In this two‑minute trailer for The Unnoticed Entrepreneur, host Jim James introduces Charles Reed, the 75‑year‑old founder of GetPayroll, a payroll‑processing and compliance firm that handles over $1 billion in payroll annually. Reed explains that GetPayroll not only pays employees and files taxes but also fixes IRS errors and handles compliance issues. He stresses that entrepreneurs must view their ventures as businesses, not jobs, and must adopt the right mindset to grow. Reed shares his ambivalent relationship with social media: he personally dismisses platforms like Facebook as a waste of time, yet acknowledges that Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube generate hundreds of leads for his company. He describes a diverse video‑marketing strategy that includes serious educational webinars, parody videos (e.g., a FUTA‑themed piece, a 2001: A Space Odyssey spoof, a Godfather parody), and light‑hearted content, all produced by his videographer Michael. Because his client base skews younger, Reed hires people who are “smart, experienced, and knowledgeable” in that world, emphasizing that an entrepreneur need not be the smartest person in the room but must hire the smartest people. The trailer ends with a plug for the full 20‑minute episode.
Hello and welcome to this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur. I just feel like saying yeehaw really, because we're going over to Dallas, Texas to meet with Charles Reed, who's built a company called GetPayroll. They have over $1 billion worth of payroll that they manage every year. Charles, welcome to the show.
We provide payroll services and payroll compliance services. We pay their employees, we do all the filings, all the tax payments, and then we solve all the compliance problems that arise. Because the Internal Revenue Service makes millions of mistakes a year. So we fix them. We just tried to explain who we were and what we did. Tried to be not the major faceless people like our major competitors. And the fact that we always made the point that you could call Charles. I mean, you can pick up the phone, any of my clients, anybody who's interested can pick up the phone and call me. Directly. If you're going to grow an entrepreneurial business, you have to treat it as a business, not a job. And you have to do the things necessary to grow the business. And that is, you're right. It's a key psychological point that an entrepreneur has to come to and say, this isn't a job. This is a business. I need to manage Well, from my point of view, Facebook is for sending pictures of the grandbaby to grandma. Okay. We actually get hundreds of leads from Facebook. We get leads from LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. It's amazing. I don't understand social media. I don't believe in it. I think it's a farce, but that's me. Okay. I do not have a personal Facebook page. I think it's a waste of time. I can't believe that people are interested in what I eat or where I go or who I'm seeing. I mean, you know, but it works and they're in tune with that in a way I'm not. And so it's very successful. Michael, who's my videographer, does wonderful videos. We have our own YouTube channel. We do serious ones. We do some that aren't so serious. We did one that was both. We did a, I don't know if FUTA is the Federal Unemployment Tax Act. Okay. But it also refers to a type of Japanese pornography. We did a, uh, 2001: A Space Odyssey parody. We do a Godfather parody. We do a lot of fun things as well as serious. educational videos and webinars for clients, potential clients. The FUTA one was a serious video. So we're doing a lot of things that I never envisioned, but they do and they're effective because most of my clients aren't my age. They're younger than I am and they live in a different world. So we need to be in that world. And I need people who are smart, experienced, and knowledgeable in that world. So I hire them. And like I said to you before, an entrepreneur doesn't need to be the smartest person in the room. He needs to hire the smartest person in the room.
Now, this was just a 2-minute trailer for a full 20-minute show. The show will be dropping into your feed in the next day or so. So do look out for it and do enjoy it, share it, and review it. Thanks for listening to this trailer of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur.
