10 Steps to Creating Your Smalll Business Disaster Plan

I'm a recent Hurricane Rita evacuee and survived the evacuation and the ensuing hurricane. Running from a hurricane isn't something I've ever had to do before, nor is it something I'd ever like to do again. However, as a solo business owner, I'm quite thankful that I have a virtual business. The fact that I'm virtual and can operate from anywhere that there's electricity and phone service was of great help to me in this disaster and helped me reopen my business a scant 4 days after the landfall of Hurricane Rita.

As a solopreneur, what can you do to make your business disaster-proof? It seems that we have an increasing number of hurricanes making landfall in the coastal states, and add to that an increased number of other types of natural disasters like tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires, mud slides, ice storms, blizzards, etc. makes me think that there is no ideal location in which to operate a business. Now accepting that natural disasters are here to stay, here's what I learned from my hurricane evacuation that helped me get my business back up and running quickly:

1. Know the location of your vital papers. You should be able to quickly put into a folder the following for you and your family: your marriage license, birth certificate, social security card, driver's license or state ID card, car title/mortgage info and insurance contact info, house deed/mortgage info and insurance contact info, employee ID card, and apartment lease or copy of a utility bill. In a disaster, you'll be asked to prove where you live and that you are who you claim you are, especially when applying for disaster assistance.

2. Have an online backup of all of your computer data. I back up my computer in two ways--to an external portable hard drive as well as to an online backup service. I use both because my files are my livelihood -- I would be dead in the water without them -- so I want to leave absolutely no room to lose my data. For my external backup, I use a 30 GB portable drive made by Iomega, http://www.iomega.com, and for my online backup, I have 10 GB of space that I pay for at XDrive, http://www.xdrive.com.

3. Create an file with vital contact information. I copied a file with all of my usernames and passcodes for websites, bank accounts, etc. to my USB flash drive (a key chain-like device with 512 MB or 1 GB of memory -- I use one from Lexar, http://www.lexar.com) as well as the physical and email addresses and all phone numbers of friends, clients and family members -- anyone I needed to contact during the evacuation period. You'll also want to take along your children's school contact info to be able to check on the current operating status of your child's school, as well as local media website info. My lifeline in getting current information about my home city was through the websites of Beaumont's newspapers and television and radio stations. If you keep your contact info in Outlook and have a Yahoo account, Yahoo offers a synchronization feature in which you can synchronize all of your info in Outlook to your Yahoo account. Find out more here: http://help.yahoo.com/help/intsync. All you need to access your info in Yahoo is a computer and to know your username and password.

4. Know the primary office/computer equipment that will be required to get your business up and running. I had operated with a minimal amount of my office equipment recently due to my being a house sitter for a friend for 2 months. So, upon receiving the mandatory evacuation order, I knew in relatively short order that to run my business, I needed my desktop PC, flat panel monitor, wireless mouse and keyboard, speakers, modem and associated cords, backup portable external hard drive, office telephone and associated cords, laptop computer, printer, box of software, and scanner. It sounds like a great deal of equipment, but I packed it all into 2 boxes from UHaul (1 small and 1 medium box). I knew I could work for at least 2 months comfortably with just this equipment.

5. Primary paper files for your clients/business. I have 2 sets of files -- ones for the immediate short-term that I use frequently and my lateral file drawer files that are primarily reference files. I grabbed the contents of the two drawers of my 2-drawer file cabinet (which hold my immediate short-term files), all of which fit into one small UHaul box.

6. A backup telephone plan. I wasn't sure what I was going to do for phone service for my business, as all of my clients are scattered across the US and in Canada. Just to be safe, I upgraded my cell phone plan, and had a prepaid calling card (purchased an AT&T calling card at Sam's, http://www.samsclub.com) at my disposal if I needed it. As luck would have it, my hotel offered an unlimited Internet access/long distance plan for an additional $1.88 per day, so I happily signed up for that, saving myself a fortune in phone calls and Internet service fees.

7. A backup Internet access plan. Since power restoration to my home was estimated at 2-8 weeks, I had to find temporary lodgings. I looked for a hotel that offered high speed Internet access and was able to use their system for my Internet access. However, once I found the hotel, I also called the tech support of my DSL ISP and found the local dial-up numbers for the area in which the hotel is located. I never had to use the dial-up service, but it was good info to have. If you have cable or DSL Internet service, now is the time to discover alternate Internet access plans to be able to get online should your DSL or cable access be out-of-service. You should also know how to access your email online through your ISP if you don't have access to your computer. If your ISP doesn't offer a version of webmail, you can use this service free-of-charge, http://www.mail2web.com.

8. Adequate office supplies for a month. I threw in pens, pencils, post-it notes, a calculator, stamps, envelopes, tape, stapler, paper clips, note pads, etc. that would last me at least a month while I was out of my office. I used a portable plastic file case in which to carry these items.

9. Outline of your office procedures to help you operate independently or be able to delegate tasks. I carry much of my info in my head to run my office, or have what I need stored in various files across my computer. What makes more sense for the future is to document all of my office procedures, as well as computer and client info, so that everything I need is in one document. I can then upload this doc to my Yahoo account, my backup files, or carry it with my on my USB flash drive. My colleague, Jean Hanson, has designed a great template that asks you to note and record everything someone would need to know to get your business back up and running. It's the Home Office Procedures Manual, available for purchase here: http://tinyurl.com/bagxs

10. Digital camera to record the event and/or record damages to personal property. I wish I'd had a digital camera to record all that I witnessed during my evacuation from Hurricane Rita. My sister took tons of pics, but I would've loved to have had the same opportunity. More importantly, however, is the need for a digital camera to record damage to your home and property. In a wide-spread disaster, it can be at least a month before your insurance adjuster will be able to assess damages to your property. In the meantime, however, you need to start repairs, like placing a tarp on your roof, boarding up broken windows, removing downed trees from your house or yard, or cleaning your refrigerator of spoiled food. In many cases, your insurance will cover the repairs or food replacement, but you need to carefully document the "before" scenario in order to receive compensation for your loss.

Don't let a natural disaster destroy your business. Take some time now to prepare your disaster-readiness plan, and get back into business as soon as you can!

Copyright 2005 Donna Gunter

Fat Positive

How many times have you been privy to some guy's account of his drunken romp with a fat girl? How many times have you heard something along the lines of 'you know you were really fucked up when you roll over in your bed the next morning and see a fat chick". Well, I have been witness to this conversation too many times and I'm sick of it. I am sick of all the negative fat girl talk and I'm sure you are also.

Sometimes, it seems if other people are more concerned with my weight than I am. It's as if I'm committing sacrilege to some skinny girl god when I put a piece of food in my mouth. It's sickening that people make stabs at you for nothing more than appearance's sake. Believe me, while there are those who are genuinely concerned about your health, a lot more are just concerned about how fat you look. Think of how many times you've heard someone say, "I'm so jealous. You eat like a pig and you're still as skinny as a twig." What about their health? I bet they get too much weight loss advice.

All this negative talk can really get a plus-size chick down. Often it seems as if we're destined to settle in our love and sexual relationships. It's frustrating to attempt to look good in a world that's convinced you're a fat slob. It's maddening to confront the constant discrimination from those close to you as well as strangers. But there has to be some way to overcome it.

I don't mean to tell you to just learn to love yourself. That's a part of it, but the truth is, that's difficult and it takes time. What I will tell you is to accept yourself where you are and do whatever you can to do so. Here are some tips:

1) Stop avoiding the mirrors.

Learn to look at yourself in the eye. This can be hard, because sometimes all the negative talk overpowers your positive thinking. Do it anyway. Every time you notice something about yourself you don't like, counter it with something positive...like, My face may be chubby, but any girl would die to have such smooth skin.

2) Shop 'til you drop.

If you can't find the clothing you need at the local mall, make it your mission to go online and find clothing that's in fashion. Take some risks. Do not fall into the trap of house gowns and granny clothing (not to mention granny panties!). You're not going to snag that guy you want if you dress like you're in your 70s.

3) Speak up.

Don't let that skinny bitch get you down! Don't let anybody talk to you any kind of way. You have a right to your self-esteem. Don't let other people take it away from you. If someone insults you, stick it to them--in the nicest way possible, of course.

4) Wink at him.

Take a chance. Flirt. You might get a backlash, but most likely you won't. People aren't that evil. A guy will more likely be nervous or uncomfortable (as many people feel when they're flirted with), but don't expect he'll hurl some obscenity at you. If you put yourself out there enough, you'll get a response. Just don't settle for any Tom, Joe, or Harry. You're better than that.

5) Take care of yourself.

Don't take this article as an endorsement of food addiction. No addiction is healthy. If you're eating because of depression or some other emotion, you may have a destructive relationship with food. You can't enjoy new relationships or life, if you're extremely unhealthy. If your doctor says that you need to lose weight, listen to him. Ask him what you can do to lose it. But do what works for you. Maybe restricting certain foods just won't work. Try eating one less helping. Cut the soda. Go for a 20 minute walk. Do whatever it takes. I want you to enjoy life! Don't let diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses get in your way!

6) Don't you dare cringe at that word!

Reclaim the word 'fat'. It's just a word and treat it as so. You can use all the euphemisms you like, but you are 'fat'. As soon as you come to terms with the word and accept it as you own---and turn it into something positive--you'll be better off.

Leadership - When Is Your Leadership Hurting Your Team?

"So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work."

Peter Drucker

"When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out."

Napoleon Bonaparte

A team leader has a clear role, to combine and focus the talent and skills of the team towards a goal. With such a clear role it is quite shocking how often team leaders hinder their teams ability to work and do such a bad job at leading that the team would be better off without leadership. There are many reasons why the leadership may end up reducing the productivity of the team rather then boosting and focusing it. This article will examine some of the reasons for this.

One of the most common reasons for leadership hurting the team is simple incompetence at the role of leader. Many people get to be a team leader for all the wrong reasons and are just not suited or trained properly for the role, they don't know or misunderstand their role and blindly fumble from day to day getting nowhere near the maximum from their team. The way they hurt their team can be varied from assigning the wrong people to tasks to upsetting team members and hurting moral. They can often take out their anger and insecurities about their own ability to do their job on their team members, hurting moral and creating a gulf between the team member and leadership. It can take a long time for the larger organisation to spot and route out this problem and the leadership is rarely watched closely and the leader will never give themselves as the reason for poor productivity.

The next type of leader is the bully. The bully has taken on the leadership role the wrong way and has seen it as power over the team. They have let the power go to their head and instead of leading their team they treat them with disdain. The bully will hurt moral and dramatically hurt production. People will only do as much as they need to do to not get fired when their motivation is negative. People will also take more time off work due to stress. The bully may be easier to spot than the incompetent leader but will often be intimidating and manipulative to those in charge so will less often be removed from their role.

The micro manager is another leadership type which can hurt the team. There are a few reasons for a leader becoming a micro manager. The first one is they are new to the role and are going in heavy handed trying to be a really good leader and overdoing it, it is common for new leaders to overdo it both to impress their superiors and because they may not feel like a leader and need to prove it to the team with lots of shows of leadership. Another reason is they can't trust their team and have to look over everything they do to make sure it is right. This hurts productivity and quality of work as the work is being slowed by the leaders interference and because the leader is often making changes to something produced by someone more qualified in that role. This can also hurt long term quality as the team does work based on what the leadership approves on rather than which is best for the company. The micro manager fails at one very important aspect of leadership, getting the best out of your team. The leader has to trust the person performing each task knows what they are doing and if they don't, should hire someone who does.

All leaders should stop and think when making a decision, how is this going to help my team. If nothing comes to mind then it is probably a good idea not to do it.

How In The Hell Did This Happen To Me?

Actually, the title of this article is the title of the book that I'm in the process of writing as well as the main theme of my radio show, "Welcome to Life Happens". It has to do with patterns that we develop in our lives from childhood on.

We don't consciously or purposefully choose to develop these patterns. Instead they developed unknowingly and unconsciously. We picked them up by watching how our parents and other significant figures dealt with their lives. We also learned them as a result of experiences that we encountered growing up. We may have had a "bent" in the direction of developing those patterns because of our personality types or because of circumstances in our early development that demanded a certain adjustment on our part. Perhaps something traumatic occurred that resulted in a certain type reaction or just that the family commonly practiced the pattern.

The problem with these early developmental patterns is that although they may have been effective at one point in our lives, they're still being practiced and they don't work anymore. Many of these patterns may have grown out of a child's not having any choices because of their dependence on parents or parental figures. When we don't have choices, we tend to compensate by developing patterns that might usually go to extremes. If there's one rule that I've learned from working with thousands of people it is this: extremes never work! Essentially, when we go to extremes, we believe that the opposite of whatever the problem is for which we're trying to compensate will take us to the answers that we need to find. Instead, we usually end up going into another set of problems.

The answer to life is balance. However, we cannot attain a sense of balance that lasts indefinitely. We can only strive to attain balance in our lives and realize that striving is a necessary constant in life if we want to become healthy and happy. It means that we need to be aware and willing to work at gaining balance. I liken this process to exercising and the effort it takes to "stay in shape". So, when our patterns of dealing with life coming into our adult years become problematic....even though they worked for us previously....we need to consciously change them. Because these patterns were part of our learned behaviors, we can learn to change them a little at a time. At first it's difficult but with determination and practice, it will become easier and we will become healthier.

Should the FTC be Allowed to Regulate Franchising?

Recently the FTC, Federal Trade Commission put forth a report on franchising. They want to further add to the franchise rule, even though they should be reducing regulation since there is not fraud to speak of. In our country we have identity theft and identity creation costing this country billions of dollars and destroying family credit, chances to own a home and allow them to join the ownership society. We have SPAM costs businesses some 30-57 estimated billions of dollars per year in lost productivity. In the last 24 hours I have received 2336 emails and only 120 were legitimate, the rest was SPAM. As far as Law Enforcement experience at the Federal Trade Commission, I think there is work that needs to be done and I would not call what has been done in franchising regulation enforcement; law enforcement experience. You can call it grandstanding with fancy meetings, press releases, PR events, case filings, but the fact is that the Federal Trade Commission has failed. The FTC failed. My SPAM has gone up 3000% since up started enforcing it? Identity theft has run ramped. On October 28, the FTC announced at a meeting of private investigators that they had filed now 63 cases against SPAM. Guess what it is not working, my SPAM is still increasing? So if filing lawsuits is considered a law enforcement experience, it is not any problems. Similarly the FTC's failure to bring relevant and honest cases against disreputable franchisors show one of two things, either;

A.) There is no real fraud to be found

B.) The cases brought forth are all like my case with the FTC, totally bogus.

I believe judging from my experience with this purported noble agency of balance and justice that it in fact it is a combination of those two scenarios. Thus why do we have a franchise rule in this country at all? The industry would be better served and better controlled by consumer watchdog Blogs. If a good majority of the 63 SPAM cases filed by recently by the FTC are like those filed against reputable franchisors then many of these cases are indeed against innocent parties as well. Thus the only real reason for the cases is a "feel good" thing for consumers to think someone is watching out for them, when in fact those watching out for them cannot solve the problem at all. Simply filing cases or throwing money at a problem does not mean you are a legitimate agency or accomplishing anything in your endeavors, both the franchising regulatory issues and the SPAM issue seem to show a similar trend at the commission and it is not very becoming of the Justice Department or regulatory agencies in general. If this is what is meant by the FTC's law enforcement experience, then such catastrophic failure to protect the consumer is unworthy of mention and a different phrase should be used. "The Federal Trade Commission's failure in law enforcement indicates that...." Perhaps that would be more appropriate in this report on the franchise rule? I therefore believe that the phrase "Law Enforcement Experience in the second page of this report in the background section is inappropriate and if this is the basis for allowing the Federal Trade Commission to supervise and continue in the rule making process then it must be stopped at once and barred from the franchising industry all together.

The FTC is a duplication of other agencies and always tooting it's own horn, but in reality it does not do a whole lot of anything really. I speak mostly to the consumer protection division which overseas the Franchising Rule part of things; however if one were to review the break up of AT&T in hindsight or the Microsoft Case based on competitor complaints such as Oracle and AOL, both of which in the news for questionable activities within the last year, one has to wonder about the abilities of the FTC at all. What did the break up of AT&T accomplish. Have your folks ever read Ayn Rand? Can we trust the Federal Trade commission at all? I have an anti-trust towards the FTC these days.

Think on this, I'll get back to you; no I am not done, yet just going to take a coffee break, surely the FTC knows what those are? After all they don't do anything there, but file bogus cases and misrepresent their value to society, consumers and civilization. You folks are not wearing any clothes at the FTC. Fluff and puffery, while you destroy free enterprise and innovation in America. What a pathetic joke indeed.

Van Security and Safety

Any discerning van driver will tell you that part of owning a commercial van is the responsibility to ensure you take measures to deter thieves as much as possible. That is because vans, by their very nature, attract thieves... in volumes. It may have something to do with an increased likelihood of 'stuff' being left in the van that increases its attraction compared to the average car on the street.

Anything from expensive hand tools and top of the range materials to building supplies can be stored in a van and this makes a van to thieves what honey is to a bee: an offer too tempting to miss. So, for the responsible van driver who is busy trying to make an honest living, leaving their van on an unknown street or in an unknown area just for an hour can bring on palpitations.

On many vans you'll see stickers reading 'No hand tools left in this vehicle overnight' or similar in a bid to deter the more gullible of thieves. Most will ensure that nothing is on display for the thieves to see. Darkened windows help at the back of the van, along with bulkheads at the front which completely block sight into the back help. Of course it goes without saying that locking the van when you are not around is another good deterrent as is parking in well lit areas that are supervised or busy. Thieves don't tend to like an audience when they are busy with their criminal activity.

There are also the increasing security fixtures and fittings that reputable van manufacturers are offering, often as standard, to their new vans and these can include alarm systems, interior scanners, and visible vehicle identification numbers along with passive anti theft systems which disable the engine when your key is not in the ignition.

They have also cleverly considered security issues if you are towing a trailer, which many van drivers do. So, there are further deterrents and alarm systems which can detect if a trailer is being removed unauthorised. As part of the ever heightening security products on offer for vans, there is the added bonus of reduced insurance fees and increased cover for drivers due to the chances of theft decreasing.