

Are your benefit costs dissolving your profits? Are you allocating too many resources to your HR function? Would you like to simplify your payroll process? In this episode of SCORE Business TV, we'll show you how to accomplish these goals and more.
SCORE is a 55-year-old nationwide non-profit organization providing free mentoring services to business owners. Our SCORE experts are here to guide you safely through that minefield.
Professional Employer Organization (PEO) Benefits
Today’s SCORE Business TV episode #14 is on how a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) can improve a small-business' bottom line. Experts will explain how a PEO can benefit your business in reference to costs, HR, and payroll. PEO stands for Professional Employer Organization.
What You Will Learn About PEOs
In this video, host Dennis Zink and his expert guests John Coleman and Brian Smith of Oasis, a Paychex Company, discuss the following topics:
What is a PEO?
What are the benefits of using a PEO?
Who do the employees work for?
Do I still manage my employees? Who is in control?
What does a PEO cost?
Are all PEO’s the same?
How many employees do I need to have a PEO?
Can I get a PEO in all states?
How long does it take to set up a PEO?
What are the requirements for using a PEO?
Can I get owner and health insurance benefits for me and my family?
Should I pay myself using the PEO?
Is a PEO good for my company?
Who is responsible for payroll and related taxes?
Who is responsible for compliance related issues?
Will my workers' comp rates increase or decrease?
Can I offer better employee benefits at better rates?
Who keeps track of vacation, sick and holiday time?
Does a PEO help me obtain better employees because I can offer competitive benefits?
What is the impact of a PEO when I decide to sell my business?
What Are Some PEO Benefits?
“When you get a PEO, overall, what we try and do is help the business owner focus on their core business and take away a lot of the headaches that come with running a small business. I put these in a few different buckets,” said John Coleman.
“The first would be insurance and benefits. The second area would be compliance and legal support. Again, the Small Business Administration refers to the 18% costs that are higher for a small business when it comes to compliance as a lot of legal changes that happen daily and monthly on a federal state level through the support of our organization,” added Coleman.
How to Decide on a PEO
“Well, there's several reasons to decide. One, how are you handling your filing of your taxes now, how are you handling your workers' comp? What are you doing for your benefits? What are you doing for the life cycle of the employee? So a lot of those questions that we try and discover with you will determine the best solution that we can provide. We had a client just recently that was unable to obtain because of their growth in infrastructure and adding different locations. They still weren't able to get a good features and benefits out of their current health plan,” said Brian Smith.
“The other thing they wanted to do is offer a 401k. So those are some of the things as you grow with us and the relationship builds. There's other advantages of these fortune 500 style benefits that we bring to the table,” added Smith.

Why Do I Need a PEO?
“I like to think they're in chaos and they need us. But like I said, I see what's really great is to be able to put your head on your pillow and knowing that you're helping every client. I've been doing this a long time. And so when you bring up the small guy that's struggling, you know, putting in many hours, maybe his spouse is in the business, maybe a significant other is trying to do all the paperwork. It frees them up as well as the compliance side,” said Brian Smith.
“So once again, if you didn't have to do all of these things and you've got to just focus on your business, you wouldn't do it, right. So it allows them to utilize us to do those items for them. So the compliance factor, the HR feature, the better benefits, the payroll administration, workers' compensation, it's an affordable way to focus on your business and allow us to take care of the minutia,” added Smith.
Host
Dennis Zink, SCORE Manasota Chapter Chair
Guest
John Coleman, Oasis, a Paychex Company, PEO Consultant jhcoleman@paychex.com 941-228-2311
Brian Smith, Oasis, a Paychex Company, Senior District Sales Manager bssmith1@paychex.com 863-698-5017
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Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.