First Friday speaker urges small businesses to rethink employee benefits for long-term resilience
Benefits should be part of the business model, says SBDC’s Willett
At a glance: Benefits matter, says a regional director for the Kansas Small Business Development Center, and it may be time to reimagine how small businesses offer them.
More information: Nancy Daniels, 785-410-6352, nkdaniels@ksu.edu
Related: First Friday e-call | Kansas Small Business Development Center (Wichita State University) | 2025 Small Business Benefits and Wellness Expo
Small businesses often struggle with putting together a benefits package for their employees.
Sept. 10, 2025
By Pat Melgares, K-State Extension news service
MANHATTAN, Kan. — Brandy Willett, the regional director of the Kansas Small Business Development Center at Wichita State University, has a simple message for Kansas entrepreneurs: benefits matter — and it may be time to reimagine how small businesses offer them.
The Wichita KSBDC, one of several centers across the state, provides no-cost one-on-one advising, virtual and in-person training, and vital connections to entrepreneurs across 12 counties and beyond. But Willett says one of the most pressing issues she’s working on now is helping small business owners understand the critical role that employee benefits play in building resilient companies.
“Today, we’re talking about employee benefits because for a business to be truly resilient in this day and age, it has to offer more than just a paycheck,” Willett said. “This applies whether you're a solopreneur or growing a team.”
Willett was the featured speaker during the Sept. 5 First Friday e-Call, a monthly online series hosted by K-State Extension that helps to nurture small businesses and inspire entrepreneurship in Kansas. The online discussions, which routinely host dozens of Kansas citizens from the public and private sectors, are available free each month.
“There are a lot of people who start their business on the side, build it up, but have trouble making it their full-time job because they aren’t comfortable letting go of traditional benefits,” Willett said.
“What we’re trying to do is help those people understand that benefits are just another part of their business projection model; that is, understanding your money, where it’s going, what the benefits are and how it pays back to your company in the long-term.”
Willett highlighted five ‘pillars of wellness’ that employers and employees often are concerned about:
- Physical.
- Mental/emotional.
- Financial.
- Social/community.
- Professional/career.
“The physical is easy, right?” Willett said. “We see that one and we think of health insurance, but also worker’s comp and those areas. We want people to think about the physical well-being of their employees, but beyond that, we don’t want them to ignore the mental/emotional health needs of employees, and other areas.”
Willett said small business are uniquely positioned to initiate what she calls ‘game-changing benefits’ because they don’t require layers of decision-makers to implement programs. Some of the areas in which small businesses can capitalize on their competitive advantage include benefits related to childcare, paid leave, retirement options and more.
“I’m also hearing talk about housing,” Willett said. “As a small business, are there ways you can invest a certain portion into a local housing development that we know will be affordable for the amount of money that our employees are making?”
She adds: “These ideas are beneficial not only to the business, because it makes their employee pool stronger, but it also benefits the community and the individuals who live there.”
More information and support for small businesses in establishing benefits for their employees is available online from the Kansas Small Business Development Center. Willett also encourages interested persons to attend a free benefits and wellness expo on Oct. 30 at the Wichita State University Metroplex.
Willett’s full talk and other First Friday presentations are available online from K-State Research and Extension.
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