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Mike and Starr Mackey

“The first time I even thought about W-2s this year was when our personal copies arrived in the mail” Destinations Unlimited Tours owner Mike Mackey tells us. “It’s a tremendous relief not to worry about that and other HR issues like payroll taxes and workers’ comp insurance. I’m so glad PEO Pros found us a good match for our PEO services.”

Mike and Starr Mackey, pictured here, are the owners of this combination travel agency and charter bus company.

“We like to work with tour groups. Schools, churches and other common interest groups can have us take them to the cruise ship, the big game, or even a safe tour of New York City. We take them to the best restaurants, best hotels, and all of the details are taken care of.”

“The PEO relationship has enabled us to provide proper insurance coverage to work with public schools, department of defense and other heavily regulated agencies. Workers’ Comp was always a black cloud that hung over our head before. Now it is somebody else’s problem.”

“We even have a ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ where the guests are only told how much money to bring, and when they will be back. I’m not going to spoil it by telling you where we are going this time, but we have gone to places like Mobile, AL and toured the Navy Museum, stopped in Panama City Beach for some sun and white sand, and even hit some breweries and wineries along the way. It’s one of our most popular tour packages.”

“Folks enjoy taking us to the cruise ship, because the vacation begins when they step on the bus, and doesn’t end until they get back home. No driving to Miami or Fort Lauderdale. No parking worries. No traffic. Leave the worries to us!”

Destinations Unlimited Tours has been a client of ours since 2008. They have recommended our service to some of their friends in the industry, the best testimonial a client can give!

“We recently had a worker who was out on sick leave” Starr Mackey tells us. “It was so nice to simply make a call to the PEO and find out what we needed to do. They are always only a call or email away.”

Debby Boote

“On a personal level, I like it because we have direct deposit and my money goes right to my bank account” says Debby Boote in Business Development. “And on a business level, I like it because if there is ever a problem or a question I can go to the PEO and they are always there to help out right away.”

Here is a video featuring Mike Mackey, Starr Mackey and Debby Boote from Destinations Unlimited Tours:

PEO Pros / PAY-surance HR has been selected for a local award.

January 7, 2011. MAITLAND, FL
An Orlando survey company, ST Marketing out of Maitland, has notified PAY-surance HR that they are the recipients for “Best Payroll Consultants in Central Florida.”

“PEO Pros / PAY-surance HR was chosen from a field of 23 Payroll Consultants in Central Florida as they excelled in all categories” a spokesperson for ST Marketing tells us. “They were chosen ahead of local branches of ADP, Paychex and Compupay, three national firms considered to be front runners in this competition.”

They shared with us some of the award research process:

“We had seven core values to examine, and we did this by contacting existing clients and ex-clients. It was particularly important that the ex-clients spoke about the seven core values. While we will list all of the values in our upcoming news release, you can be sure that professionalism, flexibility, pricing and on-time performance were considered.”

Award Ceremony has not been scheduled but it is most likely going to be in March 2011.

For more information please use the contact form below:

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“I hear people talking about their SUTA, what is it?”

“The state just raised my SUTA rate! What can I do?”

“What can I do about SUTA?”

“My Accountant just told me I should consider a PEO because of my SUTA rate increase.”

Have you wondered what this acronym stands for?

• SUTA = State Unemployment Tax Act. Similarly,
• FUTA = Federal Unemployment Tax Act.

It is a tax assessed on employers to fund unemployment benefits. It is often (wrongly) called “Unemployment Insurance” or “SUI.”

The term SUTA is often used to refer to the employer’s SUTA rate, that is, the percent of payroll that is assessed on that particular employer.

Most states start new businesses at an arbitrary base rate, and they stay at that rate until a significant amount of employment history is acquired.

In Florida, for example, a new business is assigned a SUTA rate of 2.7% of payroll for the first 30 to 33 months. After this, the rate may fluctuate up or down based on employer experience. The current maximum in Florida is 5.4%

In contrast, the FUTA rate is a constant 0.8% and does not change per employer.

Both rates have a maximum wage applicability. In Florida, the SUTA rate is only applied to the first $7,000 of each employee’s wages with that employer. (FUTA also only applies to the first $7,000.)

Why is this Important When Considering a PEO?

When an employer turns his employees over to a PEO (formerly known as an Employee Leasing Company) they now fall under the SUTA rate of the PEO.

Obviously, in some cases, this can be beneficial to an employer who has had an unusually bad experience with unemployment. It can also be of great assistance to have a Professional Employer Organization to direct the employee hiring and terminations in a way that limits exposure to unemployment claims.

In any case, transferring the responsibility of the Unemployment Claims from the client company to the PEO makes unemployment claims “somebody else’s problem.”

Would it comes as a surprise that small to medium business owners are dealing more with unemployment issues these days? Wouldn’t it be great to hand those problems off to someone else?

With the services of a PEO, where the PEO becomes the “employer of record”, it is no longer the client’s responsibility to deal with unemployment issues (such as claims and UE taxes.) That all becomes “Somebody Else’s Problem” (the PEO’s) and the client can continue to build their business.

Allan Jackson, owner of Southeastern Data, explains (in the video below) how a PEO got rid of his unemployment problems in the video below. Southeastern Data is entering their third year as a client of a PEO (placed by PEO Pros.)

Are you a start up PEO that can’t find a master policy?
Don’t panic.

We can help!

PEO Pros has a special department that handles start up PEOs, Staffing and Payroll companies.

In particular we help with Workers’ Comp, General Liability, EPLI and in some cases Health Insurance.

We have experience with start up companies, so much that the carriers have come to rely on us to help the transition from start up to going concern.

Have you heard these or something similar?

• “We don’t do start ups”
• “We require a minimum book of business”
• “Come back and see us when you have 3 or more years experience”

Sound familiar? Don’t despair. We can help.

Use the form below to get in touch with us.

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From California’s Workers’ Comp Executive Site

California’s self-insured group (SIG) industry suffered its first official failure yesterday when Department of Industrial Relations director John Duncan declared the Contractors Access Program of California (CAP) in default due to insufficient funds. The workers’ comp SIG had less than half of the funding required by the state and efforts to correct the deficit by collecting from members who are jointly and severally liable, have been unsuccessful.

With the declaration of default, DIR transferred responsibility for benefit payments for injured workers to the Self-Insurers’ Security Fund (SISF). Duncan said he understood the seriousness of the action for CAP’s member employers, but maintains it was necessary after remedial actions failed to correct a deficit that exceeds 50% of the group’s required funding. He noted that member employers will be addressed “fairly and equitably.”

The group’s daily operations have been under the control of Bickmore Risk Services since May when DIR wrested control of the SIG from New York-based Compensation Risk Managers (CRM), which now operates as Majestic Capital. While SISF now has responsibility for claims payment it also has access to the group’s remaining assets and security deposit. Additionally, efforts to recoup additional funds from the group’s member employers are expected to continue.

The full scope of the members’ financial liability has not been made public, but DIR says that it had less than 50% of the funding required by state law. A lawsuit filed by 11 members of the group against CRM and brokers is seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages to help off-set their joint and several liability that’s estimated to be in excess of $20 million.

Look for additional coverage in the next premium edition of Workers’ Comp Executive.

Note: There are no PEOs in the SIG that we know of. PEOs are normally required to carry full insurance.

Our insurance agency is now appointed by Progressive Auto Insurance to provide auto insurance coverage for our clients.

We are proud to have this relationship with Progressive! Many of our clients prefer having us take care of their auto insurance needs as well as other business insurance.

Working with Progressive has never been easier. Here is a link to get an auto quote today:

This article was published in “The PEO Insider” in January 2010. Reproduced here by permission. If you click on the images they may just give you a clearer view.

The PEO Insider was doing a special issue on brokers and called on me. I was flattered of course! I know we do some brokering but there are many larger “broker houses” than ours. Stephanie Oetjen, the feature editor, told me that I was considered to be a “high visibility broker, with a significant internet presence.”

Well who could resist that kind of schmoozing. After several edits and sessions with Stephanie this was the finished product.

Page 1 of The PEO Insider article January 2010

Page 2 of The PEO Insider article January 2010

Southeastern Data is one of the most unique businesses in Central Florida. From their website:

“Since 1996 Southeastern Data has provided recycling & remarketing of of all types of computers & electronic equipment. We offer pickup service across the nation and to a number of locations outside of the country.

Southeastern Data is an expert at recycling all forms of electronics and equipment. We also offer wholesale pricing of refurbished and new-old-stock items at our warehouse location in Oviedo, Florida. Our warehouse is open to the public Monday-Friday, 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. with other hours available by appointment.”

Allan Jackson, owner and CEO tells us “I wish I’d known about PEOs when I got started. I could have avoided a lot of headaches in our first year of business associated with managing payroll and taxes, but the real benefit early on would have come from expert help with basic HR issues such as unemployment and workers comp insurance. The time and money that I used to spend on that is now completely focused on the business. It’s been a huge upgrade! I also can’t say enough about PEO Pros in helping me find the best PEO solution for our needs at every step in my company’s evolution. My best advice for moving to a PEO relationship would be to make PEO Pros your first call.”

We are also clients of Southeastern Data. We have purchased all of our office computers and other tech items from their high quality collection of previously owned equipment.

Small businesses are challenged with the rising price of advertising. As the number of options increase, the quality of advertising and return on investment are getting harder and harder to track.

How then can a small business find more clients? The internet is certainly a growing field, and making more and more people accessible. The connections being made are at an all time high, and should only continue to grow. Then why isn’t it the answer? Why aren’t small businesses growing at an all time rate?

The most likely reason is due exactly to the growth of the internet. With so many people to meet and be connected with, who is to be trusted? Isn’t that what it comes down to anyway?

The first rule of business, “All things being equal, people do business with people they like and trust.” The corollary of that is “All things being unequal, people still do business with people they like and trust.”

How is trust earned? It’s doubtful that real trust can come from email, online messaging or blogs.

Trust comes from face to face meetings. Networking is one of the best options out there to meet people face to face on a regular basis, and develop relationships.

We recommend the following networking groups in East Orlando:
Build Your Own Business (BYOB) in Orlando
Laid Back Leads Group