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Strategy

What the Affordable Care Act Means for Your Business

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes a variety of measures that help lower premium cost growth and increase access to quality, affordable health insurance. Depending on the size of your business, here's how ACA might apply to you.

The New Outsourcing

The products and services delivered by smaller companies have to meet or exceed not just those of their peers, but also those of larger corporations with greater resources. Because using a do-it-yourself approach isn't enough, businesses are using outsourcing to punch above their weight in critical business functions, including finance/accounting, IT, transportation and logistics, and procurement.

Stopping a New Kind of Fraud

Frank Abagnale, the ex-con made famous in the movie Catch Me If You Can, outlines a new kind of check fraud that links old-fashioned check cashing with mobile-payment technology, and tells you how to stop it.

Dangerous Mythology: Insurance Urban Legends

Research shows that more than half of small businesses are underinsured, meaning they either have no insurance, have the wrong coverage, or are lacking coverage in key areas. Why? Most owners believe they're at minimal risk for loss. Believing that myth can be a dangerous mistake.

Key Man Insurance: Keeping Your Most Valuable Assets Covered

Key Man, or Key Person, insurance is a life and/or disability policy taken out by the business as a beneficiary in the event of death or disability to a particular key employee. And, because it can be purchased with a "first to die" provision and cover multiple key employees, the policy is less expensive than standard life or disability policies.

From Business Plan to Operational Plan

In any growing company, the business plan you created at the start is really no longer your business plan. According to David Gumpert, author of How to Really Create a Successful Business Plan: Step-by-Step Guide, the business plan needs to transition to an operational plan to achieve ongoing success.

Setting Up an Advisory Board

Everyone who owns a business can get stuck. Often, we turn to close friends and confidantes to get the answers we need. One way to formalize the process of getting the help you need is by creating a board of advisors. It doesn't need to be formal, but the creation of such a board can give you access to expertise you don't have and extend your network.

Merging Corporate Cultures

Mergers and acquisitions can create strange bedfellows, but the drawbacks of companies' cultures not meshing together can have an impact on the bottom line.

Do You Need an Executive Coach?

Where can a business leader turn for objective and trustworthy counsel on matters critical to the company's success? If CEOs at large corporations tend to be surrounded with "yes" men and women, the situation is even more difficult for chief executives at small and mid-size firms.

What Risk Management Means
to Your Business

A multi-national company with multiple product lines, thousands of employees and billions of dollars in revenue may be able to weather the storm surrounding a product recall, for example. But what about a small or mid-sized firm with a single product or service and a staff of less than 100? Regardless of your size, you can manage risk proactively.

Success by Execution

Entrepreneurial execution is about bringing together the right team and aligning all aspects of the company toward achieving a common goal and doing it with maximum efficiency. If your product, service, or concept is a good one, success or failure is determined by execution.

The Keys to Effective Change Management

Change management is often as difficult as implementing change. Change has a significant impact on any company and its employees. The right approach and amount of change management required by a given project or initiative is unique and specific to that change.

Keeping Your Confidential Information Confidential

Simply calling information a trade secret will not make it so. You need to actively protect what you believe to be unique to your organization. A nondisclosure agreement (NDA) is among the best ways to protect trade secrets, (e.g., a sales plan, a list of customers, a manufacturing process, etc.). An NDA gives you legal recourse if your secrets are misused or disclosed to the wrong parties.

Planning for Growth

Most businesses start small and stay there. But if that's not good enough for you—or if you recognize that staying small doesn't necessarily guarantee your business's survival—there are examples of companies out there that have successfully made the transition from start-up to small business to fully thriving large business.

Building a Working Business Plan

Business planning is more than just creating a roadmap or preparing for financing. What about attracting top talent, looking for prospective investors, getting large contracts and developing credibility among prospective suppliers, developing strategic alliances, and more?

The Benefits of an “Insurance Checkup”

If you don’t pay attention to your insurance coverages, you’re missing out on the opportunity to save money and ensure that you’re protected as well as you should be. If you don’t account for structural property changes and even increases and decreases in business, you may be doing yourself more harm than good.

Outsourcing: Lightening the Load

Growing your business often requires more time and concentration than you can muster. One way to bridge the gap is through outsourcing. An outsourcing resource exists for any area you don’t consider a core competency, including finance, marketing, technology, payroll, and other disciplines.

Leading through Tough Times

When times are good, you may not always have to focus on what it takes to lead. But navigating in the current economy is a different story. Maintaining focus across several key areas can help you deal with conflicting economic indicators and increasingly volatile business conditions.

Disaster Recovery: Planning for the Unplanned

Statistics have shown that, on average, more than 40% of businesses that don’t have a disaster plan go out of business after a major loss like a fire, a break-in or a storm. There are two key processes that should be undertaken before you put a plan together. The first is called a Business Impact Assessment (BIA) and the second is the Risk Assessment (RA). Running through the BIA and RA can help you fully understand the areas of exposure for your business and how you can best plan based on those exposures.

Giving Green More Than Lip Service

Statistics have shown that, on average, more than 40% of businesses that don’t have a disaster plan go out of business after a major loss like a fire, a break-in or a storm. There are two key processes that should be undertaken before you put a plan together. The first is called a Business Impact Assessment (BIA) and the second is the Risk Assessment (RA). Running through the BIA and RA can help you fully understand the areas of exposure for your business and how you can best plan based on those exposures.

Can You Be Lean, Mean and Green?

As a small business owner, it can be hard to find a unique voice. But one way to make a difference is in your impact on the environment. Many of the steps small businesses can take relate to their use of energy. (It’s estimated that small businesses use nearly 50% of all the energy produced in the U.S.)

Business Insurance Checkup

Recent floods in Iowa underscored the importance of understanding exposures for thousands of businesses in the state. The disaster illustrated that insurance isn’t just another expense. It can be a critical component to your business and can make a difference to your bottom line. Reviewing both your risk and overall policy coverages annually can protect you against catastrophic or any other potential loss.

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