Life Happens 365 - Are You Managing the Risk?

  By Diane Tait With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought I’d take the time to help small business owners take advantage of what’s come to be known as Small Business Saturday.   Started in 2010 by FedEx, the purpose of SBS was to give local businesses who couldn’t hope to compete with the big box stores on Black Friday or the giant online retailers on Cyber Monday a chance to cash in on the holiday shopping season.   Capitalizing on the fact that small businesses are far less crowded than the big retail stores, getting your fair share of SBS shoppers comes down to three things: timing, incentives and marketing.

  By Diane Tait After a long hot summer and unseasonably warm autumn, cooler temperatures are finally forecast for northeast Florida.   When the temperature drops into the forties and fifties at night, many homeowners choose to light their fireplaces for the first time.   Not surprisingly, it’s also the time of year when the incidence of house-fires sees a sudden spike.   Before you light that first fire of the year, I thought I’d take the time to give you a few words of advice that can help you keep the fire in your fireplace in its place.

  By Diane Tait Living or visiting Florida during the winter offers residents and tourists alike the opportunity to do things that most northerners only get to do in the summer.   One of the most popular winter pursuits in the Sunshine State is boating.   Whether this means renting a daysailer, kayak or Jetski for an afternoon of fun in the sun, or it means owning or chartering a fishing boat, a sloop or a houseboat for a weekend on the water, there are a few things you need to know before you shove off.

  By Diane Tait We live in a complicated world filled with all kinds of technological marvels.   Today’s vehicles are not so much cars as computers with four tires and an engine.   When I bought a new car a couple years ago, it took me almost a month to figure out how to use it, since many functions that were previously analog had suddenly gone digital.   It got to the point where I started calling my vehicle the Carship, since it seemed to me to be part car and part Starship Enterprise.   While learning how to use voice actuated and touchscreen controls on modern vehicles can be confusing for some, so too is trying to decide how much auto insurance to carry.   To simplify matters, I thought I’d take the time to walk you through the ins and outs.