Waiters and waitresses are one of a restaurant owner’s most important assets. Not only do they set the tone of the dining experience; they also serve as a restaurant’s sales staff - they make recommendations and inform customers of current specials. So it’s not hard to believe that service staff can make or break a restaurant. A restaurant with great food has no chance if its service is bad, while a mediocre restaurant with outstanding service can thrive.

There’s no question that social media has become a major player in the way people interact nowadays. Sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and more all attract millions of dedicated users daily, so its only fitting that businesses have taken it upon themselves to use these platforms as marketing tools. If used properly, you can see tons of leads from these sites, and can build a personable and friendly reputation with your customer base. Here’s five things to keep in mind:

1. Choose Which Networks Fit Your Industry and Demographic

You may already have a Yelp page for your business, but that’s not the type of site I’m talking about here (Yelp is great though). You want to market on the type of site that potential customers scour daily - Twitter, Instagram, these types of networks.

First ask yourself: Does your business produce something tangible? In other words, can you take pictures of what you are selling? Businesses like bakeries and restaurants, for instance, can take photos of their best dishes and pastries. Product-based businesses like these find great success posting on photo-based networks like Instagram and Pinterest. Some service-based businesses, like auto detailers, can use these networks to promote their cleaning abilities.

But if you are like most service-related businesses, its probably best to stay off the picture-themed sites because you may simply not have worthwhile pictures to post. Instead, stick to sites like Facebook or Twitter where you can offer promotions, conduct polls, and market your services.

Above all, pick a site that YOU can make work well for your business.

2. Post Appropriate Content

This may sound simplistic, but make sure the content you post is appropriate. By appropriate, I mean it should be something that will resonate with your followers/friends, and give them reason not to scroll right through it. Many of your business’s followers may be personal friends, but it is best to keep any personal posts off your business account. You’d be surprised at how many people forget this.

Is your business having an event? Is there a sale going on? Do you have a website blog, or did a customer do something special for your business? These would all be great things to post on social media.

3. Less is More

Some businesses constantly flood social network feeds with the mentality that they are increasing their company’s exposure. The problem with this is that followers might start to ignore your posts, or even get annoyed. This can come across as spammy, and nobody likes spam mail. 

What I recommend is posting only once or twice daily at appropriate times - maybe once in the morning and once in the evening. Consider when the bulk of your customer demographic will be on their social networks and post then. This way, your business will not look desperate for attention or customers. Also avoid posting the same thing twice, unless your posts are leading up to a special event or deadline.

4. Involve Your Customer Base

Involving your customer base is a great way to make your business stand out amongst your competitors. For example, ask a question that will give your followers a chance to voice their opinion. A breakfast cafe could post a picture of a popular dish, and include the caption “Our X dish with poached eggs! How do you like your eggs?” Or ask a “Can you guess…” type question. Questions will give your followers a reason to stop and think about your post.

You can also involve customers with hashtags - phrases that begin with a pound sign, like “#drycleaning” or “#coffee”. Hashtags are used on sites such as Instagram and Twitter to help users find similar posts by searching a particular hashtag. If you have an ongoing promotion, ask customers to use your unique hashtag if they post something relevant to your company. Or have followers use a certain hashtag to qualify for a giveaway.

5. Keep Your Replies Professional

It’s common sense, but we’ve all had those times when our emotions get the best of us. If a customer comments on your post to insult your business or give a bad review, it is best to give one acknowledging reply. And in a professional tone. If they continue to argue, let it be. Getting in a lengthy argument for everyone to see will look very unprofessional, no matter how despicable a commenter may be. By giving one reply, you will appear personable and show that you acknowledge complaints without getting in a full-blown debate.

These 5 tips will get you on the right path to your social network marketing campaign. Though these tips are true and tested methods, always do what suits you, your industry, and your customer demographic best.

About Us

Pink Payroll is a nationwide payroll company. We aim to provide affordable, easy payroll to our clients throughout the 50 states. If you would like to learn more, visit our services page or request a free payroll quote!

It is a common practice for customers to tip their servers at restaurants. For servers, cash tips are expected to compensate their low hourly wages. In most cases, a server’s tips make up an easy majority of their total wages, and not surprisingly, most of these tips go unreported and untaxed. After all, cash tips are considered the main perk of being a waiter or waitress, so its easy to understand why employers and staff alike don’t want to disclose their income from tips.

But don’t assume the government is unaware of this and that they aren’t after restuarants who do this. Being that so much money is made through tips, the government has taken a firm stand on taxing them. There is a strict set of rules that outline how restaurant owners are supposed to collect, distribute, and report their employees’ tips.

With these rules come a number of employee and employer responsibilities:

Employer Responsibilities

Collect tip reports from every employee at the end of each payroll period. You can do so more often if you feel it is necessary.

Withhold income taxes and FICA taxes and report your employees’ tips to the IRS. Tips must be reported no later than the 10th day of the month following the pay period.

File form 8027 if your restaurant is considered a “large business”. This must be done every year, and consists of reporting to the IRS your restaurant’s charged sales, charged tips, total sales and total tips.

Employee Responsibilities

Keep a daily record of tips in a tip log that your employer provides you. This way your employer can apply the necessary FICA withholdings properly.

Report all yearly tips with IRS publication 1244.

TRAC Program

As an incentive to make employers comply with tip-reporting laws, the IRS has implemented the Tip Reporting Alternative Commitment (TRAC) program. By signing up and agreeing to the TRAC program, employers agree to:

-Implement tip-reporting procedures

-Educate their employees about tip-reporting

-Stay on top of all tip-reporting paperwork, reporting, and related obligations

In return, the IRS agrees not to access any FICA taxes from your restaurant, unless it has individually looked into all employees under-reporting their tips in your business. The IRS will not instigate any audits of your business while you are enrolled in TRAC , though it may individually examine your employees for under-reporting.

More info on the TRAC system can be found at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/foodtrac.pdf.

How You Can Educate Your Employees

Warn your staff about the risk of underreporting their tips. Let them know they could face fines or even time behind bars for lying about the amount of tips they make.

Use technology. One way of making your employees comply is to program POS systems to require daily tip disclosure before your employees can clock out.

Repetition: Repetition is a powerful way of getting your message across. It will let your employees know you are serious about this issue. Reiterate in staff meetings the importance of proper tip reporting.

Pink Payroll is a nationwide payroll company. We aim to provide affordable, easy payroll to our clients throughout the 50 states. If you would like to learn more, visit our services page or request a free payroll quote.

California Employers are well aware of the minimum wage increase that went into effect July 2014.

The increase, according to the California Department of Industrial Relations, raised the hourly minimum from $8 to $9, and will require a $10 minimum wage by 2016. For some employers, the increase was little but ceremonial as local laws already required a minimum wage that exceeded the statewide increase. For example, San Francisco’s minimum wage is $10.74/hr, while San Diego is pushing for its own increase above state law.

What you may not know is that the California salaried minimum wage is different than the hourly minimum wage.  The statewide increase also raises the wages of exempt or “salaried” employees.

By California law, exempt workers must meet a salary requirement. The general requirement is that the salaried employee’s monthly pay must be twice what a full-time hourly employee earns (40 hours/week). So for full-time exempt workers, the minimum wage was $33,280 per year. With California’s increase in effect, the minimum wage for exempt workers is now $37,440 per year. This means that if your employee’s salary wage is still in compliance with the 2013 minimum, it’s time to make that change.

If you have a salaried employee who is now making less than the legal requirement following the increase, we recommend you make adjustments now. It’s also a great time to review your employees’ salaries to prepare for the increases to come. By 2016, exempt employees are required a yearly minimum of $41,600.

By making adjustments now, you will avoid penalties and back-pay interest. You will also steer clear of potential overtime premium pay for any employee’s loss of exempt status and possible litigation costs. If you have avoided these penalties until now, consider yourself lucky. It’s never too soon to work out these kinks.

Pink Payroll can help you with a variety of payroll related tasks. Visit our payroll services page to learn more, or contact us for a free quote!

Thank you, and remember to follow our blog for more payroll updates!

Typical Worker’s Comp Scenario:

Worker’s Compensation Insurance payments and paperwork have posed problems for business owners time and time again.

Usually, insurance providers require a 25% annual deposit based on an estimated figure of what your payroll will be. Not only is 25% a lot to shell out in one payment, but the estimate usually hits way above or below target. Employers then have to wait for a refund or are pestered with audit bills to pay the remainder of a low estimate. Your premium is then adjusted yearly and you pay a 25% estimated deposit each time. This system requires business owners like you to fill out unnecessary paperwork and pay more than you should in premiums

Problem Solved.

Pink Payroll is one of a few payroll services to offer “Pay-as-you-Go” Worker’s Comp Insurance. Pay-as-you-Go is a system that allows you to pay your Worker’s Comp Insurance at the endof each payroll period, so you can avoid refunds and audit bills.

By hiring us, you will also avoid paying the overpriced 25% up-front deposit. Your automated payments will be consistent and in real time.

Sounds easy? It is!

At the end of a given pay period, Pink Payroll sends your payroll information over to your insurance carrier. Your insurance then calculates what you will pay from the submitted payroll. Simple as that!

The benefits from doing Workers Comp this way are…

No 25% Up-Front Deposit

With us, you won’t be paying the 25% chunk of your total bill that is common with Workers Comp Insurance. Your payments will be more predictable and consistent.

No Audit Bills

The Pay-as-you-Go system acts in real time. This means we cannot overestimate or under-estimate your premium. This way you won’t get audit bills due to faulty estimates or have to wait for a reimbursement in the mail.

Set up is Easy

Integrating your payroll with our Worker’s Comp software is quite easy since we will already have your payroll and employee data.

We Accept Most Insurance Companies

We work with most insurance carriers which include Travelers, The Hartford, Amtrust, CNA, Guard and even more!

Follow our Pink Payroll Blog, and contact us for a free quote on your payroll!

If you are a San Diego small business owner, you will want to keep track of San Diego’s new minimum wage and paid time off laws.

MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE:  San Diego is the first city to pass a minimum wage increase since California’s statewide increase to $9 per hour in July 2014.   The increase would gradually raise the minimum wage to meet inflation, starting at $9.75 as of Jan. 1, 2015, to $10.50 by Jan. 2016, and then further to $11.50 by Jan. 2017. By 2019 the minimum wage will be indexed to match inflation.

PAID SICK DAY ADDITION:  This law will also require employers to allow five paid sick-days each year for each employee.

Should this become law, Pink Payroll can assist small business owners to stay compliant with the increases.  We have an Human Resource group that will help you add the sick day rules into your HR Employment Manual.  The Pink Payroll Software will track the days accrued (earned) and used by each employee.  We can also help you with calculations to see how much this will cost you on an annual and per hour basis.  Contact us for to get information on how to manage this change with your business.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s veto of the increase was overridden by the San Diego city council on Monday, August 18th by a six-to-two vote.  Those who voted to override the veto argue that the increase will help low-income families that struggle to make ends meet, and could even pull some out of poverty. They state an estimated 172,000 San Diego residents will benefit from the increase.

Those against the increase, such as Faulconer, argue that it will actually hurt small businesses and put the city at an economic disadvantage with neighboring areas. He argues that small businesses will have to lay off employees to accommodate the increase.

Though the veto was overridden successfully, the wage increase faces one more obstacle before it can become official. The San Diego Small Business Coalition has introduced a petition to put the wage increase on a voter’s ballot before it can take effect. The petition has 30 days (as of Wed. Aug. 20) to get 33,866 signatures for the referendum to be on the ballot. If it succeeds, San Diego voters will have to approve the wage hike. We will continue to provide info on this event as it unfolds.

Visit and follow our blog for more payroll updates from Pink Payroll!