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SMALL BUSINESS INSURANCE & RISK MANAGEMENT GUIDE

The following is a list of helpfull publications from the Small Business Administration.  I am attaching a copy of the SMALL BUSINESS INSURANCE & RISK MANAGEMENT GUIDE.  You might download any of the other publications at the SBA website, sba.gov

 

1. PROBLEMS IN MANAGING A FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESS MP-3:   Specific problems exist when attempting to make a family-owned business successful. This publication offers suggestions on how to overcome these difficulties.

2. BUSINESS PLAN FOR SMALL MANUFACTURERS MP-4:   Designed to help an owner/manager of a small manufacturing firm, this publication covers all the basic information necessary to develop an effective business plan.

3. BUSINESS PLAN FOR SMALL CONSTRUCTION FIRMS MP-5:   This publication is designed to help an owner/manager of a small construction company pull together the resources to develop a business plan.

4. PLANNING AND GOAL SETTING FOR SMALL BUSINESS MP-6:   Learn proven management techniques to help you plan for success.

5. BUSINESS PLAN FOR THE SMALL RETAILER MP-9:   Business plans are essential road maps for success. Learn how to develop a business plan for a retail business.

 6. BUSINESS PLAN FOR SMALL SERVICE FIRMS MP-11:   Outlines the key points to be included in the business plan of a small service firm.

7. CHECK-LIST FOR GOING INTO BUSINESS MP-12:   This is a must if you’re thinking about starting a business. It highlights the important factors you should know in reaching a decision to start your own business.

9. COMPUTERIZING YOUR BUSINESS MP-14: Helps you forecast your computer needs, evaluate the alternatives and select the right computer system for your business.

10. BUSINESS PLAN FOR HOME-BASED BUSINESS MP-15:  Provides a comprehensive approach to developing a business plan for a home-based business.

 12. INSURANCE OPTIONS FOR BUSINESS CONTINUATION PLANNING MP-20:  This publication discusses the life insurance needs of a small business owner and how important business life insurance is when planning for the future of business.

13. INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGIC PLANNING MP-21:   This best seller helps you develop a strategic action plan for your small business.

14. INVENTORY MANAGEMENT MP-22:  Discusses the purpose of inventory management, types of inventories, record keeping and forecasting inventory levels.

  15. SELECTING THE LEGAL STRUCTURE FOR YOUR BUSINESS MP-25:   Discusses the various legal structures that a small business can use in setting up operations. It identifies types of legal structures and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

16. EVALUATING FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITIES MP-26:   Evaluate franchise opportunities and select the business that’s right for you.

17. SMALL BUSINESS INSURANCE & RISK MANAGEMENT GUIDE MP-28:   This guide can help you strengthen your insurance program by identifying, minimizing and eliminating business risks.

18. HOW TO START A QUALITY CHILD CARE BUSINESS:  This comprehensive manual developed by child care professionals in both private and public sectors, explains the business and academic dimensions of operating a child care center.

19. CHILD DAY-CARE SERVICES MP-30:   An overview of the industry, including models of day-care operations.

20. HANDBOOK FOR SMALL BUSINESS MP-31:   Handy information for getting started – in a new publication developed by the SBA’s Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE).

21. HOW TO WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN MP-32:   What you need to know to write a good plan at the start. It can save your business down the line.

Farmers Insurance Goes ‘Green’ for Homeowners

Los Angeles, CA – With an industry-leading commitment to the environment, The Farmers Insurance Group of Companies® has began offering a new eco-friendly product for its Texas customers wishing to ‘go green”. Called “Eco-Rebuild”, this new endorsement will supplement Farmers homeowners insurance by allowing customers to replace destroyed property in ways beneficial to the environment.

“We are excited to bring this product to the market and give our earth-conscious customers an option previously not available to them,” said Jeff Reinig, Farmers Insurance Senior Vice President of Home Product Management. “This is quite literally an investment in our global future and we are excited to be the industry leaders.”

The “Eco-Rebuild” endorsement includes:

•$25,000 for extra costs incurred to rebuild or replace with “green” materials.

•If the house is an Energy Star Qualified Home, the endorsement will cover the cost of upgrading damaged property to meet new Energy Star requirements.

•Reimbursement for recycling debris rather than disposal.

•Reimbursement for extra costs incurred by using other means of power in the event of loss of alternative power generating equipment.

In addition to Texas , the product is also available in 28 other states: Alabama , Arizona , Arkansas , California , Colorado , Idaho , Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Kansas , Michigan , Minnesota , Missouri , Nebraska , New Mexico , North Dakota , Ohio , Oklahoma , Oregon , South Dakota , Tennessee , Utah , Virginia , Washington , Wisconsin and Wyoming .

This is one of many “green” products Farmers offers its customers including a discount for owning a hybrid vehicle and other green initiatives offered through Zurich Financial Services.

About Farmers Insurance Group:
Farmers Group, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services, an insurance-based financial services provider with a global network of subsidiaries and offices in North America and Europe as well as in Asia Pacific, Latin America and other markets. Farmers® is the nation’s third-largest Personal Lines Property & Casualty insurance group. Property and casualty products are underwritten and issued by the Farmers Exchanges and their subsidiaries, which Farmers Group, Inc. manages but does not own. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Farmers insurers provide Homeowners, Auto, Business, Life insurance and financial services to more than 10 million households. For more information about Farmers, visit our Web site at http://www.farmers.com.

Cool, moist weather slows wildfire season in West

(AP) PHOENIX – Wildfires are usually raging by now in Arizona , but something odd happened this year.

As June drew to a close – typically the busiest part of Arizona’s wildfire season – the temperature fell and moisture was above normal, surprising fire managers who had expected an active season.

“The first part of summer we’ve really dodged a bullet in terms of our weather,” said Rick Ochoa, a fire weather meteorologist with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. “We’ve had rainfall and the cooler temperatures really kept a lid on things.”

Similar weather has also led to fewer fires than normal across much of the West, he said. But the season is still early and parts of the West will heat up significantly at the end of this month, Ochoa said.

An above-normal fire potential is expected in portions of California and Washington later this month because they’ve missed out on spring rainfall and had quick snow melt-off. There’s also above-normal fire potential this month in parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

States that likely will see below-normal Julys are parts of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah.

Arizona and New Mexico’s fire seasons typically begin earlier than other parts of the West, wane when summer monsoon rains roll in and sometimes pick up again in the fall if rainfall is scant.

The rest of the Western fire season follows a more typical pattern, with peak fire season hitting in midsummer and early fall.

Arizona’s season has been below normal so far. The state had 990 significant wildfires that burned about 117 square miles so far this year. That’s compared to a five-year average of 1,800 wildfires that destroyed 357 square miles, according to the Southwest Coordination Center in Albuquerque, N.M.

New Mexico also has seen less activity than normal, with 730 wildfires consuming about 481 square miles. That’s compared to that state’s five-year average of 880 fires that burned about 585 square miles, according to the coordination center. 

From the beginning of the year through mid-May, southeastern Arizona, southern and eastern New Mexico and west Texas were experiencing fairly active seasons before moisture hit the area, said Chuck Maxwell, predictive services meteorologist for the center, which oversees those three states.

“What we really didn’t expect was for things to shut down in the second half of May and not come back again,” Maxwell said. “It’s a year without any widespread, long-term, big fires.”

He said less fire can be good and bad.

“We want to have regular fires of some intensity to burn out the stuff that’s there; we just don’t want to have catastrophic fires,” he said, adding that low-intensity burns renew the ecosystem and restore forests to their natural states.

Forest managers in the West are taking advantage of the break.

In northern Arizona’s Kaibab National Forest, for example, fire managers are letting a small lightning-caused fire continue to burn because it’s doing more good for the land than harm, forest spokeswoman Jackie Banks said.

The lower temperatures and moisture this June also allowed Kaibab managers to start a prescribed fire that burned three square miles.

“It’s been a good thing in so many ways because we’ve been able to reduce the risk of higher intensity fires instead of running around trying to put everything out,” she said. “It helps improve forest health, improve wildlife habitat, reduce some of those accumulations of fuels on the forest floor.”

Not everyone is benefiting from a slower wildfire season.

Seasonal firefighters and government contractors are getting no work or less work than they’re used to.

Beryl Shears, owner of Phoenix-based Western Pilot Service, said his 13 airplanes contracted by the government have flown 20 to 30 percent of the amount they flew in 2007 and about 40 percent of what they flew last year.

“It’s awfully hard to stay prepared when our pilots don’t fly as much, to be ready to fly in 15 minutes after sitting around day after day,” he said. But regardless of what type of season it is, Shears said, the government still pays his company to have the airplanes and pilots at the ready.

“Yes, we do make more money in big years,” he said, “but really when you think about it, it’s the best of both worlds for all of us. We make a livable income for pilots, employees and mechanics, and yet there’s no wildfire, so nothing burns.

“The cost to government agencies is less, and we’ll be here next year if its a more severe wildfire season.”

Life in a Nutshell

FIRE VICTIM WARNS OTHERS: GET RENTERS INSURANCE

(KVAL News – Oregon )  After a fire destroyed all of her family’s belongings, a Eugene-area woman is warning all renters to purchase insurance.

“You can’t save the sentimental things, of course, but at least if you have children, there is something” if you have insurance, said Rhea Chrismer. “You can replace their bedrooms again.”

A fire destroyed Chrismer’s rented house and garage last Monday, charring most of the family’s belongings. The cause of the fire has not been determined and the investigation is on pause unless new information surfaces, according to Heather Miller with Lane County Fire District 1.

Chrismer, boyfriend Micheal Kezer and Chrismer’s three children were not home. The family was renting the property on Territorial Road but did not have renters insurance.

According to a Farmers Insurance branch in Eugene , the average person will pay less than $200 a year for a renters insurance policy.

“We’re not going to let this stop our little family,” she said. “I’m learning good things come from bad things. You meet really good people.”

People like the passerby who saw smoke coming from the house Monday, searched the rooms for people and finding none, let the family’s dogs outside. The dogs survived.

People like the communities of Crow and Lorane, who have offered clothes and started fundraising efforts. If you would like to donate to the family, an account has been set up at the Selco Bank on Gateway Street. Mention the Kezer Family Fund.

To see a short video of this story, click here: http://www.kval.com/news/49463987.html