The NFL kicked off last night and for many of us it’s the most exciting time of year. Football teaches us many lessons both personally and professionally. For instance, did you know that out of the 51 Super Bowls that have been played, 46 of the winning teams had a franchise quarterback? A franchise QB is someone that the NFL team sees as the future of the team and builds the team around him. He is the cornerstone of the team. Think Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger or go a little further back to Brett Favre, Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach. All Super Bowl winners. Small business owners with remote employees can learn something from these teams. Every company with remote employees should have a key cornerstone piece to their business practices to help control labor costs.

This cornerstone piece isn’t a person, but a process or practice. Labor costs are the single highest expense for any service-based business. We have written before that labor costs can easily be 50% of revenues and many businesses with remote employees struggle to stay under 70%. Small business owners must diligently employ all best practices to close the gaping hole that company profits are falling through. The cornerstone for companies with remote employees is an automated, online, clock in, clock out employee timekeeping system. The accurate time captured by a time clock app or a phone call compared to handwritten timesheets can save a business 6% (or more) on payroll. This changes the game.

Another significant factor to inflated labor costs is when a company pays a worker and the employee isn’t on the job site working. It’s called time theft and we can toss a penalty flag at it. We actually do flag clock in, clock out events if employees are GPS tracked somewhere other than your job site. Now you’re not in the dark any longer. It’s a great tool to add to your playbook. What if your employee clocks in at the job site, but then leaves while on the clock? Don’t fret. We’re working on a defense for that as well.

You can run your small business like Super Bowl Champions. Just like those teams, you need the cornerstone piece that’s the foundation for your growth. When up to 70% of your revenue goes to pay labor, your MVP (Most Valuable Practice) is to implement an automated clock in, clock out timekeeping system. Start using an accurate game clock today. It’s free for 30 days. Consider it your preseason.

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