Hiring your first employee

[John_Christina]

Hi all!

We have been discussing hiring an employee and ran into many questions... I'm sure we could Google the information, but wanted to get some input from some of you that have experience.
Thinking back to when you first started your business, what did you all do when you hired an employee?
We will do criminal background checks, drug screens as well as MVR's. We will also have WC, General liability as we as bonding and insuring each person.

What are the steps to make it "official"? Do we need to send information to anyone? Should we start off doing the payroll ourselves or hire a company for that?

And of course, anything else you can think of.

Thank you!

Christina and John

[Freelancier]

You'll need to let your state's department of labor know and get an ID number for unemployment insurance payments and reporting.

You're better off trying to use a service like Intuit Online Payments (maybe cheaper through Costco membership), just because they take care of calculations, reporting, and most e-filing for a low monthly payment.

[David Hunter]

Before you hire anybody... read No B.S. Ruthless Management of People and Profits by Dan Kennedy. Go get a copy from Amazon or see if your local library has a copy.

You'll be glad you did.