Legal and Insurance

RE: When Good Business Plans Go Bad

mightyventure — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:21:17 GMT

You have shared a great article there @ CommunityTeam. Indeed having a business plan is vital, in fact you simply cannot keep a successful business unless you put planning on top of your priorities. Business plan is equal to Pain and solution; product path; target markets; intellectual property; risk mitigation; and staffing plan.

Focus is the key, of course, to building a business. I find that in the business model and business summary stage, keeping one�s focus can be tricky. Note that the areas of your business that are truly important are often not urgent. Sure, you�ll fight your share of fires, but are those fires ever urgent and important in the long term? If it�s someone else�s issue, toss it back. As for the not urgent and not important, well, that�s the stuff to delegate. Definitely.

RE: Controlling Worker�s Comp

safetyguy — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:23:46 GMT

What is interesting is that most employers will say that they have a limited budget for safety, loss prevention and training. However, they have the money to pay for an injury or claim, or at least pay the premiums for the insurance. If more employers would budget for prevention just as they do for, say insurance, the benefits will show up directly to the bottom line. It also shows their employees that they are important and worth the investment. Small business owners need to invest in their most important assest, their employees.

RE: Nothing But Coverage

WHWorldwide — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:47:14 GMT

This provided a good overview of key types of insurance. I have a small nonprofit and we need liability insurance to cover the micro-enterprise products we sell for fundraising.

RE: Nothing But Coverage

bman123 — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:38:34 GMT

I recommend that you put together a team of professionals that can help, and only read the forums to become familiar, but do not rely on them for accuracy or entirety of what you really need, because each situation is different. There are a lot of restaurant owners, for them I recommend: http://www.RestaurantInsurance.com 1-800-427-8006.

For all other types of business, I recommend http://www.WorkComp.com for workers compensation insurance.

Get a good insurance broker (not a direct agent like State Farm or Farmers); you need one that has access to many markets every year, because things change. Good luck.

RE: ARE YOU COVERED?

bman123 — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:34:02 GMT

No offense, but the article is somewhat weak. Purely for practical reasons, not promotional, I recommend that any restaurant owner simply put together a great core team of professionals: accountant, attorney, insurance agent (in that order). Make sure that each professional has a significant clientele of restaurants or is a specialist in restaurants. That will go a long way to getting you up a running and avoiding problems long term. Many articles you will read concerning insurance and restaurants are simply too vague or give misinformation. "BOP" actually refers to "Business Owners Policy" and ignores "CPP" (Commercial Package Policy)..and it is too technical to go into here. That is why you pay a professional to handle it, not a forum. Just as you specialize in your theme and cuisine for the restaurant, so should the insurance broker. I recommend the following who gets the best rates and coverage each year. Good luck.

http://www.RestaurantInsurance.com 1-800-427-8006

http://www.WorkComp.com 1-888-678-1888

One is for restaurant insurance and the other is for workers compensation. Either or both can handle any restaurants needs.

RE: Cutting Heath Insurance Costs

disgruntled — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:07:36 GMT

This has always been a difficult topic for me as a very small business owner, and I appreciate someone laying it out clearly,

RE: Disaster Recovery

kwarmack — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:27:04 GMT

I'd also like to add that it would be helpful for the organization to prepare a business continuity plan. This plan would be a road map for the employees and others to ensure that in the event of a catastrophe or an unexplained event ( the building is locked and you can't get to your office), the business can continue. The plan should be maintained in several locations including on a flash drive so that should the plan need to be activated, it can be accessed quickly.

Business continuity is an important aspect for any business both large and small. I urge all business owners to consider putting a plan in to effect and keep your going concern going.

RE: Disaster Recovery

akgold — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:56:49 GMT

This article raises many excellent points. With so many natural disasters happening in America (New Orleans), China (earthquake), Southeast Asia (tsunami), as well as terror attacks - New York, London, Barcelona, Israel, Iraq, etc. it is something to really think about. What if? What if flooding or some natural disaster destroyed some aspect of one's business? What is the plan? How is one's business protected? And backing up one's data and important files is very important too.

RE: Disaster Recovery

Bluesuit — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:02:21 GMT

With so many natural disasters occuring, you can never be too prepared and insured.

RE: Love Your Lawyer

akgold — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:05:13 GMT

I have been blessed to have my father who is a lawyer be a source of constant legal guidance for me. My sister and her husband are corporate attorneys and my brother does health law. From the time I was a young boy our dinner table discussions focused on the law and key legal points. Looking at the world through a good lawyers eyes changes your vision. On the converse, a bad attorney can really hurt you because in an area in which you thought you were protected you were actually exposed.

I think this article makes a really good point for those who have mixed feelings about lawyers. Also, growing up at our country club lawyers and doctors used to play golf together. Nowadays thats getting rarer due to the animosity between the two due to the amount of lawsuits against doctors and the cost of their rising insurance. It certainly does not hurt to know a good attorney, to respect what a good attorney can do to protect your business and to rely upon advice from strong legal council.