By Margo Greenman, 425 Business

With inventory down 25 percent, home values and rents both increasing, and more people moving to the region, the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties said the local housing market is struggling with a housing affordability crisis.

"Despite efforts to add more housing, including a rise in apartment home construction in the region, the demand for housing has significantly outpaced supply," Master Builders Association executive director Shannon Affholter said in a press release. "Lack of buildable land and other barriers to new home construction have contributed significantly to escalating housing costs and a housing supply shortage in King and Snohomish counties. Unfortunately, this is making it harder for families and workers to find attainable housing near job centers."

Many small business owners find themselves stuck behind a desk for hours just to keep up with payroll and HR compliance. Sound familiar?

By Cassie Yatcilla, PrimePay

You may think it would be too expensive or that you have too few employees to outsource your payroll. However, it is quite the opposite. The time you’ll gain back to focus on your company’s needs will surely reward your bottom line and give you and your employees peace of mind.

Here are five ways you can improve your business with your new free time:

1. Learn Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

   SEO is the process of increasing website traffic by gaining a high rank on the list of search results in search engines like Google. With a majority of people researching products and services before they buy, it is key for your business to be seen.

   For example, if you run a small remodeling business, you want to be at the top of the search results when someone Googles “remodelers near me.” This allows the potential customer to easily find your business.

   The good news? You don’t have to be a computer whiz to make a difference in your search results ranking! You can improve your ranking just by adding a few keywords to page titles on your website.

   Having basic knowledge of SEO can drastically improve your websites search ranking, thus increasing traffic. A good place to start is by reading The Beginners Guide to SEO and begin to implement some tips and tricks into your website design.

2. Take Google Analytics and AdWords courses

   Don’t know where your web traffic is coming from? Consider joining Google’s Analytics Academy to learn how to grow your business through data collection and analysis. This will allow you to find out if people are accessing your website from their phones or desktops and where people are looking for you. For example, let’s say you run an appliance showroom and find out that most of your website traffic is coming from people ages 45–54. They’re finding you from their desktop computers, are within a ten-mile radius, and are visiting your website on evenings and weekends. You can assume they are searching “appliance stores near me” from their nearby home.

   Use this knowledge to target advertisements to those people when they search for appliances on Google. You can do that by using Google AdWords. The Academy for Ads is where you will gain new digital skills, create new awareness, and learn how you can succeed with Google Ads. This will allow you to create ads that appear on Google, as well as have ads pop-up on other websites when your potential buyer is browsing the internet. Google Analytics will then help you measure your conversion rate to see what is working and what is not. Hello, future!

   

3. Talk to your target market
   

   Nothing is better for a business than keeping a great relationship with your target market. Make surveys and interview your top customers to discover what they love and what their biggest pain point is for your line of business. There are plenty of free survey tools, like Survey Monkey, that you can use to get answers to your business questions.

   This will help you stay in line with your current customers and help you gain new ones. Don’t forget to confirm who your target market is with Google Analytics. Remember, Google Analytics can show you who is searching for you and through what medium they are finding you.

4. Outline a hiring plan

   Many small businesses feel that hiring new employees is one of their biggest challenges. Take time to campaign your open position on social sites like Indeed or LinkedIn. Learn new interview questions to ask, like the Behavioral Event question, and what personality traits and skills to look for in your ideal candidate.

   Just because the perfect candidate agreed to join your team doesn’t mean that they are planning on staying for the long run. Make sure to have seamless employee onboarding to present your company as professional and organized to the new employee. Check out three ways to implement employee onboarding that increases retention.

5. Hold weekly brainstorming sessions with your team

   You may think, “Why do I need to do this? We see each other every day.” As a small business owner, you have the unique advantage of being able to get to know your employees on a more personal level. Because of that, it is important to carve out time to speak to your employees weekly. Use these brainstorming sessions to follow-up on projects, learn about trends your employees are noticing, and how you can better help your employees succeed. This will create an open conversion where employees should not be afraid to state their opinions and explain their new ideas.

Outsourcing payroll can improve your business.

Think about your current process for handling payroll. How much time are you spending on managing time sheets, tracking down employees to confirm their hours worked, and cross-referencing federal and state regulations to ensure you’re reporting taxes properly?

When you remove those duties from your work schedule, all the extra time gained can be spent experimenting with the tasks outlined above, improving your business. PrimePay's all-inclusive payroll, tax, and HR bundle lets you get back to business quicker. Get 60 days free today!

And be sure to check out more exclusive MBAKS member benefits with PrimePay.

The Builders’ Bulletin is intended to provide a convenient way to track housing in our market and includes information from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, State of the Cities Data Systems, Office of Financial Management and the Washington State Employment Security Department.

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