Small Business News

Employees are essential to most businesses. Finding and retaining good employees can be challenging, especially during tough times such as the pandemic. The government continually changes rules impact you and your employees.

Here are some new rules to note for 2021.

One of the key challenges for many employers is to classify workers properly—as employees or independent contractors. Different rules apply for different government purposes. The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued a final rule to help you determine whether workers are economically dependent on your business, and thus employees, or in business for themselves, and thus independent contractors. If they’re not independent contractors, then minimum wage and overtime rules apply to nonexempt employees (employees who are not managers or others exempt from minimum wage and overtime rules).

Again, keep in mind that different standards apply for different purposes. For example, for federal employment taxes, IRS guidance controls. There have been no changes in these rules, although there have been proposals in Congress to do so.

In 2020, small employers

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Entrepreneurs are like snowflakes—each one of us is unique. But the one trait nearly all of us share—we don’t have enough time in our days to get it all done. It’s not that we’re managing our time wrong (though that may be a contributing factor). Small business owners just have so much to do.

It’s not like there aren’t any consequences when we run out of time. While you spend time working on some more mundane tasks, something important could fall through the cracks, costing you a lucrative opportunity.

Given there will never be more than 24 hours in a day, here are some tips for maximizing productivity, so you can focus on growing your small business:

Sounds simple, right? But too many business owners just don’t bother. If you’d rather use a physical calendar, that’s fine. It’s important to use the type of calendar you’re most comfortable with, so you’ll actually use it.

That said, keeping multiple calendars in different places increases the chances something won’t get entered, and you’ll miss c

Read more: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SmallBusinessTrends/~3/k-4RZg992Bo/how-to-save-time-in-business.html

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced it has reopened the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and EIDL Advance program portal to eligible businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses can receive long-term, low-interest loans and emergency grants. This will help them recover from the disruptions that took place in their businesses. They can use the loan for paying rent, mortgage, vehicle leases, payroll, and other bills.

The second round of COVID-19 EIDL assistance also comes with improvements to the application and loan closing process. This includes deploying new technology and automated tools. The application process has been streamlined and the SBA says it should take you two hours and ten minutes or less to complete. Some $197 billion is available through the EIDL for working capital funds to small businesses.

Read more: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SmallBusinessTrends/~3/gd-_BIem2H0/eidl-loans-eidl-advance-program-reopens-to-all-eligible-small-businesses.html

Influencer marketing is making an impact on businesses around the world. And since Asia is one of the fastest evolving markets, it makes sense that companies in this area would lead the way. Kobe is one platform that’s working on this in the Asian Market. In addition to utilizing an emerging marketing tactic, the company uses new tech to set it apart.

Learn more about the company and what sets it apart in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.

Facilitates influencer marketing campaigns.

Founder Evangeline Leong told Small Business Trends, “We manage end-to-end influencer marketing campaigns and utilise a self-developed, patented Artificial Intelligence-driven platform to pair advertisers with the optimal influencers for their brand.”

Integrating AI into the platform.

Leong says, “Our system maps campaign objectives to a wide array of factors using image recognition and natural language recognition. It then intelligently auto-generates influencer suggestions, along with recommended fees, that clients can then review and select. It is also able to provide strong, quantitative metrics in order to reflect returns on investment for businesses.”

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SmallBusinessTrends/~3/zjklfv9ocBQ/kobe-small-business-profile.html