Congress has passed a billed to significantly raise the minimum wage in the U.S. That's good or bad news depending on which side of the business fence you are sitting on. But as the U.S. cost of living continues to tick up, and not so slowly I might add, the hike was inevitable.

This increase will put some pressure on businesses that are already working hard to keep payroll in check.  So a company's best strategy is to be proactive in terms about how this increase impacts the bottom line. Now is the time to contact your payroll administrator and accountant to learn what the increase will mean to your business. There will be other administrative details to keep up with like all that federally mandated signage that needs to be updated.

Anticipating adjustments that will be need to be made is a much better strategy than dealing with it when the time comes. The economies don't necessarily have to come in the form of staffing cuts. There may be new programs you can introduce to increase revenue or other budget areas that can be trimmed without too much pain to accommodate personnel costs.

The key is to get your business advisors at the table and have a conversation now so that cuts or revenue generating projects have time to evolve. You know, "the best defense is a good offense."-- Beth