Expensive Mistakes Small Businesses Make When Hiring Employees

/in , /by

When you run a small business, having the right team in place can mean the difference between success and failure. But when budgets are lean and there isn’t a big HR department to lean on for best practices, expensive hiring mistakes are often made.

Errors in the hiring process can cost a company big. From compromising your hard earned reputation and sullying company culture, to major lawsuits with the potential to bankrupt your business, hiring mistakes have the potential to cause major problems for you as a small business owner.

Know these common mistakes and how to avoid them, and you’ll have a fighting chance of putting together your dream team without much hassle.

Misclassification of Employees

Employees are treated differently than independent contractors, so it‘s critical you know which one you’re dealing with. There are serious implications for accidentally (or purposely) treating an employee as an independent contractor, including penalties, fines, and other costly tax-related consequences.

The Fair Labor Standards Act determines what makes a person an employee or not, and understanding the difference will help you withhold the right taxes, stay in compliance with overtime pay regulations, and keep your business running smoothly.

If your HR department consists of just you, and you’re too busy running your day-to-day operations to become an employment law expert, consider outsourcing the task to a service that can help you stay in compliance with the laws around classifying employees. There are tons of great companies designed for this specific purpose, and help small businesses manage HR without the oversight of a dedicated in-house professional.

Failure to Carry Workers Compensation Coverage

As tempting as it might forgo certain types of small business insurance to save a few bucks, those few dollars you might save won’t be worth the massive cost later if you get busted for not carrying workers’ comp insurance. Worker’s compensation is required in most states as soon as you have even one employee.

This small business insurance product is designed to help cover lost wages and medical expenses if an employee is injured or becomes very ill. It‘s not only smart to have a lifeline that protects your staff from being buried in debt, it’s a must-have if your state requires it.

It doesn‘t take long to get covered and isn‘t nearly as expensive as being caught without it. So, if you think you might hire even a single employee in the foreseeable future, look for affordable workers’ comp insurance and get compliant ASAP.

Not Preparing for Turnover & Onboarding Costs

High turnover rates and onboarding costs can be a nightmare for any business, but have a tendency to hit small businesses especially hard. Knowing what it will cost to bring a new employee on (in terms of training, benefits, etc.) and estimating costs of losing an employee can help you keep some cushion between you and the cost of having employees.

keep in mind that these costs will change as your business grows—so you’ll want to revisit them frequently as needed.

Ignoring the Importance of Culture Fit

An applicant may seem like the “ideal” candidate for the job on-paper, but if he or she doesn’t fit neatly into the culture you’ve been honing for your business, the relationship isn’t likely to work out long-term.

You may end up needing to find a replacement, which will slow down operations and cost you money in onboarding. Even worse, an employee who sneaks under the radar and ends up being a bad culture fit has the toxic power to poison your workplace if you let it. Be very careful to vet new employees before they officially become part of the team.

Focus on finding the person with the right experience to do a great job, but more importantly, one who embodies the values and characteristics you define as imperative to maintaining your desired workplace culture. After this new employee will become part of your company’s culture, and help define what its future looks like.

Skipping Background and Reference Checks

Properly researching and vetting potential new hires is another area where small businesses owners often ignore best practices in an effort to cut costs. After all, background checks are expensive, and you might not need security clearance calibur employees if you’re running a restaurant.

But if you’re running a daycare, you’d better believe the integrity of your new hire’s background is relevant, and really important to your customers.

Reference checks on the other hand cost nothing more than your time, and should be a standard item on your new hire checklist.

Always ask for both professional and personal references when hiring a new employee and follow up with every single one before making a job offer. Even something as small as a two-minute phone call to verify a reference can help you avoid costly issues down the road.

These are just a few of the most common mistakes small business owners make when hiring employees. The good news is they are mostly avoidable. Sometimes it makes sense to spend a little more upfront, play by the insurance rules, and take a few minutes to consider each applicant before bringing them onboard. Outsource when you need to, and take the time to build a team you know you can count on for the long haul.

7 Ways to Advertise Your Home-Based Small Business for Free

/in , /by

As a small-business owner working out of your home, you know (possibly better than most) that every penny matters. Maximizing the return on investment (ROI) for whatever you put your money into is crucial for making sure your company not only survives but thrives. Advertising your company is no exception; you naturally want still to get the top return for your dollar.

Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to advertise your business for free to give you options in growing your home business in a cost-effective way.

1. Create Your Elevator Pitch

You have 8 seconds…GO! That’s roughly the average attention span of an American adult, the time it takes a person to decide if what you’re communicating is worthy of their time. Drafting, reworking, and perfecting your elevator pitch (that brief summary of your business and why it’s better than other businesses) is arguably the most important step in advertising your company. Why? Because a great elevator pitch is the message that grabs the attention of your target audience. Once refined, it then filters into all of your other advertising methods and helps create the cohesive message you project to your customers and prospects, whether it be through face-to-face meetings, online, social posts, or even riding elevators.

2. Build a Website

If you’re working out of your home, chances are you’ve already made a site. But if you haven’t, start today. With DIY tools such as Squarespace, Wix, and Godaddy, making a website is easier than ever and requires absolutely zero knowledge of HTML, CSS, JS, etc. (if you’re thinking WTF, we’re with you). Your website is where you get to house everything you want to convey to your current and potential customers including what you do/sell, why you started your business, and how to contact you. It’s also an increasingly important because customers are increasingly visiting company websites before purchasing. Most of the time that first visit is for other reasons than purchasing, such as researching your company, but it’s becoming a very common step in the buying process.

As a home-based business, you don’t have the pleasure of walk through traffic or being able to display your products in a store front window. Your website is your store front window. Make sure you have a window.

3. Utilize Social Media

Before you even start your business, you have a marketing base: your social network. Your friends and family (and by social connections their friends and family, and so on) is a great jumping point for creating awareness of your business. If you’re new or established, social has become essential for reaching customers, building brand awareness, and increasing your brand authority. Creating a business account on social sites is about as hard as creating your personal account, so again there’s no need for ‘techy’ programming knowledge. On social sites you can promote your product or service, perform product reviews, advertise positive reviews of your business, and generally increase awareness of what makes your business so awesome.

 

You don’t have to work every social media platform; just the ones your target audience is using. Facebook is generally good for a diverse audience, but if you’re targeting professionals, you may want to try LinkedIn. If you have lots of visual content, Pinterest, Instagram, or Youtube is probably a good fit. Whichever ones you go with, make sure you’re keeping your pages updated (posting at least once or twice a week) to develop consistency with your followers.

4. Google My Business

Formerly referred to as Google Local, Google My Business (GMB) is what helps ensure your business shows up when people run local searches. Google is by far the most used search engine; you don’t Bing something, you Google something. Creating your business profile with Google helps ensure that people in your town are looking for what you specialize in, your business appears in the search results. Keep your profile and information up-to-date and accurate to ensure people searching for your business are able to find your business. One small caveat: if you are an entirely online home-business, you cannot have a GMB profile. Google requires businesses to have at least some (at minimum the potential for some) face time with their customers and prospects in order to create a profile.

5. Create Content

Creating content works, and works really really well. Small business that engage in content creation generate 126% more leads than those that don’t. From your home business it’s hard to have those face to face customer interactions to explain those intricate details about your profession and why they need to work with you. Do you have specific knowledge that your customers are constantly asking about? Chances are other people are asking those same questions. Write about it! Do you target a very particular customer base for which there isn’t a lot of information available online, or you’re unable to reach through local advertising? Create content to fill those search results!

Some companies create how-to guides in the form of blogs, others publish cheat sheets and whitepapers, and others film explainer videos and upload them to their facebook, instagram and youtube profiles. Creating content not only tells your customers that you’re an expert in the industry, it also begins to tell Google you’re an expert, which boosts your website in search results.

6. Send Emails

Speaking of mail, electronic mail is free* and easy to send, especially if you’re using a CRM or email marketing automated tools. There’s an asterix because email marketing tools are free until your list grows to a certain size; that certain size is determined by whatever tool your using. After your free is no longer available, email marketing still remains incredibly cheap as an advertising tool. Email is great to notify your subscribers of new products being launched, promotions you’re running on products/services, or updates about your business. You can also cross-advertise that new content you just created, ask them to review your Google My Business profile, or like your latest Facebook post.

7. Advertise your Insurance

Operating a business out of your home doesn’t mean it’s any less legitimate than another. You provide a product or service, and you stand behind what you do. Advertising your insurance coverage is a great way to reinforce confidence in your work by showing that even if something goes wrong, you have the protection to make your customer’s loss whole again. If you’re an artisan contractor advertising your small business, your insurance protects not only your business but your customer too, should they get injured because of your work. If you refinish customers furniture in your garage, your insurance gives your customer piece of mind that their things are protected while you have possession of them. While insurance is not the sexiest advertising channel possible, it’s another tool you can use to solidify your business as trustworthy in the eyes of your customers.

Did You Know?: Insurance Protects your Business If You’re Sued Because of Your Advertising

Not only does your General Liability policy cover your company against third party injury and property damage, such as if someone comes into your home office and injures themselves,  but there exists an insuring agreement within the policy which covers you and your business against claims resulting from your advertising. Ecclesiastes 1:9 states “there is no new thing under the sun”, meaning, it’s very possible your brilliant advertising idea has been thought of before. If someone thinks the new ad you created is based on their ad they created last year, they can elect to sue you for plagiarism. Regardless of if it is plagiarism or not, you now have to defend your business against this claim. Some other ways your business could be sued based on your advertising efforts:

  • Any advertising that violates a person’s right to privacy, including using their likeness for commercial gain without permission (yes, Beyonce may love your product, but get it in writing)
  • Any advertising that libels or slanders another person or organization
  • Any use of other individual or company’s copyright or slogan. If you build craft custom rugs, you can’t tell customers to “have it your way.”

As you are starting or growing your home based small business, advertising is obviously the way you get your business in front of your target market. How you advertise, free or not, through handshakes or social media, is completely up to you. but working from home means you need to get creative to attract attention, grow your customer base, and thrive. However you decide, make sure your company is protected should anyone decide your advertising is too much like theirs.

How to Choose Small Business Insurance That’s Right for You

/in , /by

Small business insurance protects you and your company when the unexpected happens.

While many worry about issues such as break-ins, these are some of the least-costly issues a business may face, whereas issues like being sued for things like reputational harm, having a motor vehicle accident, or having a product liability claim rank among the costliest, causing unprotected business owners to dish out tens of thousands of dollars each.

It’s issues such as these which can easily cause a growing company to fold, but it doesn’t have to be that way. When you have the right small business insurance for your needs, issues like this can be no more than a blip in your radar.

Work with a Small Business Insurance Specialist

If you haven’t purchased small business insurance before, you may initially feel more comfortable approaching the agent who handles your personal home or auto insurance.

This isn’t always the best choice because there are marked differences between the types of claims individuals deal with and what companies deal with. Agents and brokers who don’t routinely handle commercial issues may load you down with coverage you don’t need or unintentionally leave you vulnerable, so make sure you’re working with someone who has experience in commercial coverage for small businesses.

Check Reputation Before Starting

You don’t want to wait to find out that an insurance carrier has a history of not paying out or has a lengthy claims process when you’re already facing an issue. Once you’ve found a company that seems like a good fit, check with the Better Business Bureau to verify they have a history of taking good care of the people they serve. Another great resource to check is A.M. Best as they provide an overview of a carrier’s financial strength and credit-worthiness which is an indicator of their ability to pay claims even in catastrophic circumstances. Also make sure to ask your agent for feedback on the carrier’s claims process to gain some inside knowledge from the professionals that work with the carriers on a daily basis.

Select the Right Policies for Your Needs

There are various types of small business insurance. Depending on your industry and how your business operates, you may need some or all of them to be fully protected. It’s also worth noting that possessing certain policies is often mandated by law, so compliance will ensure you can stay open for business and don’t wind up with fines. Business Owners Policy: Also known as a BOP, This policy that will bundle a few types of coverages, such as general liability, property, and business personal property,  in order to fill those holes in your coverage. This is the go-to coverage for small businesses to make sure that a claim won’t force you to close your doors. Depending on your industry, a BOP might not be available, so packaging coverage through a few different carriers will be your way to go.

General Liability: If your company is sued over property damage or some form of bodily injury, it’s your general liability coverage that will usually step in and protect you, your business, and your employees. For example, if someone burns themselves while drinking coffee purchased from your restaurant, or ink cartridges you sell malfunction and break costly equipment, general liability will foot the bill. However, each policy is different, and you’ll have to choose the degree of protection best suited for your exposure.

Professional Liability: Also known as errors and omissions Insurance, this coverage provides professional service companies against claims arising from mistakes (errors) and negligence (omissions). Mistakes and unexpected delays happen, and these can sometimes cost your customers time and money. For example, if you unintentionally give a client bad advice or you can’t fulfill an order, professional liability will cover legal expenses. Further Reading.

Workers’ Comp: Most states require companies to have workers compensation insurance. This policy ensures your employees have their medical needs seen to if they’re injured on the job or become ill as a result of their work.

Commercial Auto: If you have a company vehicle or fleet, picking up commercial auto coverage is an essential. This covers medical bills if people are injured in an accident, damage to vehicles, and property damage caused by your vehicles. However, many small business owners, and even their employees, use personal vehicles for work, not realizing that their personal policy may not provide coverage for work-related accidents. Be sure to check into your personal policy if you’ve been relying on it for protection.

Get a Small Business Insurance Quote

No matter which types of small business insurance you’re looking for, Citizens General is here to help. We focus solely on helping growing companies and understand the importance of finding the right level of protection at the right price. To get more information about which policies may be right for you and obtain a free quote, simply provide us with a few details about your company and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible.

Commercial Liability Insurance Coverage in 3 Easy Steps

/in , , , /by

Have you been wondering how to get commercial liability insurance for your business? No matter what product or service your provide, commercial liability coverage is the foundation of insurance protection, keeping your assets where they belong – in your business bank accounts.

As a business owner, you know the threat of a lawsuit is real. One small incident or accident can lead to big trouble.

What are your chances of your business facing a lawsuit? With over 100 million cases filed in US state courts every year, the chances of your business being sued are good. And that’s bad news for business owners, when even something as small as a slip and fall accident can cost you an average of $20,000.

For many small businesses, coming up with that kind of cash could be devastating.

That’s why commercial liability insurance can benefit you, no matter what your business is or how you operate it.

Commercial liability insurance covers your business from the costs of lawsuits arising from:

  • Third-party injuries
  • Third-party property damage
  • Product liability
  • Advertising injury (libel, slander, and defamation)
  • Copyright infringement

 

Lawyers’ fees, court costs, settlements, and judgements can add up quickly, whether you are at fault or not. Your commercial liability (also known as business general liability) policy will cover these costs, so you don’t break the business bank trying to pay them yourself.

Every day that you operate without liability coverage, you are running the very real risk of having to pay the high costs of a lawsuit yourself. Luckily, you can get your business covered quickly, so you can rest easy and focus on the important things: like growth and profitability.

How to Get Commercial Liability Insurance

Follow these three easy steps, and you will be covered before you can say “low annual premiums.”

Step 1: Get an Instant Online Quote

An insurance quote will be an estimate of how much total insurance coverage you’re getting, and what that will cost you in annual premiums. If you would like any extra coverage added to your policy, you can get a price estimate for those “riders” at the same time.

Getting a quote is fast and easy.

Fill out a few simple forms with information such as your name, and the state in which you do business, and you will receive your quote via email. Give your quote a quick review, and then you’re ready for step #2.

Step 2: Complete Your Application

Once you’ve reviewed your quote, it’s time to complete your application for coverage. Don’t worry, we know that you are busy, and we don’t expect you to take the day off to come to our office. Instead, we bring the application to you. You can complete an application online at Citizens General, or over the phone with one of our in-house professionals.

If you do speak to one of our agents in person, feel free to ask about other options available to you to increase insurance protection for your business. You may even get some ideas on how to lower your insurance premiums, so don’t hesitate to pick up the phone. No time to chat? No problem. The online application can be filled out on your time, and submitted when you are ready.

With general liability coverage, you won’t need to chase around paperwork all day just to complete your application. If you live in a state where a contractor license is required, we will need that information. If you have any prior losses, we’ll ask for a loss runs report from prior carriers. If neither of these situations applies to your business, your application process will go even faster.

When your application is complete, it’s time to move to step 3.

Step 3: Sign and Submit Payment

Your completed application will be sent to an insurance carrier for approval, and then we will get you a bit of paperwork to sign. Once again, we know that you have a business to run. That’s why Citizens General makes it easy to sign your documents and submit payment. With our Docusign process, you can sign your documents electronically from the comfort of your home office, your bustling warehouse, or from a tablet in an airport. We will work with you from wherever your business needs you to be.

Once you have submitted your signed documents and payment, everything is sent off for processing on our end, and you don’t need to do anything more. Congratulations, your business has a safety net, and you can stop worrying about a potentially devastating lawsuit ruining everything you’ve created.

You have Liability Coverage. Now What?

Business general liability coverage can protect you from third-party lawsuits for injury and damages to someone’s person, property, or even reputation. But it doesn’t cover professional errors, employee injuries or discrimination suits, fraud, cyber theft, accidents with your work vehicle, or damage to your business property.

If there are other business risks that keep you up at night worrying, you may want to consider additional policies to fully protect your business investment. Combining additional business insurance policies to your general liability policy is not only a great way to further protect your business, it’s also an easy way to save on your premiums. Here are some other policies you may want to consider:

Workers’ Comp: If you have employees, workers’ comp insurance benefits can pay for their medical expenses and missed wages if they are injured or become ill while working.

Professional Liability: Service professionals can protect themselves from the high costs of defending against third-party financial loss lawsuits with professional liability coverage.

Commercial Auto: If you, or any of your employees, drive a vehicle for business purposes, you may need commercial auto to cover your vehicles in case of an accident.

Commercial Property: Commercial property coverage is meant to protect the building that your business rents or owns, as well as the stuff inside it, in the event of a fire, theft, damage, or vandalism.

Cyber Liability: If you handle sensitive customer information, including Social Security numbers or credit cards, you could be a risk to a data breach or hack. Cyber liability may cover the costs of notifying customers, credit monitoring, or your defense against an identity theft lawsuit.

Business Interruption: Business interruption claims are generally more expensive than property damage claims. Business interruption coverage may cover the costs of inventory held-up across the country, or even business lost while you are spending time defending yourself against a lawsuit.

Whether it is a stand-alone commercial liability policy, or if commercial liability is just the foundation of your protection, getting this essential coverage is a quick, easy, and convenient process. Get your quote today, and you can be covered in no time at all.

Not sure exactly what policies your business needs? Check out our business insurance tool to get a quick, individualized assessment of the insurance policies that can best protect your business.

10 Times Your General Liability Insurance Could Save The Day

/in , , /by

Craft brewers, graphic designers, ecommerce entrepreneurs, retail shop and food truck owners … you may be in different industries and have vastly different business models, but you all have one thing in common: a desire to protect your business.

There’s an easy way to protect your business from the threats you’re most likely to face as a business owner, no matter what your niche may be.

Smiling Business Owner

General Liability Insurance to the Rescue

Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance addresses the most common risks which could threaten your business. It’s the one insurance policy that just about every business owner can benefit from.

CGL protects you from the likelihood of a costly lawsuit or claim in the event of injury or damage to another person or their property.

Not sure if you could benefit from that sort of coverage for your business? Here are ten times general liability coverage would likely save the day (and your business).

1. Clumsy Clients

Do you regularly have clients visit your office? Whether they’re walking through the door to sign papers, or cruising in for a sandwich on their lunch break, every client who comes to your office or shop is a potential liability.

Imagine if a client came in to your office and tripped over a loose bit of carpet. If the client’s fall resulted in an injury, you could be responsible for the cost of the injuries.

2. Dangerous Floors

Keeping the floors of your store clean is a risk-reducing safety measure. But what if you had to mop the floors during business hours? If a customer slipped on a wet floor and broke a leg, your business could be liable for medical bills and more.

3. Home Based Mis-steps

Got a home-based business? Even if you don’t have customers or clients coming to your home office, you could still be responsible if someone was injured because of your business activities.

For example, if a delivery person was carrying a large box of supplies for your home based business and tripped on your doorstep, their injuries could be your problem.

4. Customers Who Can’t Handle the Heat

If you’ve finally realized your dream of owning a food truck, you may have more to consider than just your seasonal menu items. Imagine a crisp, fall day and a long line of customers waiting to try your new five-alarm chili.

But if you serve up a smoking bowl of too-hot-to-handle beans to a customer who burns their mouth on your offering, you could be liable for the injury.

5. Fired Up Landlords

Renting an office space has a lot of perks when you’re running a business. But it also comes with a certain amount of responsibility, as well. And if your laptop overheats in the middle of the night and causes a fire in the office, you may be responsible for the damage to your landlord’s property.

6. Soggy Neighbors

Let’s say you’ve just finished putting the finishing touches in a yard that you’ve been hired to landscape. You instruct your employee to give the freshly planted shrubs a good watering, and you head out to meet with your next client.

Your employee turns the water on, packs up his tools and equipment, and drives away without realizing the water is still running. In fact, no one notices the water is still running until the next day when the next door neighbor’s basement begins to take on water. One small mistake by your business could mean one big bill for cleanup and damage.

7. Music You Love (But Didn’t Buy)

You’re branching out and trying new things to market your business – like using Facebook ads and even putting videos on YouTube.

Your amateur video skills are commendable, but you didn’t realize that you could get in trouble for using unlicensed music. So you are completely surprised when you are facing a lawsuit for copyright infringement for using a popular song by a trending music artist.

8. Branding That’s Too Close for Comfort

You may have heard the saying “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Imitation may be flattering to some, but if you’ve branded your business a bit too similar to your competition’s, imitation may land you in hot water.

If another business feels your logo, website, or branding is a bit too close to the same look and feel as theirs, you could be faced with a copyright

infringement lawsuit — and the high price tag that it brings.

9. Swiped Photos vs Stock Photos

The risks of marketing your business are everywhere, right down to the posts you write for your business blog. You know that images are an important part of your blog. But you don’t have the budget to spend on stock photos or the time (and equipment) to go out and take your own.

If you’ve made the mistake of using images you’ve found on the internet to liven up your blog— beware. Using unlicensed images without permission is one more way you can end up on the wrong end of a copyright infringement lawsuit.

10. Unfavorable Tweets

You know that you provide a superior service for your customers. In fact, you’ve heard so many horror stories about your competitor down the street — it seems like the whole town knows he’s a hack.

Taking to Twitter to let the world know that you’re in a class above “that guy” in 140-characters (or less!) seems like no big deal. But if your competition feels like you’re damaging his reputation, look out. Defending yourself against a libel suit can be a serious (and expensive) fight in court.

Judge With Gavel

How Commercial General Liability Can Cover ALL These Things – and More

Customer injuries, client accidents, damage to your landlords (or someone else’s) property, and even lawsuits for copyright infringement and reputation damage can cost your business big time.

From medical bills to repairs and the high price tag of defending yourself in court, these types of scenarios can be devastating to your business. Luckily, these are just the types of things generally covered by a CGL policy. You work hard to build your business. Liability insurance works hard to protect it.