The Alexandria SBDC recently presented a program on Benefits as part of its Small Biz Nightmares series.  Presenters Patra Frame of Strategies for Human Resources and Karen Buckley-Camp of Metlife Premier Client Group of the MidAtlantic give a brief overview of their discussion in this brief video. In addition, the Alexandria SBDC has posted an outline… Read more »

This blog was written by Patra Frame and was originally posted on her company website, Strategies for Human Resources. If you missed last week’s video blog on this topic, you can check it out here. Recently Elizabeth Chisman Moon of Focus Data Solutions and I did a seminar on this topic for the Alexandria SBDC. Here… Read more »

We often hear about the importance of cybersecurity for small businesses. When we hear this term, we usually think about our hardware or network vulnerabilities. However, our employees can also expose our organizations to cyber threats. In this video, Elizabeth Moon from Focus Data Solutions and Patra Frame from Strategies for Human Resources discuss what… Read more »

The January Small Business Roundtable discussion topic was advertised as “Ideas for a Healthier, Happier Workplace”. While several concepts were raised, most of the discussion centered on reducing stress. Small business owners wear so many different hats and are pulled in so many directions that the concept of “stress-free productivity” may seem unreachable. Pulling back… Read more »

This week’s post was written by Patra Frame of Strategies for Human Resources. Patra is a US Air Force veteran, and we thank her for her service to our country and for the work that she does for the SBDC in assisting clients with their HR needs. In this area there are many official and… Read more »

The US Department of Labor (DOL) has issued new guidance that redefines independent contractors (often called 1099 workers after the IRS form.) This is critical to your business if you use independent contractors since many now will be considered employees instead. Under the new guidelines issued July 15, 2015 for classifying such workers, the DOL… Read more »

This post was written by Patricia Frame of Strategies for Human Resources, our guest author for our solopreneur blog series. Many solopreneurs choose to be independent based on their goals.  Some start that way and decide to build a bigger business, while others seek to build a company once they realize that they have more business… Read more »

Everybody’s talking about millennials and it’s no wonder; they are a very influential cohort. There are two important contexts that compel small businesses to better understand millennials: marketing and the labor force. Millennials are a desirable consumer demographic, and businesses need to understand how to grab their attention and how to appeal to their distinct… Read more »

This post was written by Patricia Frame of Strategies for Human Resources after encountering many small business owners who were not aware of changes in health care rules under the Affordable Care Act. Many small organizations provide pre-tax or post-tax payments to employees instead of offering a group health-care plan. The IRS has now reminded small… Read more »

This post was written by Patricia Frame of Strategies for Human Resources, our guest author for our solopreneur blog series. I recently got an invite to an interesting looking one-day event directly relevant to my interests and, with discounts, the price would only be $1600 plus expenses! I was talking with another consultant about all… Read more »