Posts

Protecting Your Most Valuable Assets

/in /by

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article
 
As a property owner, you would like to be able to predict every scenario that could happen to your home, business, vehicles, and other assets. However, accidents and disasters happen when you least expect them. You have to be prepared at all times to respond to the worst.

Along with repairing and maintaining your home, car, and other property, you also may want to cover them with policies that will pay out if or when an accident or disaster occurs. By investing in home, business, and auto insurance palm coast fl, property owners like you can always be protected against devastating financial losses.

Getting a Free Quote

Before you invest in a new policy for any asset, you want to know how much it will cost you. You do not want to spend a lot of money each term on premiums that are outside of your budget. You would ideally like the premiums to be realistic for what you can afford and what you know you can budget for ahead of time.

When visiting an insurance broker’s website, you should be able to ask for and receive a free quote for any kind of insurance policy the company sells. The premium quote will be based on different factors like your age, state of residence, gender, and driving history. It will also take into account whether or not you are a first-time insurance buyer or someone who has had insurance in the past.

Once you get a free quote for the policy, you can decide if you want to buy the policy or continue shopping around for better rates. Note that the rates presented on the broker’s website are likely designed to be for the least expensive policy. You may find the bargain you want or need to continue your search.

Insuring your car and other property is important as the owner. You want to know you will recoup your losses after a disaster or accident. You do not have to guess what your premiums might be before you purchase the insurance. You can get a free quote and more information by using insurance brokers’ websites today.

3 Things All Business Owners Need to Know About Risk-Taking

/in , /by


 
As pivotal as it is to be systematic and strategic with everything that you do in business, you also have to be open to a spot of risk-taking from time to time. To ready yourself for when that time comes for you, you need to know a few very important things.

Here’s are three things that you, as a business owner, need to know about the taking of risks:

1. It’s okay to predict disaster as it’s only natural

A business owner you might be, but you’re still a human being. As a human, you are naturally and inherently biased towards the predicting of disaster. For this reason, every time you seek to take a risk, there will probably be a voice in your head telling you not to take it because everything is bound to go wrong.

First of all, you have to accept that this is your inherent bias and that you’re always going to be fearful — it’s okay to be like this, it’s just who you are. Second of all, you have to do all you can not to let your fears guide you or push you towards making decisions. Of course, if the bad does, quite clearly, outweigh the good in regards to the risks you seek to take (after you’ve taken some time to look at them subjectively), then, yes, steer clear of them. Never, however, let your natural desire to predict everything going wrong guide your risk-taking actions.

2. When it comes to taking a risk, align yourself alongside experts

There’s nothing wrong with asking for help at any point in your career, as two or more heads are always better than one. This sentiment rings especially loud and true when it comes to risk-taking, though.

Simply, whenever you enter into a field you’re not wholly sure about, before you take any kind of risk within it, you should seek to align yourself with an industry expert. By doing so, you will be able to tap into their expert knowledge and use it provide you with a better understanding of where, when, what, and how to take your risk. An example of this is you getting in touch with a high leverage broker before you seek to invest in the foreign exchange (Forex) market — by doing so, you’d learn about what it takes to trade in high volumes as well as how to perform investment risk calculations.

3. The ability to take a risk will help you to stand out

As not a lot of people in business are willing to take a risk, by doing so yourself, you will make yourself stand out. For better or worse, your ability to put caution to the wind will act as a differentiator between you and your competitors. For customers that like that kind of thing, that’ll put you at the forefront of their mind. Subsequently, this will bye you a one-way ticket to the front of your market.

If you feel like your business is stuck in a bit of a rut, why not try something new? More to the point, why not take a bit of a risk?

The Big Picture of Business – Ethics… Good for Business

/in /by

StrategyDriven Big Picture of Business ArticleIn order to succeed and thrive in modern society, all private and public sector entities must live by codes of ethics. In an era that encompasses mistrust of business, uncertainties about the economy and growing disillusionments within society’s structure, it is vital for every organization to determine, analyze, fine-tune and communicate their value systems.

Corporate Responsibility is more than just a statement that a committee whips together. It is more than a slogan or rehash of a Mission Statement. It is an ongoing dialog that companies have with themselves. It is important to teach business domestically and internationally that:

  1. We must understand how to use power and influence for positive change.
  2. How we meet corporate objectives is as important as the objectives themselves.
  3. Ethics and profits are not conflicting goals.
  4. Unethical dealings for short-term gain do not pay off in the long-run.
  5. Good judgment comes from experience, which, in turn comes from bad judgment.
  6. Business must be receptive–not combative–to differing opinions.
  7. Change is 90% beneficial. We must learn to benefit from change management, not to become victims of it.

Corporate Responsibility relates to every stage in the evolution of a business, leadership development, mentoring and creative ways of doing business. It is an understanding how and why any organization remains standing and growing…instead of continuing to look at micro-niche parts.

Integrity is personal and professional. It is about more than the contents of a financial report. It bespeaks to every aspect of the way in which we do business. Integrity requires consistency and the enlightened self-interest of doing a better job.

Financial statements by themselves cannot nor ever were intended to determine company value. The enlightened company must be structured, plan and benchmark according to all seven categories on my trademarked Business Tree™: core business, running the business, financial, people, business development, Body of Knowledge (interaction of each part to the other and to the whole) and The Big Picture (who the organization really is, where it is going and how it will successfully get there).

One need not fear business nor think ill of it because of the recent corporate scandals. One need not fear globalization and expansion of business because of economic recessions. It is during the downturns that strong, committed and ethical businesses renew their energies to move forward. The good apples polish their luster in such ways as to distance from the few bad apples.

Corporate Responsibility means operating a business in ways that meet or exceed the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has of business. This is a comprehensive set of strategies, methodologies, policies, practices and programs that are integrated throughout business operations, supported and rewarded by top management.

Corporate Sustainability aligns an organization’s products and services with stakeholder expectations, thereby adding economic, environmental and social value. This looks at how good companies become better.

Corporate Governance constitutes a balance between economic and social goals and between individual and community goals. The corporate governance framework is there to encourage the efficient use of resources and equally to require accountability for community stewardship of those resources.

As part of strategic planning, ethics helps the organization to adapt to rapid change, regulatory changes, mergers and global competition. It helps to manage relations with stakeholders. It enlightens partners and suppliers about a company’s own standards. It reassures other stakeholders as to the company’s intent.

About the Author

Hank MoorePower Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.

Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.

Power Stars to Light the Business Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

How Disaster Recovery Can Benefit Your Business

/in /by


 
If you are a business, having a good disaster recovery solution in place is absolutely vital, especially given the technological world that we now live in and the advancements that have been made in the past decade. If you have not yet invested in disaster recovery for your business, then this is the article for you as we will be taking you through exactly what this is and also how it can benefit your business. Carry on reading if you want to know a little bit more about this.

What Is Disaster Recovery?

Disaster recovery is a solution that has now become a necessity for businesses as it will protect data and business information systems from any kind of possible disaster. This can be anything including human errors, natural events, hacking and even theft. As you can see, it is extremely important for businesses to have this in place in our new, modern world as these are all potential ways that you could lose a lot of sensitive and important information.

The Benefits of Disaster Recovery for Your Business

Now that you know exactly what disaster recovery is, it is time to delve into the amazing benefits that it will bring to your company.

1. Restore Time Reductions and Lower RTO & RPO

What business love about having a disaster recovery system in place is that you have the warranty of restore systems, services and applications in far shorter times and you can also enjoy a far lower RTO and RPO. Reducing your restore times drastically is pretty much impossible without using disaster recovery services and so this is a massive benefit of having this in place.

2. Limit Revenue Reduction Costs

When you reduce the restore times of business information systems you will be able to limit your losses of revenue. What’s more, you will also be able to limit losses for other costs that have been caused by downtime and management or technical assistance expenditure.

3. Safeguard Business Operations

Every business will have critical processes in place that always need to be active as they are vital to the smooth running of the business. One of the amazing benefits of using a disaster recovery solution is that these processes will be preserved and any interruptions will be kept to a minimum, so you can get your business operations back up and running in no time.

4. Protect Your Company Reputation

As we previously mentioned, when critical processes to your business are not active, this can cause your business to not run as smoothly as you would like. If this happens, this will normally result in lots of very unhappy customers! So, if you want to protect your company’s reputation and make sure that your customers are happy with the service that you are providing, you will need to make sure that you have effective disaster recovery in place.

5. Have a Plan for Unexpected Situations

No business expects to have a situation arise where they need disaster recovery, but this is exactly the point! Every business should have the peace of mind that there is a process in place should they face an unexpected situation. A disaster recovery programme will ensure that your business has a detailed plan in place to intervene in the case of an emergency. This usually involved a short restoration which is controlled in all its stages.

6. Customise Your Own Disaster Recovery

Finally, one of the best benefits of having disaster recovery solutions in place is that you can customise it so that it fits your business perfectly and works exactly how you want it to. You will be able to customise and monitor your own disaster recovery solution and this allows you to pick the replication frequency and establish what the best recovery times are for your business. Furthermore, having this personalisation also means that you can constantly control your disaster recovery site.

As you can see, there are a range of fantastic benefits that come along with having a disaster recovery solution in place. Not only that, nowadays with the latest advancements in technology it is vital for most businesses to have this in place.

The Big Picture of Business – Wisdom From the Disasters, Recovery Through Compassion and Resilience

/in /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleThe month of September saw natural disasters. In times of crisis, people came together to help each other.

Forces of nature: from disasters came citizens with noble hearts and a willingness to serve others. Young people sought to help, thus inspiring lifelong commitments to community stewardship. The beacons of light came from caring people, corporate contributors and a spirit of goodwill.

Wisdom from hurricanes and natural disasters: Bring your hearts and your hands. The worst disasters bring out the best in caring, compassionate people.

Hurricane storms do not redefine who communities are… they make communities stronger. Volunteers are the glue to resilient communities. In rebuilding after hurricanes, don’t just build the way it was. When there are tragedies, there will always be helpers. Heroism emerging from Harvey and Irma.

The more we do for others, the more we feel the “potlache” of giving to others. Natural disaster stages: Warning, hit, search and rescue, recovery, rebounding, analysis, flood prevention planning, learning from crisis, community development.

Commit to a program of volunteering. Heart warming scenes of neighbors helping each other in disaster spark the passion of citizens to contribute further. Ongoing community needs for volunteers are supplied by Volunteer Houston: http://www.volunteerhou.org. This is the central contact, as they work with hundreds of non-profit organizations in the greater Houston area, ascertaining needs and scheduling volunteers. Volunteer Houston gave me their Lifetime Achievement Award two years ago. To volunteer statewide in Texas, OneStar Foundation is the coordinating entity: http://onestarfoundation.org.

Houston Strong motivational campaign launched. It embodies resilience, rebounding from disaster, teamwork and volunteer spirit. Other memorable campaigns have included: Houston Proud, Texas Cares, Clutch City, H-Town, The City With No Limits, Houston’s Hot, Magnolia City, Bayou City, Energy Capitol, Space City, Texas Sesquicentennial, Texas State of Mind, Don’t Mess With Texas, Spirit of Texas. There were classic radio jingles: “My Home Town” and “Sounds of the City.” And there was “Houston Legends,” my seventh book, a comprehensive city history that inspired community forums, volunteer recognition and nostalgia.

George R. Brown would be so proud that the convention center bearing his name would temporarily house flood victims. He was a community leader and would be warmly greeting the citizens if he were here today. I knew Mr. Brown in the 1960s and 1970s, first as friends of President Lyndon B. Johnson, then later serving together on charity boards. His favorite accomplishments included the establishment of intercity educational and daycare programs. He was born in Belton, TX, joined the U.S. Marines in World War I and co-founded the construction firm Brown and Root. Pictured, GRB and brother Herman Brown. GRB and LBJ.

There are 23,000 non-profit organizations in the greater Houston area, in action to assist flood victims and citizens in need. Many other cities are sending rescue vehicles, supplies and volunteers. Kudos to friends and community supporters. Volunteers are always to be thanked for their service. In crises and other times, neighbors help each other.

In recovery from the disaster weather crisis, it is important to honor volunteers for their service. The more we do, the more we feel the “potlache” of giving to others.

Realities of giving and charity:

  • Ego charities benefit the organizers.
  • Celebrities often get duped into promoting causes.
  • Charitable involvement is not a game or contest.
  • Most companies give to communities.
  • Cause-related marketing is a good thing.
  • Some companies use “philanthropy” as a marketing scam.

Best advice to You, the Humanitarian:

  • Give generously.
  • Pick causes about which you are passionate.
  • Serve causes which serve many.
  • Your time is your most valuable commodity.

We’re a very giving society and want to make a difference. Companies making donations should be recognized. Human caring and hours of their volunteer service are what matters most. After the crisis, many unsung heroes render glorious service behind the scenes, where it matters.

Love and respect to the humanitarians.

About the Author

Hank MoorePower Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.

Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.

Power Stars to Light the Business Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.