Ep 28 - Harmonizing Business and Beats: A Payroll Success Tale with Justin Romano

Ever wondered how someone transitions from dreaming of a career in music production to leading a successful payroll business? Join us as we welcome Justin Romano, the entrepreneurial mind behind Bayview Payroll, who shares his fascinating journey from Wooburn, Massachusetts to becoming a prominent figure in the payroll industry. Initially aspiring to be a music producer, Justin soon realized the financial hurdles of the music world and pivoted to the corporate sector, gaining valuable experience in payroll management at Dunkin' Donuts and Uno Restaurants. His move to Florida became a turning point, providing him the opportunity to apply his expertise and eventually launch his venture, Bayview Payroll.
 
 Justin's story is one of resilience and strategic foresight, navigating through legal challenges and building a thriving business from scratch. Despite facing a non-compete agreement and a challenging work environment, his clients' unwavering trust in his services pushed him toward independence. He shares personal anecdotes about dealing with a struggling operations manager and the intricate negotiations with his former boss, ultimately leading him to establish his company in January. This episode offers listeners a chance to learn about Justin's strategic decisions and relentless pursuit of success, as he maintains professionalism while growing his client base.
 
 Furthermore, we delve into the intricacies of payroll management and the unique solutions Bayview Payroll offers to its diverse clientele. Justin discusses the challenges businesses face, from forgotten payments to employee classification issues, and how his company provides tailored solutions for seamless transitions and compliance. With the rise of remote work, he explains how Bayview Payroll's personalized service stands out from larger competitors, ensuring client satisfaction and reliability across various industries. Don't miss this insightful conversation that could change how you view payroll management forever.

Justin Romano
Bayview Payroll Services
954-299-5978
www.Bayviewpayroll.com
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinromano/

THE ANGRY BILLER, powered by J3 Revenue Cycle Management

Phone: (954) 544-2706

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Production of Podcast: VISUALS BY MOMO

Transcript

Josh Fertel

00:04

Welcome to the Angry Biller, a show where we explore the people and the businesses behind the scenes of healthcare, those men and women that are the catalysts that allow providers to concentrate on delivering exceptional patient care. Welcome to the Angry Biller. My name is Josh Fertel. I'm the owner of J3 Medical Billing. I am your host. We are here at the Visual by Momo Studios. Jeff Bezos, who we all know is a pretty successful guy, said focus on the things that make your beer taste better, and what he means by that is do the things that are your core competency. Outsource everything else. One of the things I wanted to do was bring on Justin Romano from Bayview Payroll. He's the owner of Bayview Payroll. How are you doing, justin? 

Justin Romano

00:45

Doing good. Thank you for having me. 

Josh Fertel

00:47

I'm an outsourced guy, just like you're an outsourced guy, and we know our place in the business world. I really want to hear about your company, what you do, but let's start from the beginning. Tell us your story. 

Justin Romano

00:58

Okay, so you want to hear the story from the beginning? 

Josh Fertel

01:00

From the beginning, from the beginning. 

Justin Romano

01:02

So I was born in Wooburn, massachusetts, a lot of hardworking people up north. So when I came down here to South Florida, definitely took advantage of that and grew the business. But owning an apparel company was not my dream in the beginning. 

Josh Fertel

01:18

What did you do before this? 

Justin Romano

01:20

I went to school for audio production so I wanted to record, produce music, so that's what I went to school for that Audio production I wanted to record, produce music. So that's what I went to school for, that's what I have my degree in. But it's a long story. Go ahead. I used to record a lot of music in high school and then during college I went to Keene State College in New Hampshire and I used to record a lot of music there. 

01:50

My father, was just like hey, why don't you just go to like music school? And I was like, okay, he's yeah. So I ended up going to an art school, right, and the last class I had when I was about to graduate, the teacher says you're going to be recording for Prince and you're going to be making minimum wage. You're going to be making minimum wage. You're going to be sleeping on the sofa in the studio and you're going to have a second job making minimum wage too, just to get by. 

Josh Fertel

02:10

Very encouraging. 

Justin Romano

02:11

Yeah, and I was like wait, why didn't no one tell me this? When I first came to this school? I was like so I was a little upset. I was like I didn't like that. He said that and at that time I was working part-time at my dad's job. He worked for a company in Cambridge Mass that did stem cell research. 

Josh Fertel

02:26

Oh, okay. 

Justin Romano

02:27

So I was making decent money there. It's part-time, so I was like you know what I told the career services? Stop calling me, I'm going to just do corporate stuff. 

Josh Fertel

02:36

Okay, because that's what I was used to Okay. 

Justin Romano

02:39

So I stayed there with them. I met with a recruiter and the recruiter got me a job working for a Dunkin' Donuts franchise. 

Josh Fertel

02:49

Okay. 

Justin Romano

02:50

And that's where I learned most of the payroll knowledge that I even use today. I was wondering I was there for four years they had 150 Dunkin' Donut locations. 

Josh Fertel

03:01

Okay. 

Justin Romano

03:02

Multi-state all throughout New England and we used to do things old school back then. Everything's kind of automated and electronic now, but I was doing a lot of things by paper there. So that's where I learned about taxes with the federal tax, state taxes, and I use it today, even though a lot of what I do is more automated, sure so, uh, fast forward. Uh, I left there. I was there for four years and that's probably still to date like one of my favorite jobs that I work for. It was, uh, very like family or oriented, sure? Um, I left there and I got a job working for uno restaurants okay the deep dish pizza. 

03:44

Yes, chicago, chicago, okay, well, their main office is in West Roxbury, massachusetts. 

Josh Fertel

03:49

Okay. 

Justin Romano

03:50

I worked there, I did payroll for their restaurants too, and they had restaurants all throughout the US. 

Josh Fertel

03:55

Right. 

Justin Romano

03:56

Okay, yeah, Again doing stuff. Old school learning by hand. 

Josh Fertel

04:01

Right, okay. 

Justin Romano

04:02

Right, I ended up. I decided to move to Florida in 2013. Okay, I got a job working for a local payroll company okay. That is where I was able to see that I could make my knowledge of business, because prior to that I was doing payroll for the company right okay, okay. And then I. That was my first experience with with that kind of job. 

04:28

Gotcha so um, so, anyways, um I, I worked there, it was called South Florida payroll, and that's really how I modeled my business after them. To be honest, you know like I. I saw a lot of things working there that people don't see. That benefited me. That allowed me to do what I'm doing today. Gotcha, okay, I had all the knowledge. 

Josh Fertel

04:48

Right. 

Justin Romano

04:48

I can file your 941, your Florida RT6. Right, pay all your taxes and all that. But I saw things that people don't see. That allowed me to start the business what vendors to use, how much it costs things like that. So while I was working at South Florida Payroll, I was about to have my daughter, bianca. She's nine now, but I was about to have my daughter. I remember the owner came into the office, called everybody in the office and he's like um, I'm selling my book of business to adp and I was like I was like man, I'm just about, I'm about to have my, my first child, and now I'm not gonna have a job. 

05:33

So I was like, I was like super bummed out and, um, you know, I was like why, why, why, why he's doing this to me. You know, it's like just asking, you know, yeah, um, but then I had a client call me and that work that we process payroll for he, he owned a couple pita pits uh-huh uh, okay, I don't know if they're around anymore, but like I guess they made sandwiches out of pita bread makes 

05:54

sense. So he calls me because we we worked there for a long time. He sold the adp but the transition wasn't uh, it wasn't right away. So we stayed there to help transition the clients from us to them and it probably took like four. So we stayed there to help transition the clients from us to them and it probably took like four or five months, okay, to do it. Okay. So the Peter pick, I called me and he goes hey, do you want to start a payroll company with me? I was like, yeah, like let's go. 

06:19

You know I was like he's like yeah he was like I'll be the money and you'd be the brains. He's like, yeah, he was like I'll be the money and you be the brains. He's like meet me at Starbucks tomorrow. And the Starbucks is like right down the street. I said, okay, I'll meet you over there. So he was like I want you to research software companies and we'll demo software. We'll see which one we like. 

06:38

So I started making phone calls while I was like on my lunch break and stuff scheduling demos. Phone calls while I was like on my lunch break and stuff scheduling demos. And this one software company, uh, was on the phone with the guy and he was like hey, I think, I think I know who your boss is. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was like I don't care, I just just show me the software like I want to get into it. Okay, well, anyways, the peter pit guy ghost, right, I ghosted the software people. And next day I'm in my office, my boss comes in, closes the door, he goes hey, I talked to Marty and Marty is the software guy and I'm like cat's out of the bag. 

Josh Fertel

07:16

So I was like okay. 

Justin Romano

07:20

So he was kind of upset but I was like, listen, I was like I'm about to have a daughter and I just had an opportunity presented to me. Yeah, I said, listen, it's nothing personal, but like it just seemed like a good opportunity and he said, okay, I get it. He's like here's what we're going to do. He's like I'm going to sell my business to ADP. Right, I'm going to move to manager. He's like I'll give you a big raise blah, blah, blah. 

07:47

So I said, okay, okay, he's like, but I'll need you to come to Philly every three months, he's like, so you can work from home, take care of your daughter, have more money in your pocket. I was like, perfect, well, that was great, it worked out really well, especially in the beginning, with me just having a daughter and stuff. So it kind of worked out really well, actually. Okay, so that was working out fine. But then, like all the clients that used to work with us before that we sold to ADP, they kept calling me. They kept calling me and they were like hey, where are you? I'm like well, I'm working with so-and-so. I thought he sold his business. He did, but he moved to Philly. 

08:23

He's like, well, we want to work with you, justin. And I'm like, well, I can't take you. And then we're like, why not? I was like, well, because he has a non-compete and he'll get in trouble if I bring you on. So I was getting so many people calling me telling me that that I was like maybe I should start my own payroll company, my own payroll company. Because it was really, it was overwhelming amount of people that were calling me that I had a relationship with Good. 

08:45

Because they knew the level of service that I delivered and they really appreciated it and they trusted you. Yeah, and they trusted me, even though they knew that I would just be starting the payroll company Right. So they were crazy enough, just like me, to join me in the beginning To just jump on the thing that made me finally go forward and start the payroll company was my, my old boss brought on this uh operations manager uh above me. 

09:09

Oh, which was fine, right, okay, because he had 26 years at the time, experience working with adp. Right, right, right. And he said oh, justin, I need to bring. He actually had dinner with me and he told me he was, he was going to do it, whatever right and uh, the he paid. I think he paid the guy like four times more than me, oh man, and the guy would call me every day asking me for help because he didn't know? 

09:32

yeah, because he didn't know listen he was probably good at working for a larger corporation but, when it came to working for a small local business there's not a lot of employees to delegate the work to you gotta kind of get your hands dirty and he just didn't know how to get his hands dirty, and I was so that really bothered me a lot. So I ended up researching software companies again. I did not call Marty right away because of that whole thing. 

Josh Fertel

09:57

The payroll industry is a small world. I found out the hard way, so I was like cut my mouth shut. 

Justin Romano

10:11

I called people that I had no idea who they were. They didn't know who I was. So I went on vacation for a week in New Jersey to train on the software that I purchased and I came back and like, hey, how was your vacation? It was fantastic, so anyway. So that was around like June of 2016. 

Josh Fertel

10:23

Uh-huh. 

Justin Romano

10:24

And I was prepping people that were calling me that wanted to run with me. I said, okay, sign up with me in January because it's the cleanest time to switch, Because I knew when they left they probably still with ADP or they left ADP already. And I was like, don't switch again for a third time. 

Josh Fertel

10:39

Just come with me in. 

Justin Romano

10:40

January. It's not a clean year, so I was prepping people from like that point on to January Meanwhile, still working with the other guy yeah and um. So November comes and my software people call me and say, hey, we're shutting down your software, and I'm like why? They're like, well, our legal team wants you to tell your boss what you're doing. 

Josh Fertel

11:00

I was like oh boy. Marty. Is it Marty? 

Justin Romano

11:03

no, it wasn't Marty, I had to, so so they, they turned, they shut down my software so I couldn't use it and that and it was. It was bad because at that time I was really like ramping up and adding people on. 

Josh Fertel

11:12

Yeah. 

Justin Romano

11:13

So then all of a sudden gone Right. So I did tell him what I was doing and he was like is it about the money? Does? That give you more money. I'm like, honestly, at that point there's more to my story. Before I was at a real low point in my life and I was like nothing can get any lower than where I'm at right now right, it's not about the money right I was gonna make this thing work if I had to sleep on someone's couch, that's the truth I was just right. 

11:40

That was my mindset at that point. So he was like is it about the money? I'll give you more money I was like it's not about the money he's like. He's like what would you want to work with me? I was like I would love to work with you because I had a good relationship with him. 

Josh Fertel

11:50

We had a lot of fun. 

Justin Romano

11:53

So he's like well, let me think about it and I'll get back to you tomorrow and tell you what I come up with for numbers. And he told me the numbers and the percentage wise, and I'm like you know, in my mind I'm thinking 100%, I want all of it. So when he came back to me and told me what he told me. 

Josh Fertel

12:08

I was a little like you know I was like it doesn't make a clean break. 

Justin Romano

12:12

Yeah, it didn't make sense. But when I think about it now, now that I know the numbers, it makes sense. Now, right, but I didn't know the overhead. 

Josh Fertel

12:21

You don't know what you don't know. 

Justin Romano

12:23

But he was fair. He was fair yeah um. So I told him no. And he says all right, do me a favor, he goes, stay with me until march. Right, because I'm gonna get rid of this guy. 

Josh Fertel

12:37

I hired that guy, that guy, because he finally admitted it. I'm like okay. 

Justin Romano

12:41

I was like deal. He's like I'll pay you until march, you can do, you start your biz, do whatever you gotta do, right? I was like okay, I like that. That sounds good because I was expecting to not have a paycheck at all. Right, well, I go live January and I'm driving around, I'm having people sign paperwork and stuff to sign up and stuff. 

12:58

So I'm busy, you know. So the office kept calling me and I couldn't grab it because I'm sitting down talking to people signing them up. Well, I get back home, home, I get a call from a block number and I'm like hello, it's like this is how it's gonna be, huh, and I'm like joe, he's like yeah, and I'm like I mean I mean no, I mean I was, I was busy today. Man, like what's going on? I'm like then we just I was like you know what? 

13:20

I think, I think I'm hurting you more than I'm helping you right this is like the second week in in january and he's like, okay, he's like I going to have my guy come pick up all my stuff from you and we'll be done. I was like, okay, so, but I already had all my stuff already. 

Josh Fertel

13:33

I have my printer, my computer everything so he could take the stuff I was prepared for whatever was going to happen. 

Justin Romano

13:40

So I didn't get paid until March. So I had like eight clients in the beginning and no paycheck. So it was rough but I ended up joining a BNI group that I'm still in with you in February that year and that really helped me because I didn't have a network before. I didn't know anybody. I was not in sales. I was always in operations which is what makes my business successful. 

14:04

I know what I'm talking about when I'm doing your payroll, when I'm signing you up. We have an educated conversation. I know what I'm talking about when I'm doing your payroll, when I'm signing you up like we have an educated conversation. I'm not selling you any nonsense Like what are your problems you're having and I'll tell you how I can solve them. You know, because I'm doing it Right. You know All right. 

Josh Fertel

14:22

So, yeah, that's my story. That's a great story, all right? So let's take a break for a couple minutes. Drink yourself some water, because now I'm going to start hit peppering you with questions. Okay, cool.

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Josh Fertel

We're back with Justin Romano from Bayview Payroll. All right, justin, so we know your story now. Why should any medical practice or any business outsource their payroll? 

Justin Romano

14:58

To me or just anybody in general, to anybody in general, why outsource? Okay, well-. Well, to you One of the main things that we do that I don't talk a lot about is that we educate. 

Josh Fertel

15:10

Okay. 

Justin Romano

15:10

Okay, and what I mean by that is a lot of people will call us Right and they're frustrated because they think that payroll is this way Right, and then we hear what they're saying. They'll call us, so a lot of the questions we get is why is there no federal withholding tax? Come out of my check. 

Josh Fertel

15:27

Okay. 

Justin Romano

15:27

And they think they know the reason why. But then it's because of the way they completed the W-4 form. We got to kind of educate them on those things. 

Josh Fertel

15:35

Things like that. So this is generally an employee that's calling you. 

Justin Romano

15:39

Employees. Well, we don't really speak to the employees for security purposes. But the client will call us and kind of relay the message. 

Josh Fertel

15:47

Right. 

Justin Romano

15:47

But the client will call us and kind of relay the message, right, okay, and some employees will call the office and we don't give them information, but we'll just tell them to call their employer. But that's why you should outsource, because people don't understand payroll. Right, it's hard, it's challenging, especially if you're a multi-state client. 

Josh Fertel

16:05

Okay. 

Justin Romano

16:06

And you're not just in Florida, which is one of the easiest states to do payroll in for us because everything is automated and done bulk. But if you're in New England, for example, and you're in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and Vermont, it gets challenging to keep up with all the different state requirements and changes. 

Josh Fertel

16:26

That's what we do, right, right. So let's say there's errors that in-house seem to happen. They come to you. What kind of things do you see that are glaring things that you end up fixing? 

Justin Romano

16:41

Yeah, there's a lot of errors happen all the time, right, and it's how we help them resolve it is what makes us shine. So we usually give people a couple different solutions, and whichever one works best for them. So if they forget to pay somebody, okay, that's a common one. Hey, I didn't pay Joe Smith. 

Josh Fertel

17:01

Right. 

Justin Romano

17:01

Nope, and we usually have clients run two days before the pay date. 

Josh Fertel

17:05

Okay. 

Justin Romano

17:05

And most people will pay on Friday, for example. 

Josh Fertel

17:07

Sure. 

Justin Romano

17:08

So they'll run Wednesday by 3 p date. Okay so, and most people will pay on Friday, for example. 

Josh Fertel

17:10

Sure, so they'll run. 

Justin Romano

17:10

Wednesday by 3 pm. Okay, well, if they call me and tell me this on Thursday, Right. I can run a little special something to hit on Friday so they won't even notice Gotcha, gotcha. But if they call me Friday, I can process it Friday. But it's that's a common one is forgetting to pay they don't pay somebody, or maybe the raise didn't go through, you know things like that, and then we just help them adjust it. 

Josh Fertel

17:39

Have you ever found the instance where you took something over, say in the beginning of the year, like you like to do, and then you saw that last year something major was wrong with the way? 

Justin Romano

17:46

they did it tax-wise or withholding-wise. Yeah, and that's the challenge is because we really don't like to get involved in stuff that we didn't do prior. 

Josh Fertel

17:53

Okay. 

Justin Romano

17:54

But that's what also makes us different is that we'll look into it and we'll help you fix it. 

Josh Fertel

17:59

Right, yeah, there would be a noticeable change on something I would imagine, yeah, and they would question you. 

Justin Romano

18:04

We have a lot of things like that, like let's say for you example, you're the owner of your company, right, and you're doing your taxes with your CPA and your CPA says hey, josh, you forgot to report 401k on your W-2. 

Josh Fertel

18:19

Right. 

Justin Romano

18:20

Okay. So if you did that let's say you joined me in January and you'd need this done for last year I could help you fix it. 

Josh Fertel

18:28

Even though we didn't do it Right and chances are, if I didn't do it for myself, I didn't do it for my whole company. Is that fair? Yeah, yeah, that's fair enough. You probably did. 

Justin Romano

18:35

But we work with a lot of single business. That's a common one, right, we do process with a lot of the single business owner where the is the employee, and so they're forgetting to do silly things like that and they find out when they do their taxes. But that's a common one. 

Josh Fertel

18:51

So that leads me great lead into the next question what business structure is benefits the most from when Bayview takes over? Like an S-Corp or anything like that. Yeah, an S-Corp or a size. 

Justin Romano

19:05

That's a. If you have W-2 employees, you probably should be using a payroll company. If you have just like 1099s only, you could use one, but it's probably going to be more costly to use a payroll company to do that because you could just like sell your 1099. 

Josh Fertel

19:24

Right, there's no taxes involved. 

Justin Romano

19:26

But then you're going to have to tell your CPA or somebody at the end of the year to file the 1099s Right, and I've noticed that CPAs charge more per 1099 filing versus what we charge. 

Josh Fertel

19:39

Right, okay. 

Justin Romano

19:40

But we're going to charge you per payroll when you pay the person too Right, I got you, yeah. 

Josh Fertel

19:45

So the whole w2 verse 1099 thing, I went through that in my business you're, I know you're you're not an attorney, I get it. Yeah. But when somebody, you see somebody that's paying everybody 1099 and they want to come use you and you kind of have the feeling they should be using doing w2, how do you handle that? 

Justin Romano

20:04

I'll advise them right and you know I can't not gonna force them to do either way, right, but some, some people, 1099 people unknowingly no, not knowing that it's wrong, right yeah and then some people do it because they're trying to save on taxes. 

20:19

Okay, sure, but I will advise people on what I believe is the right thing to do. And usually they're not a 1099. They're usually an employee right. If they're working from nine to five because you want them to work from nine to five, they're a W-2. Right, if they're using your computer, they're a W-2. There's a lot of things that qualify them as a W-2. 

Josh Fertel

20:38

The same amount every week. 

Justin Romano

20:39

Yeah, exactly so you're not really saving anything if you get caught. 

Josh Fertel

20:45

Right. 

Justin Romano

20:45

They're going to audit all your payroll records from like whenever the day one, and then you're going to pay from day one to now, right, so you don't want to go through that. 

Josh Fertel

20:56

Is there any exposure to you as a payroll company in that situation? 

Justin Romano

21:01

If we advise them, probably in writing, like to do it that way and you'll be okay, I'm sure? Well, justin from Bayview Payroll said that you know we should. We are okay to pay Joe Smith as a 1099, you know so. 

Josh Fertel

21:16

Yeah, we wouldn't do that, yeah, we wouldn't do that. So you talked about, you know, handling employee conversations. What kind of communication? How is the communication between you and the owners? What kind of things come up that you have to talk about besides not paying somebody? What are a lot of the questions that you get. 

Justin Romano

21:39

We'll have people hire. So ever since COVID, remote employees is a lot popular than before Sure. So we're having people hire salaried employees, hourly employees in different states. 

Josh Fertel

21:50

Right. 

Justin Romano

21:51

And they want to know all the labor laws and things like that. 

Josh Fertel

21:54

Okay. 

Justin Romano

21:54

So we're not HR specialists, but we work with somebody who is, so we'll connect them to that person. So those are some things that we help with, but with our third party HR person, I mean they might have a bank change. Maybe the company changed their bank account, right, call us with that, but but they're not calling us asking us too many employment issues, because we're not HR people. No, they're not gonna say hey, can I fire Jim because he has blue hair? 

Josh Fertel

22:24

They're not. They can call me and say that, but I'm not going to. 

Justin Romano

22:28

Or my employees aren't going to advise you on that. 

Josh Fertel

22:33

When somebody wants to switch to you from either in-house or another payroll company. What's that process like? What's the timeline? 

Justin Romano

22:41

I usually like to have like a two weeks, two weeks, two week notice. It's not long at all Like hey, we're going to switch If they're weekly. We just have a week. But, like the longer the better. A lot of people don't like switching payroll because it's really hard for them and I think people believe it's hard because of our larger competitors made it that way, okay, okay, so great, because there are salespeople and they're great at selling. 

23:08

Right, they're great at selling, but they're awful at the onboarding part. Okay, so with us, we don't have any salespeople. My team is helping onboard people. We know what we need, right? So, one of the things that I like to do, I like to tell the client listen. If you're comfortable providing us with your login to your current portal, we'll log in, we'll pull everything. 

23:33

I'll pull everything from five years ago and save it, put on a drive for you so you have it. That way, you never have to call that payroll company ever again. I'll have copies of it. You'll have copies of it, right? So that's one of the things that we do, is we'll log into their payroll system and grab all the employee data everything. Yeah, so all they have to do is e-sign our service agreement, right, right. 

Josh Fertel

23:56

So yeah, I would imagine people are afraid to make the change because they don't know what they don't know. 

Justin Romano

24:03

Exactly. 

Josh Fertel

24:08

And if you're able to get in there and make it so simple, then you got to get that message across, because your target audience most of them are probably using the bigger ones. Yes, of course they probably are. Yeah, Without thinking. 

Justin Romano

24:16

That's where they go Right, right. No one knows who Bayview Payroll is, unless you know who I am right or somebody referred you to me. But most people will go to the larger companies like off the bat Gotcha, and then they come to us once there's problems. We always get them after the fact which is fine. 

24:33

And we'll switch you anytime. But most people are more comfortable switching on a brand new quarter or the brand new year. But I'll switch you, like it's always timing right. Somebody's frustrated enough and wants to leave right now yes, we're gonna switch you right now. Got it okay because this is what I do. 

Josh Fertel

24:50

I've been doing it for 20 years and, of course, you know I think one of the biggest things that I hear about these bigger companies is, uh, trying to get customer service. You know, tell me how you guys handle that yeah so. 

Justin Romano

25:04

So some people ask me why switch to us? And that's the main reason why we sign up new accounts is because our larger competitors drop the ball on service, and it's not only like they can't get ahold of somebody, it's the way they resolve the issue. They don't do a good job resolving the issues Do you have an example of a client. There's this company. It's their windows and door company. 

Josh Fertel

25:29

Okay. 

Justin Romano

25:30

Two Alex's. 

Josh Fertel

25:31

Okay. 

Justin Romano

25:31

Okay, they're both. One's the owner, one's the son. And luckily it happened to the owner. But he emails the payroll and he sent one of the larger payroll companies uh the numbers in an email right and the bonus was thirty seven hundred dollars. Right, well, they keyed in thirty seven thousand dollars, nice, and so his account withdrew and he was just so pissed and upset and uh, he's just ready to go right because he was lucky it was, it was him. 

26:01

He could have been anybody else, so once that employee gets that money, thirty seven thousand dollars yeah, they'll quit right and then good luck getting that money back. And and he wasn't able to resolve it, he I think he was just upset that it even happened right they pay the wrong person. 

26:18

So uh it went to his son, but still so. When he called me, he's like listen, this is Alex number six and this is Alex number 100. And I put them in the system. He's like you need to make sure that those numbers are referenced to them, because when I send you the payroll it's going to say Alex number six and Alex 100. 

Josh Fertel

26:42

Is there a particular industry that you gravitate towards? 

Justin Romano

26:49

No, we have a really wide range of industries we're in. I'll tell you what we're not in a lot of. We don't have a lot of construction companies. 

Josh Fertel

26:58

Okay. 

Justin Romano

26:58

I believe probably because they subcontract a lot of the work maybe Well, I don't like trucking companies. 

Josh Fertel

27:06

Okay. 

Justin Romano

27:07

But we have a lot. We have a lot in the healthcare. We have like plastic surgeons, dentists, home care providers. 

Josh Fertel

27:14

Oh, that's great. 

Justin Romano

27:16

Big law firms, small law firms. We have companies with one employee to 300 employees is our largest one. Good for you, um, but the, the ones that have one employee. They're funny cause a lot of them are the owner, right, well, yeah, so like a real estate agent. 

Josh Fertel

27:33

Right. 

Justin Romano

27:34

They get a 10 99 from their their firm. 

Josh Fertel

27:36

Right. 

Justin Romano

27:37

But they need to run. If they make enough money, they need to run a payroll Right enough money. 

Josh Fertel

27:42

They need to run a payroll right, so they run it through us right right. 

Justin Romano

27:44

So you know those are the easy ones. So we do a lot of real estate agents and you know just all types of companies yeah, I got you the. 

Josh Fertel

27:52

How are you finding your clients or how are they finding you? 

Justin Romano

27:57

I have a really great online presence okay, really hard on over the years good. Something that I worked really hard on over the years Good, it's something that I found that my larger the larger competitors have it locked down because they pay for the ads. 

Josh Fertel

28:09

Right, right. 

Justin Romano

28:10

One you already know who they are Right. Two when you search, even when you search for me. 

Josh Fertel

28:13

They come up first. Even when you search for me, their sponsored ad comes up. 

Justin Romano

28:17

Yeah, but I always focused on what came after. Yes, because me personally, I'm not clicking that junk. It's spammy to me so I'm just scrolling by it. So I'm like there's gotta be people that are like me that are just scrolling by it wanna see what else is there. So I worked really hard to get our SEOs up there for Florida in general. So, like Bayview Payroll is like one of the number one payroll companies in florida right now, and that's on your website or through social media or both we've got social media going on um things going on my website that I help them with the seos. 

28:52

Okay, good, we're going to be doing a lot of social media videos soon too to attract more clients. So, uh, but yeah, one of the things we do they we get a lot of leads online because of our online presence. 

Josh Fertel

29:02

Oh, that's great, it's really great. And those convert Usually, usually Good. That's good. 

Justin Romano

29:08

And you do a lot of networking, I know that Yep Do a lot of networking, so you know I've been. Before I started the business, I had no network, but ever since like 2017, I've been growing my network and I have a lot of people that refer me business. 

Josh Fertel

29:23

What kind of industries are they in People referring? 

Justin Romano

29:26

me. Yes, let's see so. For example, I have a great financial advisor that I do their payroll to, right, but he refers me his people all the time because he wants to take him away from ADP and paychecks. That's what's supposed to happen, right, and he has us handle the 401k reporting. Okay, good, his people all the time, because he wants to take them away from ADP and paychecks. 

Josh Fertel

29:43

That's what's supposed to happen, right? And? 

Justin Romano

29:44

he has us handle the 401k reporting. 

Josh Fertel

29:46

Okay, good. 

Justin Romano

29:47

So he's a great referral source. I have an accountant that sends us a lot of business too. Commercial insurance agents, Great Payroll and workers' comp go together really well. 

Josh Fertel

29:58

Right. Yeah, I think those people are great referrals and your, your, your service includes all the end of the year filings. Yes, yeah, our service includes everything w9s or whatever. 

Justin Romano

30:11

Yeah, full service payroll company right, we'll collect the taxes from you. Every payroll pay them when they're due right to each tax agency. So whether what state it is or if it's a federal tax, it's getting paid. We file the quarterly returns, the 941, the Florida RT6. Well, that's a Florida return, but other states have their own Florida RT6. 

Josh Fertel

30:32

Sure sure and withholding. 

Justin Romano

30:34

But yeah, we do the year-end forms too, which is the 1099s and the W-2s. 

Josh Fertel

30:38

Right. 

Justin Romano

30:39

Yeah, we do those for the clients too. 

Josh Fertel

30:42

How does somebody contact you? 

Justin Romano

30:44

Just call the office. Calling the office is the best way to get a hold of us. 

Josh Fertel

30:49

Okay, what's the number? Because? 

Justin Romano

30:50

someone's going to answer the phone within three rings. It's 954-299-5978. You'll get a live human being nine to five, guaranteed all the time. 

Josh Fertel

31:00

You don't have to press one or anything like that. You don't have to press any, and we're going to keep it that way. Yeah, that's great. Give me the number again 954-299-5978. 

Justin Romano

31:08

And the website is Bayviewpayroll.com. 

Josh Fertel

31:12

Awesome. Okay, I always like to end with this question. Justin, If I gave you a magic wand and you can use it to improve your business or payroll system in general, what would you do with it? 

Justin Romano

31:25

Okay, I've had a magic wand to to make my business in general a little better. I would I would wave it and get more, more, more clients. I would like to see more, more, more growth would be fantastic. I mean, I like what we're doing now. We're servicing the clients Great. 

Josh Fertel

31:43

Just get the word out, the software works well. 

Justin Romano

31:45

Yeah, just get the word out there more, you know yeah. 

Josh Fertel

31:47

Yes, okay, I appreciate you coming on. You're in one of my outsourcing brethren you know, outsourcing is the way to go and, uh, I hope you'll come back again. Yes, maybe beginning of the year yeah, let us know how the year end of the year went. Okay the year yeah, let us know how the year end of the year went. Okay, let's do it all right, but thanks for coming. Thanks for having me appreciate it. You got all right. 

Thank you for listening today. Please follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn, and you can check us out at theangrybiller.com.