dec-2017

142 143 behind it. Thus, he decided to franchise, knowing that there was already a market of people who were interested in becoming a part of the fran- chise concept as franchisees. Today, the Payroll Vault brand caters to the 90 percent of American businesses categorized as “small,” and its fran- chisees tend to target those with around 15-20 employees. Business View Magazine first spoke to Man- ning in 2016, and when asked, then, why so many small businesses were looking to outsource their payroll functions, Manning explained, “Both the federal and state governments have made it ex- tremely difficult to manage this process. They’re overwhelmed with the reporting requirements which are very confusing. Business owners need to focus on the key things that make them suc- cessful, and sitting in an office for two or more hours a week trying to process payroll, and get- ting it done accurately, deters from what they need to be doing.We’re here so they don’t have to worry about those details.” We recently caught up with Manning to learn about what has transpired with his business this past year. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation: BVM: When we last spoke, your company had 28 locations in 14 states.Where are you, today, in terms of your geographic footprint? Manning: “We are now at 36 locations in 18 states, and we’ve scheduled closing for four franchisees in the next two weeks once details are finalized. They’ve all scheduled training, and we’ve also, just recently, awarded the opportunity to eight additional prospects who are in the final PAYROLL VAULT stages of our final review. So our mo- mentum continues to increase and we’re picking up steam as far as engaging candidates and going through the con- sideration process.” BVM: What else has transpired over the past year as your company has grown? Manning: “The first four years were an opportunity for us to get exposed as a franchise concept, while working on some of the fine tuning of what we can do to support a new franchise system owner. I describe this past year as kind of back to basics - what resources are available, how to use those resources, what are best practices, what are the key performance indicators - and do a really deep analysis of our franchisees over that four year period. “We’ve been able to study the franchise space –how to best service our franchi- sees and support them.We’ve discovered that keeping it very simple in nature, from the standpoint of what makes a business successful, also applies to us as a franchisor. That has allowed us, inter- nally, to take a more cohesive approach, because we’re very focused, too. Through learning in our initial years of operation, and the experience we have now as we enter our 6th year, we are supporting our franchisees at new levels as we continue to expand the brand. “Also, technology continues to support the entrepreneur opportunity within payroll services. Systems that big com- panies have had for many years are now