Kids Atelier works with Gusto

Rabee Ikkawi was an engineer for over 15 years before making the leap to become a full-time business owner. “I loved working in high-tech but come from a family of entrepreneurs and always knew I wanted to work for myself.”

Rabee and his wife co-founded LSH Plus, a US licensed retailer, to share the vibrant children’s clothing line Kids Atelier with the US market. “The Kids Atelier brand is all about imagination and pushing the boundaries of possibilities, and that is how we are approaching our business.”

LSH Plus has been growing rapidly since 2010 with 13 stores nationwide. With multiple locations and an expanding staff, Rabee began the search for an HR “tech solution that minimized errors, improved efficiency and saved time.”

“Gusto saves us 3 hours every week on payroll.”

Welcoming new team members has been a breeze

In the past, onboarding new employees to LSH Plus had been a painful, manual process that involved printing out legal documents, asking new employees to bring in a voided check and a lot of back and forth between the managers at each location and headquarters.

“With Gusto, all I have to do is create a profile for employee and an email gets sent to them to do the rest. It has been a great way to welcome new LSH Plus team members with access to all their information they need.”

We've had 70 employees onboard through Gusto with zero issues. That is unheard of.

Compliance taken care of

Rabee was thankful that Gusto made sure LSH Plus was compliant when mandatory sick time laws changed. “Compliance is a big thing that I know little about. With requirements always changing, it’s nice to have a solution that does it all for me.”

LSH Plus operates in eight states and prior to Gusto was spending hours every week staying on top of each state’s regulations and filing taxes. Now with Gusto, new hire reports are submitted automatically, all payroll taxes are filed, and Gusto’s dashboard notifies Rabee of any new requirements he needs to stay on top of.

“I liked the simplicity of the benefits shopping experience with Gusto. It allowed me to find the best quality package for my team at a price I could afford.”

A simplified benefits shopping experience

Rabee has always wanted to offer his team health benefits but was intimidated by the overwhelming paperwork and regulations. “We had spoken with Zenefits previously but they made it seem really complicated since we had multiple locations to deal with. Plus they selected plans that were too expensive for our employees.”

Rabee was shocked that in just under a week, LSH Plus fully selected their packages and invited their employees to enroll in benefits with Gusto.

Rabee is now proud to offer medical, dental and vision to his team. “We operate as a family, and I want to make sure everyone feels like they are taken care of. Our employees are not just staff members but ambassadors of our brand and people growing careers at our company.”