Atlanta Small Business Profile – Scott Soder, StaffMetrix and PayMetrix

On this week’s episode of Atlanta Small Business Profile with Ted Jenkin, Ted talks to Scott Soder, CEO of StaffMetrix and PayMetrix, a staffing and payroll company respectively.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Ted Jenkin: Hey, this is Ted Jenkin, small business expert right here with the Atlanta Small Business Profile on the Atlanta Small Business Network, where you get to interview some of the brightest and best owners in and around the city of Atlanta.

Ted Jenkin: Today is no stretch, we’re going to interview Scott Soder, who is the CEO of StaffMetrix & PayMetrix, a staffing and payroll company located here in Atlanta, Georgia. And I’m wondering, Scott, because I know you’ve done a number of things in running a great business, how did you get into the payroll and staffing business? When did you decide to say, “I’m gonna get into that line of business?”

Scott Soder: I got into the industry by happenstance, it was back in 1996. A friend of mine was working for a PEO, a professional employer organization, and he was trying to get me to come sell for him. I kept saying no, no, no, but once I went to actually go work for him I learned real quickly the value of the PEO.

Scott Soder: And I’ve always considered myself a giver or a helper of small businesses, and in the PEO world, we’ll talk about here in a little bit, it provides that opportunity to help a lot of small businesses in a number of areas. It has a positive impact on their bottom line.

Scott Soder: What it does is it gives them access to affordable healthcare, through employee benefit packages, affordable worker’s compensation insurance, retirement plans, and one of the benefits is the human resource part of it, where we act as their HR department to keep them out of trouble, keep them in compliance, making sure they’re making good decisions as it relates to the business and the employees that they have so there’s no negative impact.

Ted Jenkin: Now, you’re in a highly crowded space, it’s a highly fragmented business, as are a lot of people that get into starting businesses that are like that. How do you differentiate StaffMetrix & PayMetrix from the competitors that are out there?

Scott Soder: It’s very competitive, as a matter of fact, one of my newest clients I was competing against six other companies.

Ted Jenkin: Six.

Scott Soder: Six. And it came down to really they fully understood we put ourselves in the shoes of the client and their employees. Because we know that there’s going to be a challenge or a problem or an issue that’s gonna come up, and so we work with them by listening, really understanding what the issue is, and then coming up with a real good strategy to solve it.

Ted Jenkin: It’s still really about solving the main problem for the client, because every small business owner has their nuances. I was noticing in here today, walking around the company, you’ve got a great culture. And they say that culture each strategy for launch. How have you gone about building a culture amongst your employees to make this a great place to work?

Scott Soder: As an owner, first of all I think you’ve gotta define what your company culture is, and what you’re trying to accomplish and what your market is. We put ourselves really in the client’s shoes, understanding what the needs are of the customer, of the business, of where they wanna go down the road, what their five-year plan is. Where all too often in our industry our competitors are just trying to sell a product.

Ted Jenkin: It seems like you open the first business, PayMetrix, you won, you open StaffMetrix, you’re winning right now, so clearly you’re a winner in business. And for entrepreneurs that are thinking about getting into being an entrepreneur, they’re one already, what does it take to win in business today?

Scott Soder: First of all I would say do your homework. I know I wanna be in the market, I wanna have a product or a service that I wanna offer. Know what that market is, and is there a need for your product or service? That’s probably first and foremost.

Scott Soder: I would say as you go through time, do you have something that’s unique in the marketplace? If you don’t, you need to come up with a strategy, something that’s unique.

Scott Soder: I would say thirdly be honest with yourself, and ask yourself challenging questions. Surround yourself with good people that might have answers to some questions you don’t have today.

Scott Soder: And the last thing, probably I would say … When you say you’re gonna do something for a client, do it. Follow through on it.

Ted Jenkin: And for those of you that are out there, think about this. Sometimes you’re working in the business, but when it comes to things like staffing and payroll, that’s when you need to work on the business and look at companies like StaffMetrix & PayMetrix. I’m Ted Jenkin, small business expert, and this is the Atlanta Small Business Network.

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If you’d like to have your business featured on the Atlanta Small Business Profile, contact us at info@myasbn.com, and tell us your story. This has been a JBF Business Media production.