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Isms and America...watch this 50 year old cartoon

I just watched this cartoon that was made 50 years ago. It discusses freedom and how it will be taken away if people subscribe to "isms". It's worth watching, but there are some "ads" inserted by the person who posted it to youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB6p5QPVhPI

Makes you think about what's been going on the last 8 or 10 years....

What do you think?

401(k) and your employees

A lot of employers are unaware about a case that went to the Supreme Court that can affect them. It has to do with 401(k) plans. Before the ruling, which happened in Feb of 2008, it was assumed that employers were not responsible for what happened to an individual employee's 401(k) plan. This is no longer the case. Employees who have individual losses, and not just classes of employees, have the right to sue employers over the losses in their plan.



If an employer allows unwise investment choices, or extremely high fees, that employer can be liable for damages, so it is very important that an employer doesn't just "set it and forget it", when implementing a 401(k) plan.



Although the stock market is up as I am writing this, we all know how volatile the market has been over the last year or so. I think it is a wise idea to review your 401(k) plan at least once a year.

Luckily, getting a plan review isn't really that difficult. There are four key areas to look for when reviewing your plan, and you can get a full report on this by going to: http://www.californiabusinessresource.com/Why_Evaluate_Your_Business_es_401(k).html

Reviewing the plan, having an investment policy statement and sticking to it, maintaining records on educational meetings, etc, are all simple things that an employer can do to mitigate the risk.


There is also another way to mitigate the risk as well--outsource your 401(k) plan liability by engaging a Professional Employer Organization (PEO). By outsourcing your employees via a PEO, you are not only lowering your risk, but many times you are lowering the cost as well. I'll write about PEOs in another post. I think that in today's troubled times, employers must do everything that they can to lower the risk of getting sued by former or current disgruntled employees.



What do you think?

Swine Flu

This last week I've been following the Swine Flu issue and have been wondering what will happen to my business if the Swine Flu really does become an epidemic.

I'm wondering if "Business Interruption Insurance" covers an epidemic. I emailed a friend of mine who is a Property Casualty Broker, but I haven't heard back yet. As soon as I do hear back, I'll let you all know.

I'm also thinking that I need to back up my work, and I'm going to sign up with an offsite backup service this week. Nothing like a good epidemic to remind me that I need to do a data backup! Actually I do regular backups that I keep on portable drives, but having an offsite backup is one additional step that one can take to protect the business.

For those of you who've met me, you know that I'm already sort of a "germaphobe". I don't like to shake hands with people just before or during a meal, and I've gotten a lot of flack for this in the past. I don't trust those little bottles of purel to completely kill all of the germs. Lately I've been surprised that people are still shaking hands during meals in light of the 24 hour flu coverage. This drives me crazy!

Anyway, I'll be updating you soon with the information on Business Interuption Insurance and other ways we can all protect our businesses if there was some sort of natural disaster.

What do you think?

Today's Luncheon

Today I went to a luncheon sponsored by NAWBO. The speaker was Angie Swartz of Square Martini Marketing. It was a fantastic talk and I'm really glad that I went. However, now I think I'm WAY behind this social media stuff...

Angie had a lot of really great things to say. First she asked the group who was using Linkedin and almost every hand (about 80 people) went up. Then she asked who was using Facebook and a lot less hands were seen. The reason, the group explained to her, was that we felt that facebook is for kids, and Linkedin is for business.

Angie is a big believer in Facebook, and she explained the demographics, i.e. the fastest growing group on Facebook is women aged 55. We thought that was because they were signing up to talk to their grandchildren. She explained that if we wanted to sell services and products to those women we should sign up for the service.

I'll think about it, but my target audience is C level executives so I think I'll stick to Linkedin...

Anyway, she also talked about Twitter, which is basically a micro-blog site where you can only type 140 characters. She said it was the fastest growing social media that there is and if we got on board now we would still be considered "first movers".

For more information about social media go to her site at: www.squaremartinimedia.com

I feel so behind, because I only just started this blog! So now I have to start a Twitter account and learn to "Tweet" people. I have to get "Google Alerts" so if some of my clients get all in a twitter about something I've done (like Amazon did with the gay and lesbian community over the Easter holiday) I can respond quickly. Amazon did not respond quickly and on Easter they were getting 50 tweets per minute about Amazon's lack of tolerance toward the gay community.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

What do you think?

Strategic Networking

Strategic Networking

How to you build your online presence? There is a fantastic way to build your online business that is not only fun, but free!

Basically you find someone who is in a non-competing business and you work together to build both of your businesses at the same time. This type of networking takes a bit longer than just meeting people and asking them for their business, but it can payoff much greater in the end.

When you first start looking for strategic partners, it may take you a while to find the right fit. You need to find someone who is like minded so that you feel that the partnership is worth the time and effort. When I first started this process I targeted business relationship managers at banks. It took me several attempts before I finally found the right person to work with. Here are some tips to get started:

1. Join a few social networking sites like Facebook or Linkedin. Help other people with their business, share ideas, and give them referrals where appropriate. Find out what networking meetings they are going to and see if you can come along.

2. Always look to do business within your strategic networking groups. Instead of just going online and doing a search; look to your networking partners within your Facebook or Linkedin accounts. If you are going to make a purchase, why not stay within your network? You may even be able to negotiate a better price with someone you know. Over time, you will find that people you have done business with will do business with you.

3. Networking events can be more fun if you go with someone else. However, don’t make the mistake of sticking to that person like glue at the event. You already know that person! Make it a game; place a bet on who can get the most business cards at the function. If it is a dinner, don’t next to each other so that you will have new people sitting on both your right side and left side. Have your friend sit one or two persons away from you. That way you can still talk if it makes you more comfortable, but you are not spending the whole time with someone you already know.

4. If you are on Linkedin, make sure that you read the questions that others post, and if you know the answer…post it! This establishes you as an expert and gets your name out there. Once you get to know some people who may make viable strategic partners, step it up.

5. If you find someone who sells a service or product that is complementary to yours, have him write an article for your website. Give him a page on your website to sell his service. Ask him to do the same for you. This type of arrangement won’t necessarily help your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as much as if you weren’t sharing links, but the fresh content will help the web crawler recognize your site.

6. Likewise, if you have a website that sells products that are complimentary, you can share Google ad costs with the business. Have the clicks go to a landing page that describes both products and then when someone inquires on the site you can split the leads. By sharing advertising costs, you can afford to pay more per click, get your ads higher up on the Google search engine, and get more clicks that translate to more sales.

Katherine Kline is Vice President of OFD Enterprises. She can be reached by emailing kathekline@OFDEnterprises.com or by calling 866-445-6683 ext 5207

Is your business backed up?

Last week there was a lot of buzz about a computer virus that was pretty much impossible to detect-and if you tried to get rid of it you ran the risk of catching it from direputable websites that claimed to help check your computer for the virus, or help you rid yourself of the virus, but actually they infected you with the virus.

The virus was actually easy to stay clear of, if you had been keeping up with your Windows updates. Its amazing how many people do not do this.

In addition, a lot of us don't back up our systems. This is amazing because there are a lot of programs out there that will do this for you, and at an amazingly low cost. Some of these systems advertise on my website, http://www.californiabusinessresource.com/, and will do your backups for as little as 5 bucks a month.

Even though the virus scare was pretty much a big letdown; nothing really happened.... it gives us all reason to pause and think to ourselves..."am I backedup?"

If the answer is no, maybe you should go do that right now!

What do you think?