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Dell Pauses Employee Benefits to Cut Costs

May 25, 2020 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

As the COVID-19 crises continues around the world, the United States continues to see economic fallout.  While restaurants, bars, gyms, and other service sector employees had to layoff employees during the early days of the pandemic, now, many white-collar employees are also feeling the pinch.  Many universities have had to furlough employees, and recently, even the computer industry is taking significant cost cutting measures.  Specifically, Dell pauses employee benefits to cut costs.

Dell Pauses Employee Benefits to Cut Costs

The Cuts Dell Is Making

Beginning June 1st, Dell is making cuts to several of their many employee benefits.

Retirement Contributions

Dell will not be contributing to their employees’ retirement funds for at least the remainder of the fiscal year.  (Dell’s current fiscal year ends on January 29, 2021.)

Dell typically matches the employees’ 4% retirement contribution the first year of employment, then bumps that amount to 5% the second year, and 6% the third year of employment or up to a $7,500 a year match.

However, in an effort to preserve cash, Dell will temporarily halt this benefit.

Internal Promotions and Raises

Dell Pauses Employment Benefits to Cut Costs
Photo by Headway on Unsplash

Also beginning June 1st, Dell will temporarily stop internal promotions and raises.  Once again, these actions are expected to last at least through the end of the fiscal year.

Employee Incentives

Dell has an internal employee incentive program where employees can earn “inspire points” that they also paused.  With this program, employees receive commendations from bosses and colleagues and can use the points to buy gift cards and other items.

The Cuts Dell Has Not Had to Make

While Dell is signaling that they are proactively protecting their cash with these cuts, there are some significant measures they have chosen NOT to take.

No Furloughs

Unlike many companies, Dell is currently NOT furloughing employees.  All employees have kept their jobs.

No Pay Cuts

Many companies and industries, such as higher education, have had to cut their employees’ pay.  Thus far, Dell is avoiding that.  While employees won’t be eligible for promotions or raises for at least the next seven months, they are not, so far, getting their pay reduced.

Employees Aren’t Alone

Dell pauses employee benefits to cut costs isn’t the first cost-cutting measure implemented by the company.  Effective the second quarter, which began May 2, 2020, Dell Technologies CEO, Michael Dell, forfeited his base pay, estimated to be approximately $950,000 per year.

Dell and his wife also have donated $100 million to coronavirus relief.

Take Aways from Dell Pauses Employee Benefits to Cut Costs

Dell is just the latest of many white-collar companies that have faced decreased revenue thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.  As a result, Dell employees must make some sacrifices to keep the company in good financial standing.

If your company has not been affected yet, be prepared financially.  Likely before this pandemic is over, your company (and your pay) will be affected.  Take the time now to make your budget leaner.  Also, now is a good time to forego unnecessary spending and funnel more money to your emergency fund.

As a nation, as a world, we will pass through this time of difficulty, but it likely won’t be as soon as we would like.

 

Filed Under: Business Finance Tagged With: coronavirus, COVID-19, emergency fund, Retirement

Taking your Side Hustle Mobile

December 30, 2017 By Shane Ede Leave a Comment

This post has been brought to you by: SumUp (opinions are still mine though!)

If you’re like me (and you likely are if you’re reading this post), you’ve always got a side hustle or two running at once. You’re always looking for something to augment your income and help you pay off debt (or pay for that extra vacation). This blog is one of mine. I’ve also got a few things that I’ve got posted on my Etsy store. Nearly everything that I do is online. I don’t have to carry inventory, or attend swap meets, or anything of the like. But that’s not the case for all of you.

SumUp EMV card reader
photo credit: SumUp

For some of you, there’s a very good chance that you’ve got to be mobile, and you’ve got to accept payments wherever your customer meets you. In the past, that has meant carrying a bit of cash around to make change with, and when the day has been good, carrying even more cash back with you.  That can be dangerous.  The other issue you will likely run into is that you’re likely to have a few customers like me who rarely carry more than a few dollars of cash, and want to pay for their purchase with their debit or credit card.

If you are one of those who makes sales while on the go, you need some way to process credit or debit transactions.  Not only is it safer than carrying around a bunch of cash, but it will save you a heck of a lot of time and energy when doing your accounting at the end of the day. There are plenty of companies that offer these kinds of services.  One that offers up both a super portable card reader and a portable cash register, is a company called SumUp. Unlike some of their competitors, their device connects to an app on your phone (iOS or Android) via bluetooth, getting rid of the dongle approach that can easily break. And there’s a couple of ways that you can accept cards through the device.

Magstripe transactions

This is the old fashioned way of taking a credit transaction. The magnetic strip on the back of the cards holds all the card data.  A quick swipe, and the reader reads that data, and processes the transaction.  Easy peasy. Most of us are super used to transactions that work this way.

EMV chip transactions

Magstripe is the tried and true transaction process. But it’s also the one that makes it super easy for fraudsters to copy the data from the stripe and use it to perform fraudulent transactions. The EMV chip is the new technology that is meant to help prevent all of that. The chip is embedded in the new cards, and needs to be inserted into the reader. It has to be physically present to work, and it’s not as easily copied. It’s more secure, and it works well.

SumUp’s fees and limits match or best their competition, and their design is pretty cool too. Watch this video to see what it’s all about.

At the end of the day, if you’ve got a side hustle that has to be mobile, you need some sort of mobile card terminal. There are several options out there, and SumUp is just one of those. As the hustler, I would expect you to do your due diligence and make a decision based on what your business needs are. The only thing I can really tell you is that if you don’t have a way to process these sorts of transactions, you’re leaving money on the proverbial table. Don’t do that.

Filed Under: Business Finance, credit cards Tagged With: business, credit cards, mobile app, side hustle

When Should You Hire Help?

June 7, 2017 By Shane Ede 2 Comments

Running your own business, whether that’s in the form of a blog, or consultancy, or any other form of business can be draining. As the owner, you’re the first employee.  You’re also the only employee in some cases. It’s stressful, hectic, and tiring. It’s not for the weak. As your hustle grows, however, you might begin to feel a little burnout. It’s not necessarily because you have lost the passion for the business, but just that the work is starting to overcome your ability to stay awake. Starting your business is the first hurdle you must overcome. Knowing when you should hire help is the second.

Should you Hire Help?

When Should You Hire Help?
When should you Hire Help?

The answer to this question will likely haunt you for a while until you come to a decision. If you hire too early, you might struggle to pay the help, or have to pay yourself less than you are.  Or you might find that you don’t have as much work as you thought you did, and lose the help due to lack of work. Hire them too late, and you end up playing catch up to try and keep the pace.

If it’s such a hard decision, how do you decide?  I think you have to seriously consider a few questions.

  1. Can you afford help? Seriously consider whether your company has the resources to pay for the help. If it doesn’t, it’s time to take a very serious look at the methods you’re using for your company, and if there are ways you can improve the business in order to fund this expansion. Don’t be afraid to look for someone to help part time, or to try out a virtual assistant to help with smaller tasks that you can offload.
  2. What sort of help do you need? Before you really get down to finding someone to help, you have to know what it is that you need help with. What are your strengths that you must keep doing for the business?  Keep doing those. If you’re the face of the company, you’ve got to keep doing the PR work. Find the things that you don’t like doing, or that take you away from the strong work of the company and hire help to do those things.

Where can you hire help?

If you’ve answered those questions, you’re well on your way to hiring help for your burgeoning empire. Now, it’s up to you to find the help. Where you look will depend on what it is that you need help doing. Depending on the area you live in, there might even be local help that you can find. Local can be a great place to look for an accountant, for example. Accountant help is probably something that you’d rather have local anyways.

But, if you’re just looking for a little part time help writing content or scheduling social media, there are plenty of places that you can look. Check out online exchanges like Upwork or TextBroker.  You can find any number of freelance workers there who will work in a very temporary manner but that can also be more long term if you desire. Fiverr can be a great source of help for simple one-off projects.  If you’re looking for design work, someplace like 99Designs might be a good place. If you’re lucky enough to just be looking for some help with managing growth, maybe all you need is a business consultant.

Find Referrals when you Hire Help

Another great place to look is in professional groups on Facebook. Look around for groups that are for entrepreneurs, business owners, or that are related to your trade. Join them, and participate, as they can be a great source of knowledge for you.  They can also be a great source of help. If you’re looking for something in particular, you can usually post and ask for referrals for someone who does what you want to have done.  It’s a great way to find someone who has done that work before and done it well enough to earn a referral from another business owner.  And there’s a pretty good chance that the person who you are referred to is a small business owner as well.

Yes, owning a business can be hectic. Yes, it can be stressful. And, yes, it can mean working more hours than you’ve ever worked before. But, it can also be immensely rewarding and freeing. You’re doing your work, your way. And people are paying you to do it.  What could be better?

Don’t be afraid to hire help for your business, but make sure that you’re doing it the right way. Don’t rush to hire someone, but, similarly, don’t wait too long either. It’s your company, run with it. Enjoy it.  And hire help when you decide it’s necessary.

Filed Under: Business Finance Tagged With: business, enterprise, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, self-employed

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