Category: Leadership

Pay stubs show how much you’ve earned and how much is being deducted from your salary. They include all sorts of information that can validate your identity and your income. In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about a pay stub, also known as a payslip, as well as everything that a pay stub can be used for. 

What Is A Pay Stub?

Pay stubs are, quite simply, documents that show your salary. However, they include far more accurate and detailed information than a simple bank transfer or statement. Most employees are paid via bank transfer – over 91% in the US – but many still receive a physical pay stub. 

In the past, most Americans were paid via a physical paycheck, which they then had to take to a bank to pay into their account. In those days, the paycheck pretty much always came with a printed payslip. Since the dawn of electronic banking, however, fewer and fewer companies provide pay stubs.

Who Is Responsible For My Pay Stub?

As mentioned, it is the responsibility of an employer to ensure their staff receive the right pay and, in some cases, a physical pay stub. However, it is only a legal requirement in 11 states. In 26 others, it is a legal requirement for employees to be able to access online records to show their pay is accurate, while in the rest there are actually no laws regarding pay stubs. So, depending on where you are, there may be no legal requirement at all for your boss to share a physical or digital pay stub with you.

Self Generate Pay Stubs

If your employer does not generate pay stubs for you, there is an alternative. You can generate a pay stub yourself using an online service. These services allow you to enter various details including your state, salary, and net pay to generate a new pay stub. This can come in really handy for various reasons – many of which will be discussed shortly. 

Alternatively, most employers’ accounting teams will be able to create a payslip for you. Though, as mentioned, that is not always an easy task. If they feel they have no responsibility to do so, it may be far quicker for you to use an online generator instead. 

Information On Pay Stub

A pay stub includes a lot of information, all of which is designed to show that you are being paid the right amount as well as being deducted the right amounts. Firstly, a payslip needs to include all the right personal details for yourself. This includes your name, address, employee number, and a few other details to verify your identity.

Secondly, a pay stub must show everything you have earned. This includes base salary, hours worked, and any overtime. This section also needs to show if you have lost any of your salaries due to sickness or absence. 

Finally, a payslip has to include any deductions being taken from your account to show your net pay. These deductions can be salary sacrifice schemes such as pensions or benefits, while also showing your tax payments and any employee insurance contributions. At the end of all of this data, you will be able to see your net pay for each pay period as well as your overall yearly gross and net pay.

Pay And Taxes

Your payslip must show your taxes, both federal and state. Federal tax changes depending on which tax bracket you fall into. At the low end, you will pay around 10% of your income as federal tax, increasing incrementally up to 37% depending on your income. A pay stub is a great way to double-check that you are paying the right amount in both this and state tax. 

State and local taxes are worked out differently depending on where you live. Many have brackets, too, just like federal taxes do. But, the amounts massively vary depending on your state. Some local areas have local taxes, which are usually smaller amounts to help pay for certain local services.

Other Deductions Shown

There will be other deductions on your payslip aside from taxes. Some of the most common ones include pension payments and payments to certain benefits such as medical or insurance. Once again, getting a physical or digital copy of your payslip allows you to be able to check that your deductions are fair and accurate and that all your earnings are going where you expect them to be going.

Pay Stubs As Proof Of Income

One of the most valuable uses of a payslip as an individual is proof of income. There are a wide variety of situations where this could be important, from buying or renting a home to applying for a loan. All sorts of lenders could ask for proof of income. A pay stub is the most definitive and obvious way that you can show your quoted income is valid and truthful.

Some of the most common needs for proof of income are housing, car leases, or finance applications. A landlord, for example, is highly likely to request proof of income before they allow you to rent their property. A car dealership, too, is more than likely to require adequate proof of income to show you can afford to keep up with payments on your chosen vehicle. 

Pay Stubs For Unemployment

There is one final, more unfortunate use for a pay stub. Often, you may receive a final pay stub at the end of any employment. This could detail your final pay and deductions and show that you are no longer employed. These can be essential when claiming unemployment benefits, should you need them. Either way, getting that final pay stub is important, as you can triple-check that you have paid the right taxes during your employment term.

As you can see, pay stubs are more important than many give them credit for. In fact, it’s crazy to think that they aren’t important. Knowing that you are being paid the right amount and, in turn, paying the right amount out of your payslip are very important things. If you have any doubts, get a copy of your pay stub ASAP.

With the pandemic lockdowns in 2020, companies were forced to adapt to remote work protocols where possible, or close down operations. For companies that were able to successfully transition to a remote workforce, there were certainly positive benefits, but there have also been complications as well.

One of the complications is employee relocation, whether it’s the company asking a new hire to relocate, or an employee asking to relocate. Both situations have different complexities, but we’ll address both in this article, and give you 3 tips on successfully navigating employee relocations during the pandemic.

Be helpful to the employees travel plans

Companies used to pay lump-sum relocation packages to employees, but this strategy has shown to cause extra stress to employees’ lives, lowering productivity. If at all feasible, you should be there for them throughout the procedure.

Housing is one of the most stressful aspects of relocating. If your employee is a homeowner, you’ll want to do all you can to make the process of selling their property as painless as possible, which includes finding a buyer as quickly as feasible.

When you try to set up staff for employment in new states, you’ll be adding a lot of work to your plate and causing a lot of disturbance. Businesses can utilize the services of specialized employee relocation companies to streamline the process and take care of a lot of the paperwork and needful things. You can check out a helpful employee relocation guide from one such company.

Relocating during a pandemic has its own unique challenges. While some employees are willing to relocate, they expect their employer to provide assistance. 82% of respondents expect living assistance in either the forms of moving expenses (60%), a lump sum (60%), or temporary living expenses (54%).

In a 2020 DSJ Global survey, 69% of respondents in the United States said they would relocate to a different place within the country for the proper job. COVID-19 has also been a big influence in Americans’ propensity to relocate, as seen by studies indicating that 35% of people would migrate for this reason.

Make sure safety protocols are followed for travel

Your employees’ safety is your first responsibility during this epidemic. Because it’s likely that they’ll want to avoid flying or taking the bus, you could want to supply them with a rental car if they don’t already have one.

You must be prepared to give allowances for their stays if they stop anywhere overnight, depending on the route. Keep in mind that if they bring their family with them, you’ll need to set up more money for them.

Be mindful of out-of-state work taxes and labour laws

When an employee works outside of the state or states where the company does business, it creates a physical nexus, making the employer liable to the tax regimes of that jurisdiction. State income taxes, gross receipts taxes, and sales and use taxes might all apply to employers. Taxes levied at the city or county level may be relevant.

Being subject to state and local taxes generally requires both the preparation and filing of tax returns, and the payment of taxes

According to Cincinnati-based law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister, certain states have temporarily disregarded the development of a business nexus for state taxes for COVID-19-related remote labor on behalf of out-of-state employers. However, out-of-state employers may be required to withhold state income taxes from remote workers who live in these states.

How can you adapt to employee relocation requests?

Businesses throughout the world have had a challenging year, but the most successful ones have adapted to their new circumstances. While struggling to adapt to remote work protocols, it created extra complications when employees suddenly thought they could work from literally anywhere.

Great businesses are able to strike a balance between the demands of the company and the requirements of its employees, which sometimes necessitates accepting and managing risk.

Before approving relocation plans, check with human resources to ensure that workers’ relocation plans will not violate any regulations or exceedingly burden the company with paperwork.

There have been situations where once telecommuting became normal, employees simply casually asked to be able to move further away from the office, and travel to the office would be unnecessary. HR later discovers that this employee relocated to a new state or nation, and the situation is far more serious than the immediate supervisor knew, because of tax regulations across state lines.

If the employee is relocating for personal reasons and it is not something the company is requesting, there is very little moral dilemma over offering a relocation package.

If you are in the process of establishing your new agency, you are most likely encountering difficulties every step of the way. This is totally normal, and every new agency has to make big decisions on everything from branding to client outreach to core services. One of the most important choices that every agency owner has to make very early on, is what kind of pricing model their agency will implement. Pricing has a huge impact on every aspect of a business, including your customer satisfaction and your agency’s profitability. Your pricing model has to align with your agency’s capacity, long-term goals, and the ability of your team to deliver quality service at a particular price. 

To help all the new agency owners take a major step forward, here are some popular pricing models you may want to consider. 

Freemium Pricing

If you are just starting up, this strategy is great for attracting new clients and growing your agency. Freemium pricing means that you will offer your customers some part of your features or services for free, expecting that some of them will become return customers. For example, if you are establishing a digital marketing agency specializing in ads, you can offer some free copy and visuals, and run a trial ad to show your client how effective your marketing solutions can be for growing their business.

Value-Based Pricing

If you believe your agency’s services or products are a unique or extremely effective solution, you can apply value-based pricing. In this strategy, you will look at the actual value your service brings to the customers, and then calculate the pricing as a function of that value. This is a useful model and implementing a value based pricing strategy for digital agencies can help you to make some major profits. The normal starting point for value-based pricing is to set your price at around 10% of the value you expect to provide to the customer. For example, if you expect your SEO strategy to bring in $10,000 for your client, you can offer your service for $1,000.

SaaS Pricing

SaaS stands for “software as a service”, which is perfect if you have an online platform or a digital solution that the customer can use long-term as and when they need it. In this case, you can price periodically through a subscription or membership fee so that clients have the right to use your software. Unlike traditional software models where you charge one time for your license, this model offers you the opportunity to build your brand image and generate returning profit.

Competitive Positioning

Setting your prices based on your competitors’ is always a reasonable starting point. There are different strategies such as undercutting their price to offer a similar service or product or pitching at a higher price with the angle that your service or product is markedly superior. It is important that you do thorough competitor and customer research so that you can get this approach just right. 

The Razor Blade Model

As its name suggests, this pricing model was popularised by razor blade brands. Essentially, razor blade companies sell their handles for a low price and then sell their actual razor blades at a premium price. As an agency, you can apply this method by setting low prices for your ad copy or articles and then putting a premium on your extra services without which the copy or articles will not be effective. 

Tiered or Goldilocks Pricing

If you plan to target different demographics of potential customers, you may want to consider a tiered or goldilocks strategy, where you offer several pricing options, depending on the complexity of the work you are providing. This will start with a basic service package at a lower price all the way up to the most exclusive package which you charge a premium for.  This is also a great model for educating your customers so that they can increase their knowledge and use of the service, and upgrade their plan over time. 

A One-Time Fee

With a one-time fee, as you may have guessed, the customer pays one time for your service. This may be a lifetime contract, but more commonly, it is a yearly contract. This is a good pricing model if you are looking to increase a client’s online presence, where your team will take care of their social media and website, run their online customer service, and implement their internal communication plan.

Per Use/Seat Pricing

If you have a solution and aim to target big corporate groups, this is the option for you. Per-use pricing is similar to SaaS pricing, but instead of paying periodically for unlimited use of your platform, the client pays per seat. That means the customer has to pay for every company in their group that wants to use your service.

Enterprise Pricing

Not all of your clients will fit into your regular standard option plan, as some of them may be larger and come with a bigger budget. This is when you can apply enterprise pricing, where you calculate an ad-hoc price for that specific client for a predetermined period (usually a year). Once that year is up, both parties can then review the price based on the results.

Cost-Based Pricing

Many businesses implement a cost-based pricing strategy, where they analyze the actual internal workload, and then base the price on that work. For example, if the internal costs of a project are expected to be  $1,000, you can level that up by 100% and charge your client $2,000.

There is a lot of work that goes into deciding the right pricing strategy. From analysis and customer insight research to tiered pricing levels, there is often no one size fits all approach. Even after you have chosen the pricing model for your agency, you will still need to execute it effectively. Your pricing strategy may need to change during the lifetime of your agency, so it is crucial that you are constantly reviewing it. When writing your pricing page, try to tell the story of how valuable your service is and why signing up for your agency is worth every penny.

That huge client payment has just arrived, and you get tempted to take the money out and waste it on new gadgets and accessories, but wait a minute. If you want more such huge payments coming your way, postpone your shopping spree and reinvest the money in your company. A long-term investment is a way to go, and the tips we will discuss in this blog will help you set yourself up for more windfalls in the future.

Nine Strategies For Investing Income For Sustainable Growth

1. Business Improvement

Most entrepreneurs reinvest their initial profits, and your company should be no exception. The secret to reinvesting is to have a solid plan in place rather than committing a specific percentage of your earnings. Your reinvestment activities should be consistent with your current strategy.

The majority of company owners chose to reinvest their earnings in business enhancements such as facilities, machinery, streamlining business processes, or seeking ways to improve the customer experience. These tactics are practical because they will boost your earnings in the long run, allowing you to grow your business operations.

If you are willing to take risks, trading with some portion of your money can be a wise choice as it can give you a return in the near future. However, investment or trading needs to be done wisely. To help you on this, CommSec is the best platform to explore. It is a leading online retail broker based out of Australia that helps traders by making use of various trading tools and deep market research. 

But don’t go just by my words. Feel free to check the CommSec review covering details on its forex spreads, trading leverage, deposit & and withdrawal, user experience, and more before making up your mind to invest through this platform.

2. Digital Marketing

When done correctly, digital marketing is still a profitable investment. Many startups hold off on making significant marketing investments for several months. Sometimes it’s because they don’t know where to begin. Investing in success metrics is a no-lose proposition. Keep track of the promotions and make necessary changes. Consider hiring a marketing firm if you have no experience.

3. Invest In Your Team

Building a more robust workforce will help the business run more smoothly, increase productivity, and foster a company culture that attracts hard employees. As the business expands, you can add rewards packages and other discounts. Investing in your workforce from the beginning will help you minimize turnover. Remember that replacing a missing employee costs a lot of money – on average, six to nine months of pay.

4. Invest In Yourself

Look for opportunities to develop your subject matter skills. Many startups, for example, are led by people who have an eye for creativity but don’t know how to handle people. It is one of the most often leveled charges against founders. Management or basic business operations classes can be highly beneficial for people who do not have a structured business experience.

5. Hire Help

To that end, entrepreneurs are prone to attempting to wear all of the company’s hats. Recognize when you need assistance and ask for it. New hires will have the technological expertise and know-how you need to keep the business running smoothly. It is one of the best long-term investments you can make.

6. Consider Coaching

If you’re unsure how to build your strategic plan, consider hiring a career coach with some of your earnings. These experts will advise on corporate leadership, developing a strategic plan, communicating with investors, and dealing with employee conflict, among other items.

7. Outsource Your Least Favorite Tasks

We’ve all got a dreaded job that saps some of the fun out of running a company. For others, it’s balancing the books or processing payroll. Others are responsible for evaluating and monitoring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns or creating material for the business site. Fortunately, the majority of these can get delegated to third parties. Find a competent person and entrust the job to them.

8. Create A Cash Buffer

While it is interesting (and necessary) to reinvest in your company, make sure you have enough cash to deal with any problems that may arise. Even if the company’s insurance policies cover disasters and catastrophes, having some cash on hand for when you need it is always a brilliant idea.

9. Don’t Diversify Too Early

Many aspiring entrepreneurs make the mistake of diversifying their investments too soon. 401k plans are fantastic, but you should be putting those funds to better use in your company. Stocks and bonds are significant, but so is the creation of your empire. Start with what you know when investing your profits. Since no one knows your company better than you, it seems like a natural place to start.

You can add diversification and 401ks plans later. For the time being, enjoy your earnings by reinvesting them in the fruits of your labor. Take care of your staff and clients, and your income will rise more organically. With enough time and money, you’ll be able to open another location or enter a new market. Investing is still a wise business decision.

Bottom Line

Growing a business entails more than just creating and selling quality goods. It is all about developing the structures and processes regularly. From purchasing new goods and equipment to training new employees, any investment you make strengthens the base of your company, allowing it to make money in the future. Prioritize the investments you would make now so that we can toast your yacht in the coming years.

A quick search on the internet for sexual harassment will tell you that little has been done in preventing cases of sexual harassment at work. On any given day, the internet is filled with dozens of news headlines about sexual harassment. Even though most organizations tend to believe that sexual harassment at work isn’t in their workplace, the truth is that sexual harassment is widely prevalent. For this reason, we shall continue to share with you the top solutions to prevent sexual harassment in workplaces.

Define Sexual harassment

As an employer, you must inform every member of your organization about what sexual harassment is all about. What is defined as sexual harassment? This is one question that many employees find confusing. For example, is it wrong to hold a coworker’s hand while at work? The answer is dependent on the situation. If the other worker isn’t comfortable with you holding hands or touching the body, then that can be deemed as sexual harassment. 

Most organizations discourage dating among colleagues. Doing so can help in many ways, among them improving productivity at work. Most importantly, this rule helps curb cases of sexual harassment. It ensures that employees focus on work and not flirting with colleagues. In an instance where one engages the other colleague in unwanted flirting or asking for dates that have continuously been turned down, this may be considered harassment. 

Also, sexual harassment can happen online. For example, transmitting sexual harassment pictures to a coworker is a criminal offense. It’s for this reason that most companies usually monitor work emails to prevent such incidents from happening. The mentioned examples are just a tip in the ice of the many incidences that may be deemed as sexual harassment. 

Professional training

Sexual harassment is a crime. As an employer, it, therefore, means that you should boldly let your employees know that your workplace has a strict zero-tolerance rule to this. While your anti-harassment policies may deliver the message, introducing sexual harassment courses is highly recommended. The training should be conducted for both employees and supervisors. Refresher courses should also be provided annually or as needed. Doing this helps everyone in the company understand the definition of this act and the rights and remedies to those who feel that they have been victimized.

Develop Sexual Harassment Policies

Defining sexual harassment is one thing, but making your employees understand the consequences of this harmful act is another topic, and that asks for attention. As an employee, you are tasked with creating clear and detailed sexual harassment policies. With the policies in place, everyone in the organization will understand that your company doesn’t condone such actions. 

The policies should indicate the specific behaviors that will constitute sexual harassment and that aren’t tolerated. The policies should also include punishments for those who cause sexual harm to others. To ensure that everyone understands the policies well, circulate them widely to every member and ensure that they sign to indicate that they have read and understood. In addition, you can bring in professional trainers to help establish an understanding of the topic and the policies you’ve in place. 

Lead by Example 

On most occasions, sexual harassment allegations at work revolve around the top bosses taking advantage of the juniors. This is sad since most of these cases go unresolved as the juniors fear losing their jobs. As the employer, you should lead by example. It will make no sense setting up policies that you can’t follow. 

According to successful entrepreneurs, having a solid management and HR team is essential for creating a respectful workplace culture. If it means holding management-level pieces of training, don’t hesitate to bring them up. Remember, most of these juniors look up to you for protection. If you don’t lead by example, the employees won’t feel comfortable approaching you with such an allegation. But, once you present yourself as a boss who understands your work, then this means that handling such investigations won’t be a problem at your premises. 

Have a Clear Harassment Reporting Procedure

Generally, reporting sexual harassment cases can be tiring. Many victims may find themselves giving up with the process, depending on the structure you’ve at your workplace. Some may even feel intimidated to report to their seniors such cases. As the employer, you should, therefore, have a clear and straightforward harassment reporting procedure. 

The procedure should be detailed and shouldn’t involve going through different offices for the matter to be considered legit. Instead, you can form a committee that listens to such allegations and carry out the needed investigations before implementing the necessary punishments. With a straightforward reporting procedure, it means that all the matters will be attended to and the culprits punished without making the victim feel intimidated or threatened. If it’s a matter that requires police intervention, you shouldn’t hesitate to bring them onboard so that they can take over the case. 

Take Decisive Actions when an Issue Arises

As mentioned earlier, most organizations assume that sexual harassment cases don’t exist on their premises. The sad truth is that they are there. The big question remains, what actions should one take when a matter of such nature emerges? As an employer, it’s recommended that you respond promptly to reports of harassment whenever they are presented. You should carry out a thorough investigation of the matter and impose meaningful consequences on the culprits. 

Taking swift and informed decisions isn’t only good for your company’s reputation, but it also makes the employees feel that they are working in a safe environment. Failure to deal with the issue when it arises sees the criminal employees continue doing so as they are sure nothing will be done. Therefore, you shouldn’t hesitate to take action and let every employee be aware of the consequences. 

Currently, sexual harassment allegations have been on the rise. It’s right to say that the increase is influenced by the fact that most employers tend to ignore the existence of these cases. Mentioned in this article are some of the proven ways you can help prevent sexual harassment in your workplace. Read through the article to see how easy this should be to solve them and the intensity of the topic.

With the prices of traditional academic learning now higher than ever before, online courses have transitioned from a supplementary source of knowledge to one of the most popular methods of learning worldwide. It’s one of the most impactful and fastest ways to spread knowledge to people around the world. 

In recent years it has also become an essential tool utilized by entrepreneurs of all kinds. By teaching your specific field or skill, you can prove to people that you are indeed highly knowledgeable and worth investing in. In which case, an online course functions as a business card of sorts, attracting many to learn from your evident experience and possibly invest in your business as well. 

Here are 8 steps for making a successful online course. 

Choose Your Topic

Your choice of topic is the foundation of your online course’s entire conception and success.

You’ll want to choose a topic that you are highly proficient at, whether your knowledge is formal or self-taught. Most importantly, you need to choose a topic that you are passionate about, and this increases the chances of successfully engaging customers through your course. 

These days any topic is fair game; to list the variety of courses on the market would be practically endless. Use this factor to your advantage and really choose the exact niche which you resonate with the most, and try to align that with what’s in high demand in your respective market. 

Dictate The Course Outcomes 

So you’ve found the right topic for you, the next step is to carefully decide on the outcomes of your course. These are the core deliverables of your course, what your customers will essentially gain from buying and taking your course, whether it’s new skills, knowledge, or an emotional impact of sorts, for example. 

Not only will this be one of the unique selling points to your customer base, but it will also help to ensure that you attract the type of customer with which you intend to interact through your course.

Gather Your Content 

One of the reasons online courses and other methods of learning have become so popular is the sheer amount of rapidly developing information we are exposed to these days. So the art of gathering content for your course lies in what things to exclude, as opposed to what thing to include. 

Your main focus is making sure every predetermined learning outcome has its own dedicated compilation of content. These will be the main influence of what content to include. Once that has been achieved, be sure to filter as much non-essential information as possible.

Outline Your Course Structure 

This is when you start organizing your gathered content into groups that share similar themes or ideas into modules. Once these modules have been grouped accordingly, they should then be ordered in a logical manner that flows naturally. 

The progression between each of your modules must be smooth so that customers can easily digest the information you are providing over the span of the course. This tends to keep them more engaged and motivated throughout.  

Choose Your Delivery Methods 

The next step is to decide on which delivery methods to use for your course. A good rule of thumb is to include a balance of visual, audio, and practical methodologies amongst your course modules. It helps to do some prior research surrounding the learning preferences of your target customer base in order to cater the delivery methods to their needs. 

There are several services that make this easy, even without prior teaching experience. Some online resources can give you insight into how an easy-to-use course creation platform allows you to focus on the content whilst tech, hosting, design, and marketing integration is taken care of. Another top tip is to try to keep things interesting, and courses don’t necessarily have to be purely informal. Some unexpected twists or tricks sporadically placed throughout the course can provide an element of surprise, keeping people interested. 

Filming and Editing 

Now that your course’s foundations are in place, it’s time to start actually filming and editing your content. There are many styles for filming and editing; most of the choices to be made relying on the preferences of your customer base. And what you feel the most comfortable doing as well. 

Try not to convey things too simple, but also be sure not to overwhelm your customers with too many different elements all at once. You can do this with basic equipment at home and basic research on filming and editing, or you could do this with the assistance of a media production agency. 

Pricing and Marketing  

At the end of the day, the process of creating and operating an online course requires time, effort, and money. An investment on which you will expect returns. You must determine where your online course will fall into your existing business model or whether it will need a business model of its own. 

Although there are no strict rules defining how to price and market a course, it should mostly abide by the general trends within your specific segment of the market, both in terms of pricing and marketing strategies. With Teachables offering bundle services, you can offer your online courses at a discounted price. It’s important to note that in some cases, courses can be provided free of charge as a means of attracting interest towards one’s primary product or service, in which case pricing is not an important element as profits are not the goal. 

Set Up Your Online School

There are 3 major ways to sell your online course:

1. Online course marketplaces 
2. Learning Management Systems (LMS)
3. Plugins or software on your website

The most comprehensive method is usually a Learning Management system (LMS). It simplifies the course creation and selling process in an all-inclusive package. It functions as your very own learning platform that you can then link to your website. This keeps all the maintenance and operation functions centralized on one efficient platform instead of integrating the different aspects across several platforms. 

The steps in this article are by no means a comprehensive guide to creating your online course, but they provide you with the crucial elements you need to address throughout the process. By following these steps and putting them into action, you will find that the learning curve is exponential in this rapidly booming industry as you settle into things.