While Chattanooga has plenty of payroll and benefits companies, many of those have focused on providing services for larger organizations—until now. Southern Payroll & Benefits arose to fill the essential need of human resources services for companies with one to 99 employees, focusing tightly on companies in any line of work with 49 or fewer employees. 

Southern Payroll & Benefits CEO George Wilson came to Chattanooga from Tampa Bay to work in payroll and benefits, and quickly saw a gap in the services being offered here. “I was working in the 50-plus employee segment, and I saw first-hand how a majority of businesses in Chattanooga are from one to 40 employees,” he says. “Smaller businesses were being neglected. My partner Aaron Dixon and I started our company 15 months ago to help businesses in this sector.”

Smaller businesses have distinct needs, Wilson explains. Without the budget to hire a human resources expert or chief financial officer, they depend on their payroll and benefits companies to serve as advisors, as well as service providers.

“We offer hands-on customer service to provide our clients with the same resources a larger company would have,” Wilson says. “We can advise them on essential points, such as the difference between a W2 and a 1099 employee.”

Southern Payroll & Benefits offers clients a range of services, including major national health and dental plans. This year, they’re also doing a lot to help with Economic Injury Disaster and Paycheck Protection Program loans, Wilson notes. “We are navigating our clients toward 100% forgiveness,” he says. “That was a vital lifeline for many of our clients, and we’ll do whatever is necessary on our end to help them out with that.”

Whereas many benefits firms contract out customer service to call centers, Wilson adds, Southern Payroll & Benefits clients can reliably get on the phone to their Chattanooga-based customer success executive, who can generally answer their questions in just a few minutes. Even independent contractors, Wilson says, should consider working with a payroll company.
“We do bookkeeping, and we can advise whether they’re better off becoming a sole proprietorship, LLC or S-corp,” he says. “We can help with their QuickBooks or get them set up on our accounting software.”

That software is called Gusto, and Wilson suggests that potential clients Google it. It’s among the most respected in the nation, he says—one of the most affordable and easiest to use for small businesses.

Even during this difficult year, Southern Payroll & Business continues to thrive. They’re eager to meet new clients and help them be as successful as they can during 2021 and into the future.
“As things come back from a health standpoint, I’m hoping that many companies around town see some of the services we’ve been providing to help other businesses stay up and running,” Wilson says. “We’d love to talk with them. And we’re hiring, too—needing more staff is a good problem to have. Our goal is to maintain top customer service while continuing to grow at a controlled pace.”

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Learn more about Southern Payroll & Benefits

Businesses in Chattanooga, TN, trust Southern Payroll & Benefits with a variety of outsourced HR services, from payroll, to insurance benefits, and tax processing. We partner with you to insure your comfort and to advise on best-practices and compliance requirements. Southern Payroll offers one-month free payroll to all clients, along with no annual contracts, to make sure that we exceed expectations daily. We are also extremely proud of our 2% initiative, in which 2% of all payroll proceeds will be donated to the 501(c)3 approved charity of each client’s choosing. For more information about how we can help your business, schedule a meeting or call (423) 207-2497 today.