7 Questions Every Small Business That Hires Employees Will Have to Answer
For small business owners who have tax-related questions, the IRS Video Portal offers a series of videos and webinars that can help them find answers.
Business owners can access the portal to find information on topics such as: Starting a Business This playlist features webinars that address several topics, including: •Tips for new businesses •Business taxes for the self-employed •Who needs to file Schedule C and how to do it •Things to ask an accountant •Avoiding the biggest tax mistakes Business Income These videos have information about: •Business income and expenses •Recordkeeping •Tip reporting requirements, including the difference between tips and service charges •Resources on IRS.gov Employers Videos in this playlist cover several topics, including: •General employment tax issues •Seasonal business •Employing family members •Proper worker classification •Seasonal employees Filing and Paying Taxes This playlist features videos on several topics, such as: •Child and daycare provider tax compliance •Payment alternatives •Electronic signature options Small Business Taxes This virtual workshop includes nine lessons on a wide range of business topics, from paying taxes electronically to setting up retirement plans. Employee or Independent Contractor
Classifying a worker as either an “employee” or “independent contractor” is problematic for more than just workers’ compensation. In an attempt to minimize the problems and confusion, the Department of Labor has proposed the codification of five tests to help in classifying a particular worker as an employee or independent contractor. Although not necessarily developed for the insurance industry, these tests can be used for workers’ compensation clients. Agency Management Basics
7 steps to hiring great employees ... Read more ... The anatomy of a producer agreement It is extraordinarily important for parties to an agreement to review and comprehend its terms. Read More The Insurance Industry Is Giving Back to Disabled Vets: Your Help is Needed Agency Management Basics
The Power of Agency Networks to your Bottom Line Evolving Agency Management Systems Apps helps Bring Efficiency in the Field 5 ways to reduce employee theft If your employees think you are keeping an eye on them, they are less likely to take things that don’t belong to them. …Read more 22 tips for insurance agents & brokers on maintaining a good reputation To build a great practice, build a great personal brand. Read More 7 Questions Every Small Business That Hires Employees Will Have to Answer 12 Reasons Agents should continue to prospect 11 ways for insurance agents & brokers to win new business ACA Update: America Needs Its Agents After All Does it Matter what Type of Business Broker you use to sell your Insurance Agency? Top 10 Things You Should Never Do At Work Here are the 10 factors that are reshaping the insurance business New CCC study highlights the growth opportunities and challenges for insurers....Read more 10 ways to be more productive As the insurance industry encounters competition from smart startups and tech giants, productivity is becoming increasingly key to success. Read more A Quality Book of Business returns Higher Revenues per Hour and a Higher Agency Valuation E-Policy Delivery: Is Your Agency Ready? Top 10 Productivity Hacks ... read the article Why Is Gratitude Important For Recovery, Success, Mental Health And More? Does the IRS consider your Agency Staff to be Employees or Independent Contractors? Why It’s Critical to Have Expert Representation in an Agency Buy/Sell Transaction 12 tips to improve producer performance You are your own profit center and need to position your thinking from that regard. Selling and growing is your primary responsibility within the agency—period....Read more Can independent insurance agents increase customer retention through the insurance claim process? Will Your Non-Compete Agreement Hold Up in Court? Agencies are Better Positioned to offer Health Insurance than Expected Post ACA Bad Attitude: Cynical Employees Earn Less Than Others Holding cynical beliefs about others may have a negative effect on one's income, according to research ... Read more Advertising your agency online? Here are some tips Depending on what kind of insurance services you offer, the best meeting point between you and your potential clients may be online. …Read more Ten things you should never tell your employer Sealing the Deal with e-Signatures: How Insurance Agencies can Improve Efficiency 12 tips for improving producer performance Your goals and vision for the future are the best tools for future success....Read more How to create a successful insurance sales direct mailer Creating the best direct mail piece requires blending together great content and an aesthetically pleasing design. …Read more The No. 1 reason most people buy insurance from you Why do your clients select you as their insurance agent, especially since there are countless agents to choose from both locally and online? …Read more Finding the 'sweet spot' in attracting millennials to insurance careers Insurance isn't "sexy," but it could be to younger professionals, if we position it properly....Read more Existing Client Marketing: The Smart Investment 8 steps to protect your insurance agency from disasters As part of National Small Business Week, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety offers eight recommendations to help insurance agency owners get started on severe weather preparedness....Read more How to reach & retain more customers ... Read More 10 ways to Increase your Agency’s Profit Sharing Bonus 10 ways to secure private data Insurers and agents can be held liable for the loss of protected information....Read more How to Inadvertently Uninspire Your Employees ... Read more Maximizing the Use of Automation Simplifies the Sale of an Agency 5 important things millennials should know about insurance To best market insurance to millennials, it's important to address the questions they have as well as educate them on what they might not know....Read more 6 useful YouTube channels for agents Digital destiny: What your agency needs to do right now to become more competitive If your agency isn't defining its marketing strategy and discussing upgrades to its digital management system, it's likely you're behind the curve. Here's how to catch up. ...Read more Maximizing an Agency’s Profit Sharing through Sound Underwriting Practices The personal lines market is changing fast; here's the good news for agents Is it harder than ever for personal lines agents to live on what they catch? Or does it just look that way? Read more Underwriter: "Yes, I see your picture and say to myself, 'What other problem can there be greater than this one?'" Guide to advertising How an Employee's Absence Can Bring Your Team Together Missing a key player? Turn that into a positive. Read more ... Newly Acquired Agency: Clients Don’t Know You The 4 types of bad bosses Bad bosses are inherent in every industry but how do you identify them and how do you cope? ... Read more Welcome Back: Why rehiring former employees can make good business sense Read more ... Understanding Agency Financing and Why Niche Lenders are Key Want to Keep Good Employees? Say 'Thank You' With Words Not Dollars A recent survey of U.S. employees reveals that employers can be doing more than increasing salaries and providing...Read more 5 tips to increase sales among new producers Getting started in the insurance business is difficult, at best. Follow these guidelines to have a better chance of closing the sale Read more Survey finds illegal job interview questions tripping up employers One in five employers has unknowingly asked an illegal interview question, and at least one in three are unsure about the legality of certain interview questions ... Read more How Brokers Add Value When Selling Insurance Agencies How to create a Marketing Plan ... read the article 100 Best Sales Ideas All 10 modules in one place 
|
The #1 Principle in Agency OwnershipHow to Increase Your Commissions 50%The Show Starts When The Phone Rings
How to get Robbed by Your Bookkeeper
17 “Tests” to Decide: Employee or Independent Contractor
Constant debate swirls around the difference between independent contractors and employees. It seems that every contractor wants everyone to believe that everyone on the job site is an independent contractor; but we know that’s not true. Use these 17 “tests” to differentiate between a de facto employee and a true independent contractor. Agency Management Basics
How Much Does an Employee Cost you? When you think about adding a new employee to your payroll, determine what the actual financial cost of doing so means to your business. This includes the dollars and cents over and above the basic wage or salary you agree to pay. There’s a rule of thumb that the cost is typically 1.25 to 1.4 times the salary, depending on certain variables. Independent insurance agents have an edge in the digital market 10 sales behaviors that prospects hate Here's a list of things you might be doing that are repelling prospects.…Read more The Funniest Excuses People Used to Get Out of Work These are almost too ridiculous to be real—but they are. Find out more » 6 ways to improve producer recruitment success rates A new Reagan study shows that only 56% of producer hires are successful. Here are six tips to beat the odds....Read more Study Shows that Independent Agencies are Thriving Insurance Agency Valuations on the Rise Modern technology provides a variety of tools that make contact with clients easier than ever before. Are you making the most of them? Why Independent Agencies Won't Lose Significant Market Share to Non-Agency Corporations 7 steps to hiring great employees ... Read more ... Why an Agency Valuation is Important to both your Business and Personal Financial Planning Yelp Isn’t Going Away. Here is How to Make it Work for your Insurance Agency The anatomy of a producer agreement It is extraordinarily important for parties to an agreement to review and comprehend its terms. Read More The Insurance Industry Is Giving Back to Disabled Vets: Your Help is Needed 11 Requirements for Management Success Employees are your greatest expense, but they are also your most valuable asset. The loss of great or even just a "good" employee has a tremendous effect on the agency. How do you manage employees according to their style while giving them a sense of place and accomplishment? Follow these rules of management success. The 4 most common business fraud schemes Employee theft costs businesses an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Read more ... Customer engagement: the next battlefield Customer relationships are delicate. Loyalty is enormously valuable once you've earned it. Satisfied customers tell nine people how happy they are. Dissatisfied customers tell 22 people — a case of bad news traveling faster. …Read more What the New Federal Licensing Law Means to Insurance Agencies Why an Agency Valuation is Important to both your Business and Personal Financial Planning Yelp Isn’t Going Away. Here is How to Make it Work for your Insurance Agency 3 ways to turbocharge the sale of your insurance business Do you know the Lifetime Value of a customer? Use jargon with your prospect; lose the sale For many of us, knowledge and specialized lingo are powerful ... in costing us business. …Read more 11 ways to attract and keep young talent The insurance industry is way behind the curve on talent acquisition, but don't let the magnitude of the problem overwhelm you. Small steps can get your agency moving in the right direction....Read more Are you a marketer or an insurance agent? What’s more important to the success of your insurance business: being a great marketer or a knowledgeable insurance agent? …Read more Tips to Acquire an Independent Insurance Agency A History of Agency Aggregators, Clusters and Networks Agency Book of Business Statistics for Buyers and Sellers 5 ways to reduce employee theft If your employees think you are keeping an eye on them, they are less likely to take things that don’t belong to them. …Read more How Much Does an Employee Cost you? When you think about adding a new employee to your payroll, determine what the actual financial cost of doing so means to your business. This includes the dollars and cents over and above the basic wage or salary you agree to pay. There’s a rule of thumb that the cost is typically 1.25 to 1.4 times the salary, depending on certain variables. Independent insurance agents have an edge in the digital market 10 sales behaviors that prospects hate Here's a list of things you might be doing that are repelling prospects.…Read more The Funniest Excuses People Used to Get Out of Work These are almost too ridiculous to be real—but they are. Find out more » 6 ways to improve producer recruitment success rates A new Reagan study shows that only 56% of producer hires are successful. Here are six tips to beat the odds....Read more Study Shows that Independent Agencies are Thriving Insurance Agency Valuations on the Rise Modern technology provides a variety of tools that make contact with clients easier than ever before. Are you making the most of them? Why Independent Agencies Won't Lose Significant Market Share to Non-Agency Corporations The Impact of Agency Culture in the Sale of An Agency Announcing the Acquisition of an Insurance Agency, Tips for Buyers & Sellers Tax Implications of Selling an Insurance Agency in 2021 & Beyond Acquisition Tax Strategies for Insurance Agency Buyers and Sellers Paying Staff as 1099 Compensation May Eventually Cost You More Increasing Insurance Premiums Affect Retention, Here Is What You Can Do Agency Valuations & The State Of The Agency M&A Marketplace Why the Marketplace Demanded Insurance Agency Networks COVID-19 Impact on Insurance Agencies & What You Can Do Smaller Management System May Have Huge Advantages for Your Agency Why Niche Agencies Have a Huge Competitive Edge When Using a Business Broker to Sell Your Insurance Agency, Always Choose a Specialist Should Captive Agents Consider Making the Move to the Independent Side? Using a Broker of Record Letter to Grow Your Agency Selling is not telling: 4 tips to offer better insurance solutions
Insurance is a relationship business. How do you forge and maintain relationships with your customers and prospects?...Read more The 4 components of finding a niche for your insurance agency If you can tie these four components together, you will be well on your way to becoming an industry leader in a niche you love, understand and provides long-term opportunity. …Read more Better selling: 10 tips, from prospecting to closing 10 solid ideas on how to sell better, from finding new business, to presenting to clients, to saving deals about to go sideways....Read more 5 steps to develop and strengthen the customer experience It is time to become more accessible, more responsive and more personal with customers. Here's how to do that....Read more How local insurance agents can win back technophiles It’s time that business owners, including local insurance agents, embrace the technology genie rather than futilely willing it back into the bottle. Here’s what we learned:
|
Have you noticed that the most effective worker is generally the busiest?
Successful people are busy people. They despise idleness and constantly search for new challenges and better ways to do things. When others discover that you are a thoughtful, helpful, enthusiastic worker, you will soon have more business than you can manage, and you will greatly increase the number of people who have a stake in your success. The most mundane tasks become much more bearable when you compete with yourself to improve at doing them. When you find faster and better ways to do your job, you also free up time that can be spent in more creative pursuits.
Successful people are busy people. They despise idleness and constantly search for new challenges and better ways to do things. When others discover that you are a thoughtful, helpful, enthusiastic worker, you will soon have more business than you can manage, and you will greatly increase the number of people who have a stake in your success. The most mundane tasks become much more bearable when you compete with yourself to improve at doing them. When you find faster and better ways to do your job, you also free up time that can be spent in more creative pursuits.
Don’t push others around if you have no blisters on your own feet.
Good officers lead by example and make sure the troops are cared for before attending to their own needs. When you treat others respectfully and never ask another to do something you would be unwilling to do yourself, you are entitled to the respect of others — and they will freely give it. But you cannot expect others to continue marching until they have blisters on their feet while you ride in the jeep. Leading others means you must be willing to give far more of yourself than you would ever ask from them.
Good officers lead by example and make sure the troops are cared for before attending to their own needs. When you treat others respectfully and never ask another to do something you would be unwilling to do yourself, you are entitled to the respect of others — and they will freely give it. But you cannot expect others to continue marching until they have blisters on their feet while you ride in the jeep. Leading others means you must be willing to give far more of yourself than you would ever ask from them.
You can tell by the company people choose what sort of character they have
As the saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.” We usually choose friends and business associates who like the same things we do, people who share the same values. If you choose happy, positive, productive companions, the odds are that you are or will soon become happy, positive, and productive yourself. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true. Unhappy, negative, destructive people are sure to drag you down with them. Choose to spend most of your time with persons who have PMA — a Positive Mental Attitude. If your job requires you to spend time with negative people, limit that time to the best of your ability and above all don’t let them discourage you with their negativism. Instead, display your own PMA.
As the saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.” We usually choose friends and business associates who like the same things we do, people who share the same values. If you choose happy, positive, productive companions, the odds are that you are or will soon become happy, positive, and productive yourself. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true. Unhappy, negative, destructive people are sure to drag you down with them. Choose to spend most of your time with persons who have PMA — a Positive Mental Attitude. If your job requires you to spend time with negative people, limit that time to the best of your ability and above all don’t let them discourage you with their negativism. Instead, display your own PMA.
