The person who enjoys paperwork is rare in our society - and small business owners are no exception. In fact, since people who start and manage their own businesses tend to be "doers" - active people who like to accomplish things - they may be the most frustrated by regulations and paperwork. D&B Canada offers the following advice on the topic of paperwork.

Beware procrastination

Most find meeting government paperwork requirements cumbersome and time consuming. For many, developing systems to help process this paperwork more efficiently is something to be done "someday. . . when there's more time."

Regulations and paperwork come in a myriad of forms, from quarterly tax payments to withholding taxes, manuals that communicate employee rights and benefits, regulations covering profit-sharing and pension plans, to sales tax records and industry-related reports that must be filed.

One owner said that he would "hire an efficient manager if we had the funds. I'm too bogged down with paperwork."

Red Tape

Red tape is sometimes encountered in unlikely places - such as selling a building:

"Today when you sell an industrial building," explained one owner, "it has to go through an agency that will check the land the building is on, to make sure that it's not environmentally unsafe or that it doesn't have any toxins."

Another owner said that "if you own a piece of land that's in what they call wetlands or a flood plain, it might take years to resolve those requirements."

Many businesses have found that outside consultants can help with the paperwork and meeting regulations.

"We have an online computer system that attaches us to a databank of consultants," said one owner. "Whenever we have a problem we tap into that and retrieve from it."

When it comes to employee withholding taxes, more and more small businesses are finding help from payroll services. "These services are worth the money," said one owner. "I speak as an accountant with the full ability to do it. My time is worth more in the business."

"We have six people and we were doing the payroll ourselves," explained a distributor. "But you just can't help but get bogged down with the various state and federal laws, plus the quarterly reporting and annual reporting. It was just a mind-boggling experience for us all. We decided to go to an expert; we just got a payroll company to handle it at remarkably modest fee. It literally solved the problem. It was an incredible weight off our shoulders."

Another owner agreed. "It's basically taking that pressure, and that part of the business, away from me; and so far it's been great."

Know Your Regulations

Many different industries today are regulated by outside agencies. If you're going into one of these industries, owners recommend that you make sure you know the correct filing dates and regulations. Here, too, outside agencies can be of substantial help.

"We've been using a lot of consultants," noted one owner, "especially when we have to do an environmental impact statement."

Someone else commented that "in our industry we have a whole new business that was created by the environmental impact. We have people, engineers, whose sole function it is to go out and check a piece of property to see if it's wetlands or flood plain; you have to use them on practically any operation you do of any size."

No doubt about it - regulations and paperwork are an essential part of business. However, sometimes red tape is a good thing. Some owners appreciate the standards that regulations can set for an industry or product and that they often keep an industry "clean" of disreputable competitors.

What has been your experience? Where can you use help?

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