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Making the move to entrepreneurship
In April 2022, Shelby Smith Allen lost her job. As a small business consultant with over a decade of experience, Smith Allen was blindsided by the news. But within hours of her termination, she started receiving calls from former clients who expressed interest in continuing a working relationship. At that moment, she made the decision to launch Epaulette, a social media and ecommerce agency. “I got let go at two o’clock on a Friday,” said Smith Allen. “Epaulette was born by about four thirty.”
Epaulette specializes in social media content creation, branding, and website consultancy. Since its founding in April 2022, the agency has grown rapidly through word-of-mouth referrals. In less than a year, Epaulette has surpassed six figures in revenue and is planning on tripling its headcount by the end of 2023.
Attracting employees to keep up with high demand
As both founder and sole employee of Epaulette, Smith Allen has had to turn down new clients because of bandwidth constraints. To meet demand, she has turned her focus to growing Epaulette’s team. Because the agency’s continued success largely depends on hiring excellent talent, she’s invested in providing better benefits to stand out from her competition. “A 401(k) was always going to be in the future because I'm a very firm believer that if you want good people, you can't just compensate them—you have to give them good benefits, too,” said Smith Allen.
Smith Allen initially explored 401(k) options with local banks but found the fees too expensive. The banks were also hesitant to work with a business that had only been in operation for a few months. Frustrated by the experience, she reached out to Human Interest and was pleased by the efficient and simple onboarding process.
“I knew Human Interest from the user side because a former company I worked for used Human Interest. It was super easy and intuitive to use,” said Smith Allen. “And then, when I reached out, I found that Human Interest has very reasonable fees. The representative I spoke to gave me a proposal and reached out to me within an hour of contact.”
Finding a 401(k) that can scale with the business
From the beginning, Smith Allen knew she wanted to scale up her business. Her plan allows her to use both the administrative and participant functions. As an administrator, Human Interest is able to quickly and flexibly accommodate Smith Allen’s needs, such as providing templates to her CPA to help her manage payroll contributions. “I download the templates you guys provide, so when my CPA has questions about my 401(k), I can fill out the report and give it to him. It’s so simple and cost-effective,” she said.
As a participant, Smith Allen can easily view her contributions and retirement plan details in full. “On the participant side of things, it's incredibly simple. It's incredibly transparent,” she said. “I can log in at any time and see what's going on, both on the admin and participant side.”
[Human Interest is] incredibly simple. It's incredibly transparent. I can log in at any time and see what's going on, both on the admin and participant side.
Shelby Smith Allen, CEO at Epaulette
Achieving company goals with a safe harbor 401(k)
Epaulette is keen on doubling revenue in 2023. The agency is also geared to launch courses for aspiring entrepreneurs. As the workload increases, employee recruiting has become key, which is why Smith Allen has included a safe harbor provision to her retirement plan. For Smith Allen, a safe harbor 401(k) makes it easier for her employees to start and continue to save for retirement.
A safe harbor plan provides employees with a required employer contribution in exchange for a free pass on annual nondiscrimination testing required by the IRS, which reduces annual administrative burden. Some plans also offer provisions to automatically enroll participants into the plans. In exchange for the required employer contribution, all employees can safely contribute the maximum allowable deferral amount to their 401(k).
“If you take care of your employees and they have that safety net, and they have that plan for the future, they're going to stay with you long term,” said Smith Allen. “My people are working hard and hustling hard now because they know they're not going to have to do it forever.”
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The testimonies, statements, and opinions presented are unique to the individuals providing reviews and may not be representative of the experience of others. Individuals providing testimonials are current clients of Human Interest. These testimonials were actively solicited by Human Interest and individuals did not receive either cash or non cash compensation. A direct solicitation of a testimonial incentivizes individuals to positively recommend services and products, creating a conflict of interest. Past performance or success is not a guarantee of future results. Read our full disclosures here.
