Life Happens 365 - Are You Managing the Risk?

By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay If you own a business, then you know what a shock to the system the Coronavirus caused a little more than a year ago.   In some cases, businesses were shut down for months on end.   In others, employees were either laid off or forced to work from home to reduce the incidence of contagion.   Any way you look at it, pivoting to keep your business open during the pandemic was a chore of epic proportions.   Now that the worst of the epidemic is over, guess what? Most businesses are going to have to pivot their businesses back to some sense of normal.   That isn’t going to be easy for some as you’ll see in my top-10 tips below.

  By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay Freelancing has never been more popular.   Whether it’s to make some extra income or is a full-time proposition, being a freelancer means never having to deal with the boss looking over your shoulder ever again.   Many stay-at-home moms and dads embrace it for the time flexibility it provides.   Some who have lost their jobs or are now working at home due to COVID-19 enjoy the ability to turn time into money anytime they choose.   With more than 57 million Americans (1/3 of the workforce) currently participating in the Gig Economy, freelancing has never been more popular.     If you currently freelance or are thinking about it, here’s what you need to know from an insurance perspective.

  By Diane Tait If you own or lease a car, you’ve probably looked into roadside assistance.  This way if you ever run out of gas, blow a tire or have your car roll to a stop as the warning lights on your dashboard alert you to the fact that your engine needs service, you won’t be stranded on the side of the road.  If you own a business, did you know that the insurance industry offers a type of policy that covers you for unexpected equipment breakdowns that can bring your firm to a screeching halt? Originally offered to small manufacturers to keep them from getting derailed by unforeseen events like boiler failures and machinery breakdowns, the coverage has grown over the years to cover all kinds of businesses for everything from equipment breakdown and ruined inventory to additional expenses and lost income.

  By Diane Tait Face it, running a small business is fraught with peril.   If supplies dry up or a hurricane or health hazard rears its ugly head, your business can take a hit. If a customer slips and falls in your place of business, you can get sued.   If your business computers are breached, hackers can steal or erase your data.   While I’ve written blogs in the past that have dealt with these issues, one of the legal landmines I have yet to address is professional negligence.  

  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 Image courtesy picpedia Businesses come and businesses go.   That’s a fact, since 2/3 of new businesses fail to make it through their first two years.   While some of the failures are due to stiff competition, poor management and planning or market downturns and insufficient capitalization, what most business owners fail to realize is that there are many external factors that can scuttle even the strongest of firms that have nothing to do with COVID-19, the economy or the competition.   In this week’s blog, I’ll show you ten ways that business insurance can keep your business afloat through the toughest of times.

By Diane Tait Image courtesy videoblocks.com Since the 1920’s workers’ compensation has benefited workers in this country should they become injured, incapacitated or killed while on the job.   Prior to that, injured workers were required to sue their employer for their injuries and loss of income.   Worst still was that employees had to wait months for any financial assistance, which could prove devastating for workers and their families.   Many of the awards that were awarded by courts were arbitrary since there was no defined system or scale that determined what an injury or a life was worth.   Worse still was the fact that many workers lost their cases in court or had a substantial amount of their award eroded by attorney’s fees.   By the middle of the 19 th Century, it was clear that something had to be done.

By Diane Tait Image courtesy flickr So, you’ve decided to augment your income by either picking up passengers, delivering groceries or taking on contract writing assignments.   Good for you.   Working as an independent contractor can have its rewards.   In many cases you get to set your own pace, work when you want to work and avoid the dilemma of having your boss breathe down your neck all day long.   There are also added tax write-offs and other perks involved with running your own business.   The downside is that there can be added expenses and increased liability to deal with anytime you go from working for someone to working for yourself.   Today I thought I’d take the time to help all you indies out there understand the insurance ramifications inherent in dealing with the Gig Economy.

By Diane Tait Image courtesy flickr If you own a business like me, then you know there’s a fine line between revenue and profit.   Many a small business has been known to sell itself into the ground by under-pricing its work.   Others have hit the rocks of insolvency because they over-promised and under-delivered.   But perhaps the biggest cash crunch of all occurs when the economy takes a tumble and suddenly the burden of payroll turns your employees into a school of piranhas whose appetite sucks the life out of your firm.   While I can’t help you with the first two business busters, I can show you a way out of Chapter 11 by introducing you to a manpower resource that won’t eat you out of house and home because you only pay to play on a contract basis.   What I’m talking about is what’s known as the Gig Economy.

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.

By Diane Tait Image courtesy flickr With Halloween right around the corner, I thought I’d take a few minutes to remind homeowners about liability issues associated with hosting parties.   Unlike a decade or so ago, today’s host or hostess has to worry about a lot more than whether their guests have a good time.   They also need to be concerned about what occurs during and after the festivities.   At least they do if they don’t want to wind up being eaten alive by lawsuits.