ARTICLE ARCHIVE

THE BASICS OF INSURING A SMALL BUSINESS

May 3rd, 2011

Running a small business can be tough at times and most businesses run a fine line between being profitable and making a loss. These narrow margins leave small businesses very vulnerable to the risk of losses resulting from accidents, theft or lawsuits. Minimizing risk is essential for small business owners and adequate insurance is an essential solution for this. Business insurance offers protection for when your product or service fails, when someone is injured on your property, when a thief walks off with your office computers or when your driver crashes the company vehicle.

Getting the right type and amount of cover is a daunting task for most people. As a result many small businesses are either under insured, over insured or worst of all not insured at all for vital risks. The type of business you are running and the types of products and services you offer will largely determine the type of insurance you require.

In general, small businesses need a combination of the following types of policies:

Public Liability Insurance

This type of insurance policy protects your business from lawsuits associated with damages caused by your business or injuries sustained by people on your business premises.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

If you are a professional like an accountant, investment advisor, tax consultant or even an insurance broker then you should definitely consider taking out this type of insurance policy. It protects you from losses that could occur should a client sue you for advice or services that may have led to the client losing money. Professional indemnity insurance covers legal costs, court fees and pays the settlement should you be found liable.

Workman's Compensation

Many countries have regulations that make workman's compensation insurance compulsory, but even if it is not, this type of insurance can cover injuries sustained by your employees while on the job.

Business Interruption

If something happens like a fire on your premises and you need to stay closed for a significant number of days, weeks or months, this type of insurance will cover your fixed expenses like rent, utilities and taxes. Having to cover these expenses while the business is not generating an income would be disastrous without adequate insurance.

Building Insurance

Just like with home building insurance this type of policy covers the expenses of rebuilding or fixing damaged business premises following a fire, water damage or similar event.

If you are unsure about your small business insurance needs, then it is vital that you consult an insurance broker who specialises in small business insurance. An insurance broker will be able to analyze your business's services, products and activities in order to determine where your high risk areas are and provide you with policies to cover this risk. A broker will also be able to source several insurance quotes for you in order to find a good deal.

ACE-AXIA HELPS AXIA UNIVERSITY STUDENTS FIND THE HOMEWORK HELP THEY NEED

April 12th, 2011

Most people think that in order to advance in life, a college degree is necessary. Young adults right out of high school can find a way to transition to college. Unfortunately, many people who are older than that are just too busy to attend a typical university. For people who are working, or raising a family, an online university may be the route to success.

By far the most popular online college is Axia University. Axia is the online branch of the Phoenix University system (Phoenix University has many traditional “brick and mortar” university campuses throughout the country). Some students who are taking online courses find that between their busy personal life and a lack of being able to meet face-to-face with professors or other students, finishing course assignments can become very challenging. For those students, Ace-Axia comes to the rescue.

Ace-Axia is an online resource that has over one thousand course papers for, and only for, Axia courses. If you’re a student stuck on an assignment, and time is running out, you can visit Ace-Axia and download an Axia course paper or tutorial for the very assignment you’re working on. You won’t want to submit this paper as your own, but instead you’ll use it as a learning aid to see how to structure your own paper. That makes it a great tool to “jump start” your own paper if you’re stuck.

Ace-Axia sells individual assignments for just $2 each. Best of all, they offer course bundles for just $10. A course bundle consists of all of the papers for one Axia course. That’s typically a dozen, and sometimes many more, papers grouped together in a single download for just ten bucks.

ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT: ENDING NEGATIVE SEARCH RESULTS ABOUT YOU OR YOUR BUSINESS

March 15th, 2011

Google and other search engines have made finding information about anything an extremely simple task. However, as the saying goes, the knife cuts both ways. Google can provide you with just about any helpful information, but it can also provide others with harmful information about you. Or about a business you own or work for.

Just as many companies do background checks on potential employees, now many companies do an Internet search on a potential employee’s name. Should the employer happen to encounter negative information about a person after a job information, that person may very well not get the job. Negative search results can embarrass a person or even result in that person getting harassed by people that see the information. Negative search results on a business name might be a loss of sales for that company.

Once negative information about a person is on the Internet, it’s just about impossible to remove it. Unless you yourself put up the information, or unless you have access to the server the site is on, you can’t remove the information. You can attempt to contact the site owner and request that the information be removed, but it’s unlikely that the site owner will comply – a site owner isn’t going to want to monitor all the content added to a site and get involved in attempting to determine what information is true or false, fair or unfair. To restore your good name, you’ll need to perform some online reputation management.

While you can’t remove negative information, you can do the next best thing – drive that information down in search results. That is, move the information out of the first few positions, or first page or two, of a Google search. Unfortunately that’s not an easy task to accomplish. To move one page down, you need to move other pages up to take its place. This is accomplished through a variety of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques that are best left to the pros – a business that deals in SEO. Fix Your Search Results at www.fixyoursearchresults.com is the inexpensive answer to improving your Google search results on your name or your business name. Some online reputation management businesses charge $1000 or more to perform this task. Fix Your Search Results does it for less than a couple of hundred dollars. If you’re experiencing negative search results, you’ll want to visit www.fixyoursearchresults.com to get started on restoring your online reputation.

TIPS ON HOSTING A SEMINAR

January 11th, 2011

Imagine hosting your own seminar. Whether you dream of hosting clients for the weekend, prospects for a few hours, or colleagues for a lunch-hour workshop, let's make this year the year you realise that dream! Planning and hosting a seminar, workshop, or other event's not nearly as hard as you might expect. And today I'd like to share with you the five secrets to a flawless event.

Decide on a format

Remember, your event doesn't have to be in-person. You could conduct it virtually--over the telephone or Internet. You could offer webcasts and live chats, an email list for lengthier discussions, or you could use an online meeting space.

Besides deciding whether your event will be in-person or virtual, you'll also need to determine how long the event will last, what you'll cover, and how you'll cover it. Will you host guest speakers? Will you offer discussion panels? Or will the event be primarily lecture-based?

Go with your gut on these decisions. What makes the most sense for your audience? What format do you prefer? How can you best deliver your information?

Decide whom to invite

Will you advertise the event? Open it only to your select clients? Offer it to a targeted list of prospects?

It may seem strange to decide on your audience before narrowing down your topic, but by picking out your ideal audience first, you'll be able to zero in precisely on their interests.

At this stage, also decide how many people you're comfortable hosting. Are you picturing a small, intimate group of 20 people? Or do you see yourself speaking before hundreds?

Decide what topics to cover

Next, you'll need to really get at the core of your topic. Sure, you're going to focus on your expertise. But what, precisely, about your expertise will you devote the time to?

This decision has a lot to do with your goals. Do you want to convert prospects to clients? Dazzle your current clients? Build relationships with colleagues?

Obviously, you'll want to choose your topic a bit differently for your prospects than you would for a group of clients. Each audience will have different concerns and slightly different interests.

Get the right support

There's a ton of planning involved with creating a workshop or seminar. You'll need to find the perfect venue (or technological support, if it'll be virtual). You'll need to find hotels for guests to stay at, arrange special rates, and plan special activities during down time.

You'll want to accommodate special guests in a way that makes them feel truly appreciated. You'll want someone creating a log of each activity, and perhaps recording and transcribing the event so you can offer copies to participants.

In short, you need a partner who shares your vision for your event. Someone to handle all the details while

you're raring off, full steam ahead, on the big picture elements.

You can easily hand off these details to a virtual assistant who'll work in the background to ensure your entire event goes off without a hitch.

Close the feedback loop and do it again

You're going to love holding your event. You'll shine in the spotlight, your participants will have a delightful time, and you'll all have an extraordinary experience.

Once the event's over, make sure to ask participants for feedback. Ask them for what they loved, and what they didn't. Find out how you can improve next year's event.

And get ready for an even better event next year!