Focus on the Customer and Proposed Tax Changes
Worker dissatisfaction during covid is spreading like a … well, like a virus. Many employers of my (older) generation feel that you should be happy to have a job. Well, millennials and Gen Zers don’t quite feel that way, and it doesn’t matter if they have a college degree or not; the feeling is consistent. Consequently, it is absolutely key that you keep your workers engaged and remained focus on what floats their boat – assuming you want to keep them. Spoiler Alert!!! It’s not a higher salary. Would you believe workplace flexibility? Hmmm, that’s tough to do on an assembly line, but how many of those are left in So Cal? Call Carol Marzouk to guide your employee engagement.
Along those lines, Vistage has an Emerging Leader Program that is geared towards managers and individual contributors for you company (see Millennials and Gen Zers in previous paragraph). Giving your key employees the opportunity to learn new things is a powerful retention tool. It tells them that you believe in them. Frank Fabela is your local contact for Vistage; click here to get to him.
What drives your business? I was on a conference call where the general manager was citing all sorts of metrics on why the division was so successful: increased revenue, increased billable hours, the addition of new programs etc. What was interesting was that there was no mention of the customer. None – it never even came up. Don’t misunderstand me; increased revenues, new programs and everything those entail are important, but they only exist as long as the client base supports it. There was no mention of the client surveys that are received by that organization or which line employees excelled on the service side.
I once heard Andy Taylor, the CEO of Enterprise Car Rentals, talk about what made the company successful: customer service scores. As an Enterprise manager, your location could have the highest revenue growth, operating margins etc. but if the customer service scores were not at a certain level, you would not get a promotion, period.
Do you survey your customers? Do they like your service levels? Would they recommend you and your company? Your customers can help you double your sales in four years, but only if they like you enough to be a referral source. Ask me how you can put a program in place to increase your sales by focusing on your customers.
Business Tax Increases – How are we going to fund our deficit and the proposed spending plan? Build back better taxes! It’s really too lengthy to get into here, but I can’t resist some highlights:
Increasing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.
Cap the QBI for business earning over $400,000 – talk to your CPA, but it will limit what you can deduct as part of your QBI, kind of like the limit on state taxes for your personal tax return. Oh, is that where they got the idea?
Increasing the capital gains tax rate
Repeal the stepped-up basis
And that’s scratching the surface; believe me, Congress finds a lot of itches that they want to scratch. They’ll even create a rash just to scratch something – see Assembly Bill 5 in California.
Believe it or not, it’s the fall in about a week. Oh, and DO NOT forget to vote.
