It seemed such a simple idea – hire a part-time handyman to help out around the ranch on a regular basis. I started blogging about the experience of one small business creating one small job as a way to stay motivated to get the paperwork done. I had no idea how much motivation it would take. Here’s how the experience

As any business owner will tell you, jobs are not created because there is a tax credit available. Jobs are created because it’s not possible to get the job done without more hands on deck and there is income to meet payroll. It’s time to look at the numbers. The state of Washington has already determined we must pay no

We’ve been hearing about green jobs for more than three years. Growing jobs by growing the green economy was a centerpiece of President Obama’s first jobs plan. But just what is a green job? And why am I having such a hard time creating one? The Washington Employment Security Department (link here) defines the green economy as “rooted in the

Even though this is a linear series, job creation is a non-linear activity. While reading all the helpful employer regulatory stuff (where is that sarcasm font, anyway?) over the last two weeks, I had to remind myself exactly why becoming an employer sounded like a good idea two months ago. In our case, what first triggered the notion of creating

It’s been another one of those weeks where the job of job creation has to give way to actually doing my own job. My daughter suggested seeking out a bookkeeping and payroll company to take me through the process and handle the paperwork. She holds such a position for a large organization, and she does it so indispensably that she

For three weeks I’ve been trudging through the foothills of job creation, getting acclimated to the terminology. Last week I settled into base camp and followed advice from the Governor’s Office of Regulatory Assistance (ORA), which recommended “looking at Section 2 of the Grow chapter at http://www.ora.wa.gov/business.asp.”  A sensible mountaineer is willing to study the guidebook before attempting to summit

There’s a story about the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) enforcement inspector who comes to a ranch to check on the working conditions. He walks up to the rancher and says, “I need to talk to your staff.” The rancher replies, “There’s only one fellow who works on the ranch. He’s on duty seven days a week, is up

Last week’s article ended with a question emailed to the Office of Regulatory Assistance. An efficient staff member replied the same day. I asked, “How do I know if our business is already licensed to be an employer and I need to re-file my Business License?” Her answer suggested that I read the ORA guidance on the subject. Of course,

This is the first in a series of posts on what it takes to create a simple job. In a Seattlepi.com blog post in April, I explored the idea of creating a new job on our family ranch and boiled the options down to: Option A:  Comply with significant regulations, recordkeeping and tax requirements; create a job and cut unemployment