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Choosing a Consultant: 5 Things to Consider

6/2/2017

Why companies hire consultants

Hiring a consultant can be a hard choice. The perception for most business owners is that consultants are too costly and time-consuming. When you work with the right consultant though, that doesn’t have to be the case.

Business owners usually start thinking about hiring a consultant when one of the following situations occurs.

After identifying specific goals that your business is working toward
A need to bring focused skills or knowledge to your work
To mediate a dispute or difficult situation
You need a fresh perspective on a project or strategy

Finding the right consultant

Having a clear understanding of your specific business goals and needs for hiring a consultant can make a big difference in finding the right fit.

Here are the 5 things for business owners to consider.

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The 5 Scariest ERISA Cases You Need To Know About

5/28/2017

ERISA is the law that governs benefit plans for employees. These usually mean retirement plans like 401(k)s and related plans that offer monetary rewards to employees other than wages.

ERISA is a huge, complicated law with almost fifty years of caselaw under its belt, and yet for reasons totally beyond me, many business owners just take it for granted that nothing under ERISA can bother them as long as they don’t have (or at least, think they don’t have) any retirement plans, or run it all through an outside company. Not so. Read on, and be chilled by just how easy it is to become subject to ERISA’s onerous disclosure requirements and other expensive compliance rules:

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A New Partnership: C Squared & Hoban Law Group

5/15/2017

We've been a little quiet on the blog lately because we've been working hard preparing some exciting new offerings for our clients (plus a quick vacation to kick start our summer!).

At the end of April, C Squared had the opportunity to attend a convention in Boston - but not the kind you may be thinking of.

This convention had all the regular industry-specific talks and panel discussions, giveaways and swag bags you'd expect from a trade show, there was even a Shark Tank like competition on the final day ... and it was all about cannabis.

C Squared HQ is in the heart of Denver, Colorado so we're no strangers to the politics and regulations of the cannabis industry. Over the last few years, we've seen what great opportunities lie ahead for small business owners in and around the new world of legal cannabis, so long as they can jump through all the regulatory and compliance hoops, of course.

So we're thrilled to announce that C Squared has partnered with the nation's premier cannabusiness law firm, with our own Chris Ray joining as Of Counsel for Hoban Law Group. 

Hoban Law Group is the nation’s only full service cannabis business (“cannabusiness”) law firm. Formed in 2009, Hoban Law Group has been Colorado's largest and most experienced cannabis business law firm and has consistently provided expert commercial legal advice to its clients in the regulated marijuana dispensary system and the industrial hemp industry.

We're excited to work with the team at Hoban and do our part to help shape a new industry. If you're interested in entering the cannabis industry or already have an established business within the industry - give us a call to explore what C Squared can do for you.

A Free Guide to Selling Your Business

4/17/2017

We recently added a new guide on our Resources page!

If you're thinking about selling your business, C Squared can help. Take a look at our free PDF guide to get a better understanding of how the process works and what actions C Squared takes to kick-start the next phase of your business (and life!).

Download it here!

Business Tools & When They Get Overwhelming

4/12/2017

What does your workday look like? Is it a whirlwind of acronyms, apps, CRMs, social media, PM tools and SAAS platforms?

The availability of business tools on the market right now can be overwhelming. Even when you’re not looking (talking to you, targeted Facebook ads) it’s easy to become bombarded with all the options designed to help your business.

Here are our 5 tips to beat the overwhelm when choosing business tools.

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Do You Need a HazMat Binder?

4/3/2017

The short answer? Yes.

Some industries are more dependent on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations and guidelines than others, but all employers should understand the basics.

What is OSHA?
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) requires employers to keep their work environments safe for employees. The Act is administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), within the Department of Labor.
The Occupational and Safety and Health Act established two key federal agencies, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). OSHA was created to administer and enforce the Act. NIOSH is a research organization. It conducts research on occupational safety and health, and makes recommendations to OSHA.

What You Need to Know

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Should HR Go 'the Way of Acid-Wash Jeans'?

3/27/2017

Human Resources often gets a bad rap for being bureaucratic, unnecessary and even mean (like in this very bitter Forbes article). This is an older Forbes article (2013) but it pops up in my news feeds often enough for me to want to respond with another side of the story.

In his article, the Forbes Contributor who, according to the tagline under his name, writes about economics, politics, media, business and film gives his opinion about how awful HR is and how young, single women in HR are discriminatory against prettier women candidates. (Forbes notes that opinions expressed by Contributors are their own)

Let’s break down his reasoning, starting with the experiment he mentions.

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5 Books for Managers & Small Business Owners

3/21/2017

Being a new manager or small business owner can be a scary transition and the best way to combat those creeping fears of ‘Am I actually good enough?’ and ‘Is this the right way to do this?’ is with more knowledge.

Below are 5 books for new managers or small business owners focused on productivity and motivating yourself and your employees, that C Squared recommends (in no particular order).

You can also check out more recommendations on our Resources page.

...Click the link below to view the book list

HR or Finance, Where Does Your Benefits Specialist Land?

3/16/2017

I was at a talk in Denver recently, hosted by tech staffing solution BWBacon, stacked with speakers whose talks were on the theme of disrupting the status quo in HR practices. Interesting idea – while there have been tons of serious innovations in HR, staffing, and payroll processes in the last few years, nobody has really heard about them – and one talk struck me as particularly insightful. The speaker explained that in her business, the person responsible for controlling their labor cost outflows wasn’t an HR person – it was an analyst from their financial department.

It’s definitely food for thought. There’s a certain intuitive disrupt-y-ness to it: getting the important money decisions out of the hands of those fluffy HR people and over to the professional money-people. I bet you could even drum up some fun-sounding rationalizations about using technology to change a landscape, or making “data-driven decisions“ about something or other.

I appreciate the attempt to innovate in the area of human resources but I think that this attitude fundamentally misunderstands the role of a good HR person.

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30% of Businesses Misclassify Employees - Do You?

3/14/2017

A Department of Labor study found that up to 30% of businesses misclassified employees as independent contractors.

Should you be hiring employees or independent contractors? There’s no one size fits all answer, it depends on how you want to accomplish your goals.

The main importance behind employee classification regulations is their effect on taxes, payroll items like overtime and deductions, and eligibility for benefits, such as health insurance and paid time off. Classifying employees can be complex and if not done properly, can be very costly and time-consuming for businesses.

The Department of Labor (DOL) is the governmental agency that handles misclassification of employees (among many other things, of course). You can find out more about misclassification directly from the DOL here.

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