Life Happens 365 - Are You Managing the Risk?

By Diane Tait Image courtesy flickr Living in the city, I don’t see much in the way of wildlife other than squirrels, feral cats and visiting Canadian snow geese that love to camp out here in the winter.   But go an hour or so away from Jacksonville and it’s a different story.   Having relocated my parents from New Jersey to Palm Coast fifteen years ago, I’ve been surprised to see everything from deer and raccoons wandering freely through their neighborhood, to gators and otters in the canal that borders their property.   While these critters won’t bother you unless you bother them, my dad nearly surprised a black bear a couple years ago that was intent on feasting on blackberries that grew wild in the lot next door.   Fortunately, both my dad and the bear ran in opposite directions when they encountered each other early one spring morning.   But that isn’t always the case for everyone.

By Diane Tait Image courtesy flickr I’m old enough that I still remember the days before cellphones, as well as the first generation of mobile phones that either resembled a brick with an antenna or lived in a bag that we plugged into the cigarette lighter in our cars.   Back then it cost a small fortune to make calls on mobile phones.   That was the bad news.   The good news was when your mobile phone rang, you could rest assured it was a call from a client or friend who had your cellphone number.   Today, the odds are about 50/50 that the call routed to your smartphone is spam.   That’s right, nearly half the calls received in the US are from telemarketers.   That’s ten times the amount of spam generated just two years ago.   What’s even worse is that many of us took the time and trouble to register our cell numbers on the Do Not Call registry maintained by the government.   While the registry was supposed to reduce the amount of spam ...

By Diane Tait Image courtesy flickr Into every life a little rain must fall.   Or so the story goes.   Of course, for those who live in Florida, there’s no such thing as a little rain, is there?   One of the times when parents tend to feel as though the sky is falling is when it comes time to teach their children to drive.   That’s followed soon thereafter when buying your kid his or her first car.

By Diane Tait Image courtesy flickr The sad fact is 2/3 of businesses fail within the first two years of opening their doors.   While some blame economic factors or ever-increasing competition from big business, I believe that the number one failure factor for most business owners is complexity.   That’s right, where owning a small business used to be a straightforward process, todays small business owners have to contend with a myriad of things that entrepreneurs a couple decades ago couldn’t even imagine.   Between the intricacies of the Internet and office automation, who has time to manage the day to day operation of a business?   Even covering the risks associated with business ownership can be as complicated as Sanskrit to the average business owner.   While I can’t help you with feeding your Facebook or dealing with a computer crash, one thing I can give all you small business owners out there is a basic understanding of business insurance.