Become an insider!
Get our latest payroll and small business articles sent straight to your inbox.
In this Article:
Walk the Store is a force behind brands in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) space looking to get their products on store shelves. The mission doesn’t stop at representing a brand to a retailer and getting their items on the shelf. The brokerage also strives to help brands build relationships with retailers that’ll give them a chance to grow year after year despite new competition arriving daily.
A one-man show, Walk the Store stepped onto the scene in late 2020, but owner Lester Solomon has over 20 years of experience to back his company. He has worked on each side of the equation as both a buyer and a vendor, which gives him a unique perspective into this space and the ability to coach brands on how to thrive and survive.
Focus on clients, not payroll.
With his years of experience, Lester knew from the start of his business that he wanted to focus on his clients. Helping brands really understand how retailers are thinking, where their own products fall in the CPG space and building those retailer-brand relationships isn’t done overnight or in one sitting. It takes time, and he didn’t want that time to be taken up with trying to figure out the ins and outs of processing payroll for himself.
How did he come upon Wagepoint? It wasn’t a matter of walking down metaphorical aisles of payroll software and humming and ha-ing over the selection before adding it to his tech stack. Rather, Lester shares that a previous employer of his actually used Wagepoint, and he wondered if it could also work for him. So, he gave it a try.
Trying Wagepoint on for size.
From the start, Lester says that Wagepoint fit the bill for him. The payroll software‘s ease-of-use is its biggest selling point, and he doesn’t have to fumble through processing his pay runs.
Apart from the simplicity of Wagepoint’s step-by-step payroll process, he says that core features like automatic payroll tax calculations, deductions and remittances were also big draws.
For me it was all about flexibility. I needed to know that I could run payroll and all the taxes were taken care of. I am a fairly conservative planner, so I like to have ample funds to cover all government programs and didn’t want any surprises at the end of the year.
— Lester Solomon, Owner, Walk the Store
Feature spotlight: Walk the Store’s favourite Wagepoint feature.
When asked about favourite features in Wagepoint, Lester says he loves the option to add income types to his pay runs. This lets him easily categorize the funds going toward pay cheques, such as regular pay or something like an added bonus or expense reimbursement. Why does Lester love this option? It’s simple.
Like everything with Wagepoint, adding income types is very easy to navigate and shows exactly how much take home pay will be deposited.
— Lester Solomon, Owner, Walk the Store
Transparency means no payroll surprises.
Transparency is important to Lester. It’s a staple in his own work with clients who come to Walk the Store for help with their brand, and he looks for it when trusting brands and products or services as well. For him, transparency means being able to see and understand the information before him, including when it comes to his payroll.
No surprises is my motto. I am transparent with my clients, and I get that same comfort when dealing with Wagepoint.
— Lester Solomon, Owner, Walk the Store
Small biz advice: You don’t have to go it alone.
When you own a small business, the tasks of running that business start piling up — even ones you might not have thought of, like payroll. Small business owners are superheroes, but that doesn’t mean you have to walk that road alone. Lester says this is something he’s learned firsthand.
The one thing I have found out is that I can’t do everything myself. I rely on third party partners like Wagepoint that take the hassle out of me worrying about payroll.
— Lester Solomon, Owner, Walk the Store
He notes it makes perfect sense to take advantage of technology and subject matter experts like Wagepoint. As a small business owner, a full time accounting or payroll admin isn’t in the cards right now, but it’s possible to do it himself with a payroll software like Wagepoint and its Customer Support team.
Take back your time with Wagepoint.
As you’ve seen Lester say here, the simplicity and comfort of dealing with Wagepoint are what gives him confidence in the payroll software. On top of that, he says it’s an easy way to take back his time from payroll and go back to doing what he wants, and that’s a message he shares with others as well.
Thanks so much, Lester, for building this relationship with Wagepoint and trusting us to handle the nitty gritty so you can focus on helping other brands shine.
👉 Ready for another Wagepoint success story? Read how Wagepoint has just the right design for Dubbeldam.
