Hiring an office assistant

[F0nzie]

Anybody have any tips on how to go about hiring an office assistant?

I am not sure where to start. I need someone that will be polite and can handle delivering information, scheduling appointments, responding to emails, faxing, etc.

Any specific credentials or work experience that I need to look for?

I am also thinking $20/hour 20 hours per week. Is that an ok salary? Any things that will help limit turn over?

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[Shikima]

I would check around to see if there is anyone who has experience to fit this need of yours. I would also do a cost comparison of other clinics to see what their receptionist/clerical staff are being paid, and depending on the word of mouth, qualifications and how you like the person, you could pay less/more based on these results.

This will be a good place for you to start off with. And let them know about no benefits, etc but also that your clinic is relatively new and this would be a trial period of time (x months) to see how this works because you're developing a relationship with them and how they work, and vice versa too.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I think $20/hr is high.

 

[Indodo]

I think $20/hr is high.

I'm in the bay area and I think this is high based on what everyone else is getting paid, unless the person is also going to be doing some billing/prior auths etc.
If billing is part of the picture then 20 is about right for an experienced person.

 

[vistaril]

20 bucks an hour seems high.....psych margins(unless you are doing very very well, you may well be) are just not big enough to handle that sort of outflow of cash for admin purposes.

Id offer 10-12 an hour.

 

[F0nzie]

So would I just write up a contract and cut a biweekly check? 1099 form at the end of the year?

 

[TexasPhysician]

So would I just write up a contract and cut a biweekly check? 1099 form at the end of the year?

How flexible is the job? You may have to consider them an employee and take out taxes.

 

[wolfvgang22]

I wonder if it would be worth contacting a temp agency.

 

[F0nzie]

How flexible is the job? You may have to consider them an employee and take out taxes.

As far as flexibility I was thinking 4 hours a day whenever.

Our LLC is a partnership with only 2 employees (me and my wife) and I would like to keep it that way to keep the taxes easy.

I guess what I need is an office assistant that would work as an independent contractor.

 

[F0nzie]

I wonder if it would be worth contacting a temp agency.

Interesting idea. I will look into it.

 

[birchswing]

East German. Can't go wrong.

 

[Indodo]

Given that a temp agency person is going to mark-up around 5 dollars per hour for a secretarial job who would normally get paid around 15 bucks, you may end up paying 20 dollars an hour anyway.
The end result is you will get a $10/hr quality person. If the person is better and you want to hire them full time, the temp agency may want a finders fee.

The temp agency is only for temporary fixes. Otherwise they are a middleman that survives by taking a cut from you and the employee. Just hire a person yourself as an employee. You will not be able to pay a secretary 1099 because they will not be an independent contractor. You will want to direct the way they work. They will be w-2.

 

[Salpingo]

Are there any colleges/universities nearby? Seems like a great job for a college student. Plus, they could throw it in their application as "shadowing" or whatever.

 

[notdeadyet]

Keep in mind that it's easy to be penny-wise/pound-foolish with admin hires. In setting salary and looking for talent pool sources, make sure you factor in the cost of how much their quality of work matters as well as how much time is invade in getting ten up to speed. If you lowball the salary and look at college kids to hire, they may not be a great face for your company and you may have to devote more hours to re-training a new employee every 6-12 months.


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[F0nzie]

I hired a temp agency for maid services once and it sucked so bad. The guy took 2 hours to wash the dishes and there were barely any dishes to wash. Recently found a nice honest and hard working lady down the street. I pay her $80 every 2 weeks. She's fast and thorough so sometimes she gets more than $20 an hour out of the deal. I'm cool with that.

 

[vistaril]

Given that a temp agency person is going to mark-up around 5 dollars per hour for a secretarial job who would normally get paid around 15 bucks, you may end up paying 20 dollars an hour anyway.
The end result is you will get a $10/hr quality person. If the person is better and you want to hire them full time, the temp agency may want a finders fee.

The temp agency is only for temporary fixes. Otherwise they are a middleman that survives by taking a cut from you and the employee. Just hire a person yourself as an employee. You will not be able to pay a secretary 1099 because they will not be an independent contractor. You will want to direct the way they work. They will be w-2.

you cant do it under the rules(the 1099), but fonzie may still be able to do it....there are literally hundreds of thousands of employees who technically don't qualify for being paid as a 1099 but who get paid anyways by that.

If I were fonzie I would definitely try to do a 1099, even though I do agree the rules make it very clear he cant.

 

[Shikima]

you cant do it under the rules(the 1099), but fonzie may still be able to do it....there are literally hundreds of thousands of employees who technically don't qualify for being paid as a 1099 but who get paid anyways by that.

If I were fonzie I would definitely try to do a 1099, even though I do agree the rules make it very clear he cant.

Seems kinda 'al capone'-ish to me. IRS frowns upon that....

 

[vistaril]

Seems kinda 'al capone'-ish to me. IRS frowns upon that....

not really- again the number of people who are employed under 1099 jobs who shouldn't be is literally in the hundreds of thousands(possibly even low millions)......very very very very few of these arrangements are ever disturbed.

 

[F0nzie]

I did not know there were 1099 rules. Why is it so hard to pay people money. Heck I'll pay 30 an hour just let me write check and they can whatever they want with the money.

 

[vistaril]

I did not know there were 1099 rules. Why is it so hard to pay people money. Heck I'll pay 30 an hour just let me write check and they can whatever they want with the money.

oh yeah there are and they are pretty strict. heck Ive had jobs before and been paid under a 1099 where I shouldn't have been, but I didn't want to rock the boat and miss out on the job by complaining.

this is the nature of leftist government policies- tons of rules and regulations and taxes that cripple business.

 

[trophyhusband]

I did not know there were 1099 rules. Why is it so hard to pay people money. Heck I'll pay 30 an hour just let me write check and they can whatever they want with the money.

The rules are to ensure that employers don't miscategorize employees as IC's to save money (particularly on SS and Medicare taxes). As Vistaril said plenty of companies ignore these rules and basically use the fact that there are so many of these arrangements that the IRS can't possibly identify all of them as a smokescreen to skirt the rules.

I will be an IC shortly for a couple of opportunities but my arrangements will be well within the rules. I will have broad leeway over how my work is done, when it's done, how long it takes, and will have minimal supervision. I assume that your assistant will not have this type of latitude so a 1099 arrangement is not appropriate. But like Vistaril said you can probably get away with it.

 

[F0nzie]

I need to do things the right way. Learning about payroll. This process is really killing my buzz.

 

[Shikima]

I need to do things the right way. Learning about payroll. This process is really killing my buzz.

I got a bottle of 16 yr old single malt that's unopened.....

 

[vistaril]

I need to do things the right way. Learning about payroll. This process is really killing my buzz.

That's good and all, but if you are running a small business and want to hire a low level unskilled employee(your only employee) that is going to be one expensive employee if you really want to play 100 percent by the rules. If that is your strategy I'd actually consider getting ripped off by a temp agency

 

[trophyhusband]

I need to do things the right way. Learning about payroll. This process is really killing my buzz.

It's really not that big of a deal. If you have an accountant they can probably just do it (payroll) for you. Otherwise QuickBooks is relatively easy to learn. If you figured out how to build your own website this isn't going to be that hard.

Hopefully you hire someone good because being a boss and having to fire someone is never fun. Welcome to small business land!

 

[smalltownpsych]

Too bad we don't live in the same area. My wife has tons of business experience including mental health billing. She would be worth 20 an hour or quite a bit more as she is excellent at squeezing every nickel out of the insurance companies including medicare and medicaid who tend to be the worst. When I eventually start up my own practice, she's going to be in charge of that for me. Finding a good employee who can bring something to your company is essential and when you find them, don't be afraid to pay them. I made hiring decisions as clinical director for awhile and my experience is that you don't know what you have until probably 3 months, unless they are really bad and need to be fired right away. My advice would be to start with a bit lower salary and then when you realize you have a good fit, then you can increase the pay. Just make sure that it is not so low that you screen out good potentials. Also, advertise a range of salary so that you can negotiate based on fit and experience. Just remember that the psychology research is really clear that an interview is not a good predictor, only on the job performance predicts on the job performance.

 

[vistaril]

So fonzie....what kind of net profit are you bringing in on this private practice per hour so far? Per psychiatrist.

 

[Shikima]

So fonzie....what kind of net profit are you bringing in on this private practice per hour so far? Per psychiatrist.

Trying to peek into the other urinal?

 

[smalltownpsych]

Trying to peek into the other urinal?

 

[OldPsychDoc]

I got a bottle of 16 yr old single malt that's unopened.....

Why on earth is it unopened?

 

[vistaril]

Trying to peek into the other urinal?

of course I like to know what sort of $ others are doing.

 

[Shikima]

Why on earth is it unopened?

And I'm a bit of a lightweight these days... I just have a 12 yr that's open right now.

 

[Shikima]

of course I like to know what sort of $ others are doing.

What are you doing for work and what are you making?

 

[smalltownpsych]

What are you doing for work and what are you making?

V said he is going to clear 400k this year or die tryin'. Or was that Fifty Cent that said that?

 

[Shikima]

V said he is going to clear 400k this year or die tryin'. Or was that Fifty Cent that said that?

 

[vistaril]

What are you doing for work and what are you making?

Im doing a salaried outpt med mgt job, an inpatient contract job before and after this job M-F, and then occasional locums work of various sorts on the side. I make about 410k(or that's what I would be on pace to make)

 

[Frazier]

Im doing a salaried outpt med mgt job, an inpatient contract job before and after this job M-F, and then occasional locums work of various sorts on the side. I make about 410k(or that's what I would be on pace to make)

How many hours per week on average? 60? 65?

410k.

#Nomoneyinpsych

Right?

 

[F0nzie]

So fonzie....what kind of net profit are you bringing in on this private practice per hour so far? Per psychiatrist.

Thats a hard calculation because running a business steals a lot of hours. That said my net hourly rate is less than the going rate since I am still building it. However, its my baby and I look at it as a long term investment. I collected 100k for myself last year and every penny trumps anything an employer can give me.

 

[Lawgiver]

50 spent 400k on drinks over a weekend a couple years ago. oh well, we cant all be smart enough to become rappers.

 

[Indodo]

I did not know there were 1099 rules. Why is it so hard to pay people money. Heck I'll pay 30 an hour just let me write check and they can whatever they want with the money.

The basic rule to follow is who controls the work. The w-2 worker's job is directed by the boss. The boss, you, control the work. The independent contractor is self directed and controls their own work.

Here is a more involved checklist.

http://www.accountingpartners.com/irschecklist.shtml

 

[Mad Jack]

not really- again the number of people who are employed under 1099 jobs who shouldn't be is literally in the hundreds of thousands(possibly even low millions)......very very very very few of these arrangements are ever disturbed.

It's best not to upset the IRS. They've cranked up audits as of late, and Fonz would be on the hook for a lot of back taxes and possible fraud should he were discovered. It's not worth it.

 

[smalltownpsych]

It's best not to upset the IRS. They've cranked up audits as of late, and Fonz would be on the hook for a lot of back taxes and possible fraud should he were discovered. It's not worth it.

Yeah, we wouldn't want the Fonz to go to jail especially after he has worked so hard to build up his practice. Although if he had internet access he could still keep up the posts here so at least we wouldn't miss him too much.

 

[Mad Jack]

Yeah, we wouldn't want the Fonz to go to jail especially after he has worked so hard to build up his practice. Although if he had internet access he could still keep up the posts here so at least we wouldn't miss him too much.