Esther: Welcome back to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show heard here and online and theBusinessMakers.com. I'm Esther Steinfeld -

Katie: And I'm Katie Laird.

Esther: And we are back with Chapter 2. We've got an awesome interview coming up from the one and only Ken Broom. He is the manager of a phenomenal indoor water park. They've got - what is it; like hundreds of slides or something crazy?

Katie: They've got more slide than I knew what to do with.

Esther: Okay, so -

Katie: They were amazing.

Esther: I'd love to hear your interview. Especially with summer coming up, I'm dying to get to a water park already.

Katie: Yes.

Esther: I'm ready for bathing suit season; bring it on.

Katie: And what's really cool about Great Wolf Lodge is, I mean there's 13 locations in the United States and in Canada, but they really - even though they employ hundreds and hundreds of people, they really think like a small business and I think it'll be really inspiring to our awesome Overtime Show-ers.

Esther: Awesome. Well let's take a listen.

Katie: Ken, thank you so much number one, for having me here and for being on the BusinessMakers Show.

Ken: Thank you Katie. It's a pleasure to have you here and have your family here enjoying the Great Wolf Lodge.

Katie: We are having the time of our lives, literally. (Laughter)

Ken: (Laughter) That's great to hear, that's what we wanted.

Katie: Exactly. So of course, nobody can see the amazing complex that I'm in right now. Can you tell us a little bit about what the Great Wolf Lodge is all about?

Ken: Absolutely. The simplest way to say it is that Great Wolf Lodge was created for families to get together and have fun. The signature item with our lodge is our 80,000 square-foot indoor water park.

Katie: Eighty-thousand square foot! (Laughter)

Ken: Yes! And even better, it is 84 degrees year-round. So it's nice and warm in the winter and it's nice and cool in the summer.

Katie: Oh man. And so of course we're here in Texas, but this isn't the only location that you guys have is it?

Ken: Correct. We have 12 locations.

Katie: Wow!

Ken: The company has been in existence since 1996 and we have 12 lodges around the country.

Katie: Excellent, and I mean are they all as expansive and as fun as this one is?

Ken: Well things are bigger in Texas and so this is the largest one.

Katie: So besides the amazing water park features that you have, what else is going on in the lodge? I mean this is certainly a family-friendly place, but what really kind of differentiates you from you know, other amazing spots around the country?

Ken: The water park obviously is the signature item. But one of things that we've really become known for is our game called "MagiQuest" and it's an interactive magical game that's played throughout the entire resort where kids go on this - it's likes a magical scavenger hunt where they're looking for crystals and stones and characters throughout the lodge. And they go on these amazing quests and look to slay the dragon; and it can take three or four hours to complete a single quest and the kids have a lot of fun with it.

Katie: We've seen firsthand these amazing bubbly smiling children running around with these wands; and some of them are running around wearing sequins and you know, princess outfits and - (Laughter)

Ken: Well if you wanna be a true magi, you have to go the whole step and get the clothing and the wands and the hats and everything.

Katie: That's excellent. (Laughter) Now what kind of staffing do you have? How large is your team on average throughout the year?

Ken: We'll have between 500 and 700 full-time employees, because not only are we managing the water park, we're managing a 600 room hotel.

Katie: Oh gosh. Okay, so just the one wasn't good enough for you. You just had to do the whole - (Laughter)

Ken: No. We weren't busy enough with just the water park.

Katie: (Laughter) Now do you see a lot of businesses come here. Because of course this is a very kid-friendly place, but you know, do adults come to play a lot as well?

Ken: Yes. We opened this past year our conference center; and we like to say that there's so much family activities in the kids side of Great Wolf, but we also have the grownup side with the conference center. And that's where we'll do meetings, business events, charitable events, dinner, banquets, things of that nature in conference center. So it really gives us the best of both worlds.

Katie: Excellent. So basically a business could come you know, say for a company retreat, put up their employees in the hotel area. What kind of facilities do you have meeting wise?

Ken: We have everything from boardrooms for 14 people up to our ballroom which will hold almost 400.

Katie: That's perfect. And so really, I could see the only problem would be just making sure everyone shows up for the morning meetings and you know, they're not on the giant water slide you know, (Laughter) "taking a call" like, "Hey." (Laughter)

Ken: Yep. We have to do the headcount in the morning to make sure everybody's there.

Katie: Just like the kids; I like it. (Laughter) So I mean of course, these have been pretty difficult economic times for businesses of all sizes. What have you been seeing as far as visitor trends in the last year or two.

Ken: That's a great question. One of the things that really has caught on in Texas is this concept called the "staycation" where the economic impact on families has been significant and we've all seen that. And what we're seeing with our families across the state is that they're wanting to take you know, maybe some smaller trips, more frequent trips, stay closer to home; and one of the things that we're seeing is that they're saying, "Let's go up to Great Wolf and spend a couple of days at Great Wolf Lodge," and incorporating us into their family plans instead of maybe taking a big vacation and traveling further away out of the state. They're doing shorter vacations and coming to see us. So it's actually - it's been a great benefit for us to have more families think about coming up here and spending some time with Great Wolf.

Katie: So now you're coming originally from more of kind of a marketing PR side with Great Wolf. And I understand this position's new to you; congratulations.

Ken: Thank you very much.

Katie: Excellent, I love it. I think you're crazy but you know, yay you. (Laughter) Can you tell us a little bit about what you've been doing maybe with some online marketing or what have your marketing efforts been looking like; especially trying to connect with people on the staycations, maybe targeting a different audience.

Ken: Yeah, and that is a great question because traditional advertising while we still do it, we have a very heavy radio and TV campaign that we work with, but we also have to look at all of the new emerging markets. And online and blog sites and things of that nature are very important to us. You know, our paid search really helps us online because people are going on and they're searching for things to do now. They don't come to their vacation like, "Okay, we're gonna do this." More of the question is, "What are we going to do this year?"

Katie: Exactly.

Ken: And so as they go online to do their research, which about 90 percent of the people do that, they research online; you know, we're trying to capture that, we're trying to position Great Wolf in front of them, whether it's family fun, whether they're looking for water parks, whether they're looking for resorts, things to do in Texas, anything along that - any way that we can capture them and present ourselves to them and show them the amazing facilities that we have for their family, and hopefully can you know, convince the kids and convince the mom to come see us.

Katie: Yeah, the mom is key there I think. And I'm slightly bias of course being a mom but, you know. (Laughter) Something that I really like, once people find you and they get on your website which I'm sure is the number one thing that they do instead of calling or asking for a brochure these days, is that you have a lot of very personalized areas. I mean you have this - I mean is it the "Ask-A-Mom" section or - tell us a little bit about how you're bringing your community or raving fans into you know, the "fold" in a more official way.

Ken: Well moms have become a very savvy buyer for their family. They research more than ever before. And we're proud of our website and I'm sure companies across the United States are proud of their websites. But sometimes moms want a little more information or they want another opinion, and so we created the "Ask-A-Mom". And we have moms all around the country now that have come to our lodges and we've set them up with a site where you as a mom can write them a question and it doesn't come through Great Wolf, it goes straight to them, and so you are getting their straight-forward opinion of "loved the water park; loved MagiQuest; got too tired" you know, of whatever it may be, you know, running around the lodge or etcetera. And so any kind of question, they've been here, they've done the activities, and you'll get their opinion on it versus sometimes you want that third-party opinion versus maybe talking to one of our sales reps at the central reservations office.

Katie: Talking mom-to-mom is very powerful, but I mean that's really gutsy on your part. Like how did you convince the higher ups that this would be a feasible idea? (Laughter) Like what did that take?

Ken: Well I think the thing is you cannot be afraid of learning what you may not be doing right, because if we're hearing back from moms and families that a certain thing is not working well, then it's up to us to fix it. And as soon as we do, now all of a sudden we're even better positioned with moms because they're like, "Wow, they really listen to me! This wasn't working; they fixed it; we can't wait to go back now."

Katie: Because I was a priority, yeah.

Ken: Yeah, so you can't be afraid to learn. I mean everybody loves to hear what we're doing great. Sometimes we don't do everything great and when that happens, the only way we can fix it is if we know about it.

Katie: Now given that you have so many different - you said 12 locations -

Ken: Yes.

Katie: - all around the country and one in Canada right?

Ken: Correct.

Katie: And one near Niagara Falls - I feel so smart. (Laughter)

Ken: (Laughter) You listen so well.

Katie: I do, I try. (Laughter) What is that kind of experience like? I mean is there a lot of communication, are you sharing ideas, are you working together?

Ken: One of the benefits of having a company that has 12 lodges is the communication is wide open. We talk to each other all the time and we're small enough to get together. As a matter of fact, we're having a - what we're calling our "Sales Summit". It's every director of sales and marketing in the company coming to Grapevine.

Katie: Wow! No pressure there.

Ken: Yeah, I know. So we spend three days exchanging ideas, see what's working for lodges in the sales teams and what's not working, exchange ideas on marketing. You know, just everything that seems to be out there and who's doing things that have - you know, what are the big success stories? What are things that people have tried that didn't work so well? Because one of the things that we've said a lot within our company, "It's okay to make mistakes, just don't make the same one twice." And so the size of the company really allows us to do that to get together. And I can pick up the phone and talk to our CEO on any given day. I mean the communication -

Katie: Oh wow, he's that accessible.

Ken: Yeah, she is.

Katie: She is, oh, oh.

Ken: There ya go! (Laughter)

Katie: Oooooo. (Laughter) I'm sorry. (Laughter) Well thank you so much. I really - I appreciate the wonderful experience we've had here and I especially appreciate you chatting with the BusinessMakers.

Ken: Oh, it's my pleasure. This is fun. Anytime that you would like for me to talk to you I'd be happy to.

Katie: (Laughter) Next time we'll do it poolside and it'll be real exciting. (Laughter)

Ken: There ya go, exactly. (Laughter)

Esther: That really was a great interview. I mean it's really amazing how they are taking this small business approach.

Katie: It is. And just how they connect with the cities and you know, how they identify the locations for these really amazing theme parks. I mean it's great for them 'cause they get to have all these ready-made attractions for people to come and see, but it's amazing for the local businesses -

Esther: Of course.

Katie: - to have this kind of draw in their area. So really a great place; highly recommend. Check 'em out at GreatWolf.com and definitely pack your bathing suit, it's awesome.

Esther: Awesome. Well that wraps up our great interview with Ken Broom. And now it's time for another Business Survival Tip with Carl Kleimann of Odyssey One Source.

Carl: Hello business owners this is Carl Kleimann from Odyssey One Source with another Business Survival Tip. More small businesses get into trouble with the IRS over payroll taxes than any other type of tax. They are a huge source of government revenue and the IRS takes them very seriously. The IRS actively looks for businesses that have fallen behind in their payroll tax deposits or filings. When they find a noncompliant business, the penalties can be severe.

An employer's most important responsibility is depositing payroll taxes on time. Before you do that, however, you have to know:

1. What compensation is taxable?
2. When are your payroll taxes due?

On the subject of compensation, employers often overlook non-cash compensation such as a company car, company provided housing, and the value of life insurance in excess of $50,000. And severance pay and bonuses are often overlooked. There is a wealth of information on this subject available at irs.gov.

Your tax deposit schedule is based on a four-quarter "look-back" period which begins July 1 and ends June 30. If you reported $50,000 or less of payroll taxes for the look-back period, you make monthly deposits. If you reported more than $50,000, you make semi-weekly deposits. You may even be required to make daily deposits under certain circumstances.

The penalties for failing to withhold or deposit federal income tax and Social Security and Medicare taxes are severe and they can be personal. If your business cannot pay the unpaid taxes, the IRS will go after you personally. This is true even if you rely on a payroll service that fails to deposit on your behalf. For these reasons, this is a subject that commands your attention.

I am Carl Kleimann and this has been another Business Survival Tip by Odyssey One Source, ranked as the number one Professional Employer Organization three years running by the Black Book of Outsourcing. For more information on this and other issues affecting employers, please visit www.odysseyonesource.com.

Esther: You're listening to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show heard here and online and theBusinessMakers.com. I'm Esther Steinfeld -

Katie: And I'm Katie Laird.

Esther: And we'll be back with more in Chapter -