitals. And when my book is published, you will have a  detailed look at each of the capitals, how they work together and what we are doing at RSJ to keep five eyes on your fence.

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What’s YOUR Pixie Dust?

My kids are all grown up now (gulp), so it’s been a while since I read Peter Pan, but I have to say:  I always loved the story.  The thought that you could sprinkle a little pixie dust on something and it would magically work, always intrigued me.

I thought about this the other day when I was on my way to lunch with Jake, one of my partners, because I swear that one of our supervisors has pixie dust.

Jake was wondering what it was that made it possible for this great supervisor, let’s call her Sue, to leverage her abilities so that multiple folks, working all at the same time on different assignments, always get their jobs done and done right.

While we were talking, I realized that Sue and her team could produce an incredible volume of work with really very little time involvement on Sue’s part.  Others, in her same position, have been unable to be this effective.  

So what’s the difference?

Pixie dust.

Sue sprinkles pixie dust on everything that she touches.  Just like Tinkerbelle leaves a trail of pixie dust behind her, Sue leaves a comment here, a compliment there, a suggestion here, and by spreading her pixie dust as she goes, her subordinates can fly.

Her ability to approach her team in ways that inspire them to get the job done is her pixie dust.

Dan Sullivan of The Strategic Coach coined the term “Unique Ability” many years ago to describe the one thing everyone has that allows them to be incredibly productive, energizing and impactful on the world around them.  

I write about Unique Ability in my book, Say Hello to the Elephants.

Well, now that I’m old and soft (except for my physique, which is now svelte like a rock star), I prefer to call this “pixie dust.” Emotionally, pixie dust is the phrase that really describes just how special your Unique Ability is.

I believe that we all have pixie dust. If you think about your day, where do you shine?  What can you do that produces superior results and impacts people in a way that others cannot replicate?

This is probably your pixie dust.  

I know that you have pixie dust, and you have to find it if you want to leverage that unique thing to make yourself happier and more prosperous.  

Successful people have identified what their pixie dust is and have used it to help them in their vocations.  

I have my own pixie dust, and it has helped me live a life that is magical.  Not to be cheesy (okay, I’m going to be cheesy), but pixie dust has allowed me to fly.

Pixie dust is your unique, intellectual capital. It represents the confluence of what you know and deploy in a way that others cannot.

So how do you find your pixie dust? Here’s step one…

Sit down where it is quiet and list all the things that you do.  Separate these things into four categories:

Things I do well.

Thinks I’m okay at.

Things I do very well...and...

OMG! I’m so good at this it would make your head explode!

That fourth column is where you will find 
your pixie dust.

If you need more help finding your pixie dust, check out the Unique Ability chapter in Say Hello to the Elephants.

---

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Broken Promises

For those of you who know me, it is no secret that I am (well, really, I have been) fat. I wasn’t obese, but I have been heavy for as long as I can remember. I am big boned, according to my unconditionally loving mother.

It’s true. I am big boned.

I was also fat.

In the past two years, though, I have lost a bunch of weight by changing the way I eat.

This is the time where you should congratulate me for my hard work …

Oh, geez. Stop. Now I’m blushing.

Okay, in all seriousness, I have been thinking about why I have been able to sustain a two-year journey toward a longer life. I had tried to do this many times before, but never with much success.

So why now?

All over the world, people are unable to break bad habits. The eat poorly. Smoke. Watch Housewives of Orange County.

I think I’ve stumbled onto the secret to breaking those habits …

All of us tend to make promises that are extremely hard to keep.  For years, I promised myself that I would lose weight. And I promised myself I would lose a ton of weight. I also promised I would stop smoking every single cigarette I ever wanted to smoke between now and eternity.

It always started well and ended poorly. I would break the promise I made to myself over and over again and feel like I let myself and my family down.  

Then I would eat a hot fudge sundae and smoke a ciggy to make myself feel better.  

The feeling of letting myself down begat more negative results. I was putting a negative vibration in the cosmos, which then bounced back to me in a way that was amplified.

I used to lose 5 pounds and gain back 7. I would break a one-pack-a-day habit and then replace it a few weeks or months later with a pack-and-a-half-a-day habit.

So why the new (and smaller) me?

Here is what I changed (at least so far).

First, I do what Kathy Kolbe taught me years ago. I COMMIT … to very little.

I have decided that the only way to change a bad habit is to be present in the thought about that commitment for one day only.  

Today I diet.

Tomorrow? 

If I choose to diet, I will; if I don't, then I won’t.

This seems a lot less overwhelming to me. And if tomorrow I choose not to diet, I won’t freak out that this is my choice for me, for one day.  I can always choose to diet the next day, if I choose.

Small victories lead to big accomplishments. Small losses are seldom the “ball game”.  I am two-sizes smaller today than I was in October of 2011. (So I guess in my case, a small victory led to a big accomplishment in the form of a smaller man.)

I am not going to guarantee that I stay that way forever. The only thing I can promise is that I CHOOSE to be that way TODAY.

Your homework: Try giving yourself a break. When you want to change something, try promising yourself one thing and one thing only. Say, “I will change that something today but guarantee nothing tomorrow.” You may choose, guilt free, to continue on your course or to change your daily commitment to something else. You might find that the day-to-day accomplishments really become the habit that replaces those things in your life that you would like to forget.

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Deep Thoughts on Thoughtful Disagreement

 (and I Dare You to Disagree)

I confess that I hate when people disagree with me. For me, the stress of thinking that I might be incorrect gives me the willies. Admitting I might be wrong?  

O.M.G.

I also confess that I have shut people down here and there. Being a big cheese at my place affords me the opportunity to do just that.

But is this the right culture to promote if we want to learn and grow?

It sure doesn’t seem like the pundits or the politicians are interested in intellectual debate.

We have all seen it … The conservative commentator strongly suggests a point of view. The liberal commentator suggests the conservative is incorrect.

Actually, strike that. It’s not quite precise. One commentator directs a finger in the other’s face, indignantly pointing out that his opponent just crawled out from a rock. The other replies that his accuser became a Ph.D. by fraudulently submitting plagiarized papers.

Pretty soon the discussion dissolves into a shouting match. Intelligent discussion is lost as two seemingly intelligent people resort to ad hominem attacks! Nothing new is revealed but the limits people will go to discredit another, even if one's initial assertions are worthy of closer examination.

Yet the act of thoughtful consideration does not make someone a wimp. It makes them either different or more resolute. A now stronger position can be framed if you can support your position and take into account more perspectives than your own.

Consider Warren Buffett. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that at the last annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting, Buffett invited an unusual guest to sit on a panel of experts who could ask Buffett and other board members questions about the company: Doug Kass, who holds a short position in Berkshire stock. In other words, Kass is betting against success of Berkshire Hathaway.

Inviting a dissident was unconventional, to say the least, but in doing so, Buffett was able to better understand Kass’s reservations and, as a result, use this understanding to strengthen the messaging, address objections from other shareholders (and potential shareholders) and reduce skepticism of the company.

We can all take a lesson from Buffett, but some of us (clears throat), solidify our stubbornness as we grow older rather than use our wisdom to create richer degrees of understanding.

 Here is what I am trying to make a habit of doing: If someone brings up an opposing view, I take a breath. (They say deep breathing reduces stress. In fact, I am taking a long series of breaths as I write this.) With as confident of a voice I can muster, I mutter with as much enthusiasm as I can feign: “That's interesting. Tell me why you think that way?”

Then I shut up, or at least I attempt to shut up. Listening with open ears is powerful in promoting discussion and thoughtful disagreement. I listen carefully to any seeds of truth uttered from the speaker. Then I ask myself: If I viewed the issue from their perspective, is there anything that can be learned to change and strengthen my position? Might my attitudes change and bring me closer to the results that I wanted to promote in the first place?

If not, at least I let someone have his or her day by being heard.

Try participating in some thoughtful disagreement this week. I guarantee you it won't be as painful as you imagine. You might also gain some new allies.  

Washington: You listening?

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