Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face a daunting set of challenges ahead of them at the best of times.
However, with some outlets reporting that at least one quarter of small businesses are currently struggling, there’s much more to take stock of today. Crippled by a poor cashflow and the chasing of late payments, the coronavirus pandemic has left more modest ventures seeking additional support during these trying times, and understandably so.
If this all applies to the reality that you and your SME are facing, then first know that help is out there in many forms. Outsourcing any payroll obligations, in particular, may contribute greatly to easing a few tensions here.
But what can such a strategy do for your SME?
Lightening the Load
SMEs are incredibly important and admirable, but it’s also fair to say that they experience their fair share of limitations occasionally.
From the outset, SMEs bombarded with innumerable hurdles to clamber over, and you’ve likely felt some semblance of frantically hustling already. There’s lots to do and truly little time in which to do it, and so sometimes, any task that doesn’t immediately push the business forward can perhaps be passed on to another.
This is what outsourcing involves, designating perhaps the more distracting or administrative tasks to a supporting firm. You can use a company like Azets to manage your payroll, who’re headed up by award-winning leader Stephen Abbotts and his dedicated team of professionals. They do not charge any additional fees for new Starters, and much of their ethos is centred around saving your business valuable time. Don’t muddle through admin by painstakingly learning the ropes, and instead utilise all the tailored expertise you have at your fingertips instead.
Fewer Errors
If an error is found in payroll, it’s not something that can be swept under the carpet for long.
The price of payroll errors can be significant for the bottom line and the brand, with some firms even coming under fire from media outlets for their poor practices. Even big names such as Argos and Debenhams have been found breaching payroll rules in the last few years and ordered to pay penalties totalling £800,000 to HMRC. No one is above the law where these matters are concerned.
This is yet another reason why your SME perhaps can’t risk ‘giving things a go’ or ‘hoping for the best’ wherever the payroll is concerned. The safest option is to outsource, whereby you can harness the expertise of veteran specialists who account for every wrong turn or pitfall that could possibly await them. Sloppy mistakes here can be enormously damaging, and so it begs the question; why risk it?
Significant Cost Reductions
If you don’t outsource payroll responsibilities, then a full-time employee will need to tend to these matters instead.
Still, it can be enormously expensive just to hire one person, let alone assemble a team or department of your very own payrollers from scratch. You’ll need to fittingly put them on the payroll, covering salaries, pensions, training fees, and perhaps even some choice insurances. Then comes the provision of equipment, from desks and machinery to the software installed on their computers. Once all these costs are accumulated, it can be an exceedingly sobering experience.
However, if you outsource the payroll, a more affordable arrangement can be made. You pay for a competent service at a modest price, and that’s precisely what you get. You could fill your SME with talented employees for a while, but unless you’re experiencing rapid expansion, sooner or later a ceiling will be reached, and your ambitions stalled. Then you’ll be tasked with difficult decisions of biding your time, letting loyal workers go, or making everyone so miserable they quit anyway. Conversely, when you outsource, the cash flow moves more lucidly, and the SME runs more healthily.