These trends have contributed to the often
erratic pace of small business hiring since the
Great Recession. Last week, payroll company
ADP said its small business customers created
66,000 jobs in August. That was after adding
just 1,000 in July and cutting 11,000 in June and
34,000 in May.
Williams uses technology to keep her overhead
down, but her practice management software
also makes communication with clients easier;
it sends messages, shares documents and has
a calendar that lets clients, witnesses and other
attorneys know about court dates, meetings and
other events.
Taking on more clients to pay for more staffers
would detract from Williams’ ability to give each
case the attention it needs.
“Clients are facing difficult, possibly life-altering
scenarios with their case outcomes,” she says.
“Quality is far more important than quantity
when the stakes are this high.”
Expect small businesses to keep automating.
A report from the Brookings Institution
released in January said that approximately 36
million people, or a quarter of the current U.S.
workforce, could see the majority of their work
done by machines that use current technology.
The savings at any company depends on
how much it pays staffers. Office workers, for
example, earned a median salary of $32,730
last year, according to the Labor Department.
Add in expenses including benefits, payroll
taxes and state-mandated costs like workers
compensation insurance, and it’s a considerable
expense for a small business.