Desirable Coverages

Some types of insurance coverage, while not absolutely essential, will add greatly to the security of your business. These coverages include business-interruption insurance, crime insurance, glass insurance and rent insurance.

Business Interruption Insurance

1. You can purchase insurance to cover fixed expenses that would continue if a fire shut down your business - such as salaries to key employees, taxes, interest. depreciation and utilities - as well as the profits you would lose.

2. Under properly written contingent business - interruption insurance, you can also collect if fire or other peril closes down the business of a supplier or customer and this interrupts your business.

3. The business - interruption policy provides payments for amounts you spend to hasten the reopening of your business after a fire or other insured peril.

4. You can get coverage for the extra expenses you suffer if an insured peril while not actually closing your business down, seriously disrupts it.

5. When the policy is properly endorsed,

you can get business-interruption insurance to indemnify you if your operations are suspended because of failure or interruption of the supply of power, light, heat, gas or water furnished by a public utility company.

Crime Insurance

1. Burglary insurance excludes such property as accounts, fur articles in a showcase window and manuscripts.

2. Coverage is granted under burglary insurance only if there are visible marks of the burglar's forced entry.

3. Burglary insurance can be written to cover, in addition to money in a safe, inventoried merchandise and damage incurred in the course of a burglary.

4. Robbery insurance protects you from loss of property, money and securities by force, trickery or threat of violence on or off your premises.

5. A comprehensive crime policy written just for small business owners is available. In addition to burglary and robbery, it covers other types of loss by theft, destruction and disappearance of money and securities. It also covers thefts by your employees.

Glass Insurance

1. You can purchase a special glass insurance policy that covers all risk to plate-glass windows, glass signs, motion-picture screens, glass brick, glass doors, showcases, countertops and insulated glass panels.

2. The glass-insurance policy covers not only the glass itself, but also its lettering and ornamentation, if these are specifically insured, and the costs of temporary plates or boarding up when necessary.

3. After the glass has been replaced, full coverage is continued without any additional premium for the period covered.

Rent Insurance

1. You can buy rent insurance that will pay your rent if the property you lease becomes unusable because of fire or other insured perils and your lease calls for continued payments in such a situation.

2. If you own property and lease it to others, you can insure against loss if the lease is canceled because of fire and you have to rent the property again at a reduced rental.

Employee Benefit Coverages

Insurance coverages that can be used to provide employee benefits include group life insurance, group health insurance, disability insurance and retirement income.

Key-man insurance protects the company against financial loss caused by the death of a valuable employee or partner.

Disability Insurance

1. Workers' compensation insurance pays an employee only for time lost because of work injuries and work-related sickness- not for time lost because of disabilities incurred off the job. But you can purchase, at a low premium, insurance to replace the lost income of workers who suffer short-term or long-term disability not related to work.

2. You can get coverage that provides employees with an income for life in case of permanent disability resulting from work related sickness or accident.

Organizing Your Insurance Program

A sound insurance protection plan is just as important to the success of your business as good financing, marketing, personnel management or any other business function. And like the other functions, good risk and insurance management is not achieved by accident, but by organization and planning.

A lifetime of work and dreams can be lost in a few minutes if your insurance program does not include certain elements.

To make sure that you are covered, you should take action in four distinct ways:

1. Recognize the various ways you can suffer loss.

2. Follow the guides for buying insurance economically.

3. Organize your insurance-management program.

4. Get professional advice.

Recognize the risks. The first step toward good protection is to recognize the risks you face and make up your mind to do something about them. Wishful thinking or an it-can't-happen-to-me attitude won't lessen or remove the possibility that a ruinous misfortune may strike your business.

Some businesses will need coverages not mentioned in the checklist. For example, if you use costly professional tools or equipment in your business, you may need special insurance covering loss or damage to the equipment or business interruption resulting from not being able to use the equipment.

Study insurance costs. Before you purchase insurance, investigate the methods by which you can reduce the costs of your coverage. Be sure to cover the following points:

1. Decide what perils to insure against and how much loss you might suffer from each.

2. Cover your largest loss exposure first.

3. Use as high a deductible as you can afford.

4. Avoid duplication in insurance.

5. Buy in as large a unit as possible. Many of the "package policies" are very suitable for the types of small businesses they are designed to serve, and often they are the only way a small business can get really adequate protection.

6. Review your insurance program periodically to make sure that your coverage is adequate and your premiums are as low as possible yet consistent with sound protection.

Have a plan. To manage your insurance program for good coverage at the lowest possible cost, you will need a definite plan that undergirds the objectives of your business. Here are some suggestions for good risk and insurance management:

1. Write down a clear statement of what you expect insurance to do for your firm.

2. Select only one agent to handle your insurance. Having more than one may spread and weaken responsibility.

3. If an employer or partner is going to be responsible for your insurance program, be sure he/she understands the responsibility.

4. Do everything possible to prevent losses and to keep those that do occur as low as possible.

5. Don't withhold from your insurance agent important information about your business and its exposure to loss. Treat your agent as a professional helper.

Since the Proprietor of Your business you deal with issues in an almost daily basis. Being familiar with effective Problem Solving
Techniques can dramatically affect the development of your small business.

Even though you Find solutions to your problems, many businessmen and women are not really proficient in the methods of problem
solving, and when solutions neglect, they mistake themselves for misjudgment. The issue is usually not misjudgment but rather a
lack of skill.

This guide Instructs you in a few problem solving processes. Crucial to the success of a business faced with issues is the
understanding of what the problems are, setting them, finding solutions, and selecting the best solutions for the scenarios.

What is a problem. A problem is a situation that poses difficulty or perplexity. Issues come in many shapes and dimensions. By Way
of Example, it can be:

Something did Not function as it should and you also don't understand why or how. Something you will need is unavailable, and
something has to be found to take its place. Employees are undermining a new program. The market is not buying. What should you do
to live? Clients are complaining. How do you handle their complaints?

Where do Issues come from? Issues arise from every aspect of human and mechanical functions in addition to from nature. Some
issues we cause ourselves (e.g., a hasty choice was made and the wrong person was chosen for the job); other problems are brought
on by forces beyond our control (e.g., a warehouse is struck by lightning and burns ).

Issues are a Natural, everyday occurrence of life, and so as to suffer less from the anxieties and frustrations they cause, we
need to learn how to deal with them in a rational, logical fashion.

If we accept The simple fact that problems will arise on a regular basis, for a variety of motives, and by a variety of sources,
we could: learn how to approach problems from an objective standpoint; learn how to expect some of them; and prevent some of them
from getting bigger problems.

To accomplish This, you need to learn the procedure for problem solving. Here, we'll instruct you in the basic procedures of
difficulty. It's a step-by-step manual that you may easily follow and practice. Since you follow this manual, you will eventually
develop some strategies of your own that function in concert with all the problem-solving process described within this guide.

Remember, Though, as you see that this is not a thorough evaluation of the art of problem-solving but rather a sensible,
systematic, and simplified, yet effective, way to approach problems contemplating the limited time and advice most business owners
and managers possess. In addition, some problems are so complex that they require the additional aid of specialists in the area,
so be prepared to accept the fact that a number of issues are beyond just one person's ability, ability, and desire to be
successful.

To be able to Appropriately recognize the issue and its causes, you have to do some study. To do so, simply list each of the
previous questions in checklist form, and keeping the checklist useful, go about collecting as much info as you possibly can.
Remember the relative importance and urgency of the issue, as well as your own time constraints. Then interview the folks involved
with the problem, asking them the questions on your checklist.

When You've Gathered the data and assessed it, you will have a pretty clear understanding of the problem and what the significant
causes of the problem are. Now, you can research the causes farther through observation and additional interviewing. Now, you
should summarize the problem as briefly as you can, list all of the causes you've identified, and record all of the regions the
problem seems to be affecting.

At this point, You're prepared to check your understanding of the issue. You have already identified the problem, broken it all
down to all its aspects, narrowed it down, done research on it, and you are avoiding typical roadblocks. On a large mat, write
down the problem, including each the factors, the regions it affects, and what the effects are. For a better visual comprehension,
you may also wish to diagram the issue demonstrating cause and effect.

Study what you Have written down or diagrammed. Call on your workers and discuss your analysis together. Based on their opinions,
you may decide to revise. As soon as you think you completely comprehend the causes and effects of the problem, summarize the
issue as succinctly as easily as possible.

Go through your Long list of alternatives and cross-out those who clearly will not work. Those notions aren't wasted for they
impact on those thoughts that stay. In other words, the very best ideas you pick may be revised depending on the ideas that
wouldn't work. With the remaining solutions, use what is called the"Force Field Analysis Technique." This is basically an analysis
technique which breaks down the solution to its positive results and negative effects. To do so write each solution you are
considering on a different piece of paper. Below the solution, draw a line vertically down the center of this paper. Label one
column benefits and one column disadvantages.

Now, some more Analytical thinking comes into play. Analyzing each facet of this solution and its influence on the issue, list
every one of the benefits and disadvantages you may consider.

1 way to help You think of the advantages and disadvantages is to role-play every solution. Call in a few of your workers and
perform out each alternative. Ask them for their responses. Depending on what you observe and on their feedback, you'll get a
clearer idea of the advantages and disadvantages of each solution you're considering.

Once you Complete this procedure for every solution, pick those options that have the Most advantages. At this point, you ought to
be considering only three or two.

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