Got Local???

We all saw the many LinkedIn and Facebook posts related to doing your holiday shopping locally.  There is now even “Small Business Saturday” firmly ensconced between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  The impact of this strategy on our local economy is tangible. As opposed to national players, locally owned businesses regularly purchase from other local retailers, manufacturers, service providers, suppliers and farms to name a few.  Supporting locally owned businesses is vital to growing a strong local economy and tax base.  Local businesses also use local CPA’s, bookkeepers, banks, insurance brokers and financial services providers to name a few.

I purchased holiday gifts for many of the people who most supported me this year from local vendors, many of whom are also clients.  Everything from chocolates from the Happy Chocolatier, to cookies from Las Delicias.

Buy Local for your business also!

There are so many options out there nowadays as to who you can do business with, not only personally, but for your business as well.  There are huge companies, and there are smaller local companies.  This is especially true in the payroll business where there are two major players and thousands of smaller, local businesses.

The large payroll companies, which most people know by name, can be a good choice if you are also a huge company and need a suite of services only they can offer; such as international payroll, and don’t mind paying premium prices for the convenience.

However, as these larger payroll companies continue to grow, their growth no longer comes from new payroll clients, it comes from selling very complex products such as 401(k)’s, health insurance, workers compensation insurance and other similar insurance or financial products.  Although these huge entities offer numerous complex services, they are not only sucking money right out of our local economies, but in most cases charging their clients much more than the same services and products sourced locally.  And the evidence is becoming clear that they still do not totally understand these complex products.  Their 401(k) design is often inadequate, their health insurance offerings are “off the shelf” and they regularly misclassify employees when setting up workers compensation to name a few specifics I’ve seen recently.

Better design and Better Service

If affecting the local economy doesn’t persuade you to buy your services locally, than perhaps being better serviced, receive better advice, get customized design and perhaps even saving money directly can persuade you.  Take for instance payroll companies, most of the smaller, local providers offer a much higher level of service and are able to maintain very competitive pricing.  ConnectPay for instance uses a dedicated service model whereby we assign one of our five local customer service reps to each client; we don’t even turn on voice mail from 8am-5pm Monday thru Friday; and our pricing is very competitive.

Create your own One Stop Shop

The big companies want you to buy in to their theory of a one stop shop.  What you mostly get from them is a one stop bill.  You will still have numerous phone numbers to call for each component and in most cases, you’re connected to a call center and not a licensed professional even for complex insurance and financial products.  As long as you have to call multiple numbers, consider making those calls local!

Best of Both Worlds!

ConnectPay can help you get the best of both worlds.  Our unique model, using our proprietary, fist in the nation truly cloud based technology,  allows us to help you to create your own one stop shop.
YOU stay in charge of who you work with.
YOU save money in most cases.
YOU receive better service.
YOU receive better design.

Do yourself and your community a favor and look to source your payroll and complex insurance and financial services locally.

Mitch Zucker
ConnectPay Payroll Services
2352 Main Street, Suite 303
Concord, Ma 01742
978-450-2900 voice
978-319-4104 fax
774-218-9486 mobile