Health care
There are lots of small business owners out there that are living life on the edge: They have little to no health insurance.
They figure they're pretty healthy, so they can save money by paying doctors for routine visits out of pocket. But what if they get a serious illness?
Most of you out there figure you'll go to the hospital, get the treatment you need to get nursed back to health and then deal with the bills as they come in. Hospitals, especially nonprofits, have to treat people, right?
Think again.
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| Richard Drew / AP |
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This letter is to inform you that if you don’t do something about the healthcare crisis in this country you might as well be pointing a loaded pistol at the head of small business owners everywhere.
This is my letter to Barack, Hillary and John. It may sounds a bit melodramatic, but it's not to most entrepreneurs.
What if you could send a letter to the person that may end up running the country one day and urge them to help small business owners deal with the growing healthcare crisis?
Would it help?
That’s the tactic a small business advocacy group tried this week and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
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| Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images |
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Let’s say someone asked you to pick the top ten government rules and regulations that get under your skin as a small business owner?
That’s exactly what the U.S. Small Business Administration did.
Last year, the agency solicited comments from the small business community on the rules that cost businesses big bucks, about $1.1 trillion, and last week the dreaded list was released to the press. Now, the hope is, government will get into gear and reform these rules.
Only thing is, the federal agency’s notable initiative may be too little too late.
Hello, did anybody tell these guys President Bush has less than a year left in office?
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Are you one of those entrepreneurs without a “sick boundary”?
That’s what Rich Sloan, founder of entrepreneurial website StartupNation.com, calls it.
A sick boundary is a common sense strategy all small business owners should have. Here it is in a nutshell: When you’re sick, stay home, don’t work, get better.
This is pretty simple, no?
“Most entrepreneurs don’t set the sick boundary,” he says.
I know, how the heck do you make money when you’re not working? That’s the entrepreneurial conundrum.
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President Bush urged Congress last night to quickly push through a stimulus package. But do you guys need one? I’m talking to all of you small business owners and entrepreneurs.
Health care reform would probably do more to help you all, I know, but at least Congress and the White House are planning to throw you a bone as part of the stimulus package.
Small business advocacy groups seem happy with the bone, which includes tax provisions for small firms.
“We are very pleased that the deal announced today includes many of the key tax provisions which NFIB listed as our top priorities for any economic stimulus package,” says Dan Danner, executive vice president of the National Federation of Independent Business.
But do you need to be stimulated?
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| Ron Edmonds / AP file |
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Many moons ago when I was working for a daily newspaper there was a columnist there who would always write his best columns after a three or four martini lunch.
Many of us in the newsroom would say, after reading a particularly witty column, “He must have really tied one on at lunch.”
And, at a fashion publication I wrote for, one of the big time editors there would keep a bottle of whisky in his top drawer, “just in case.”
I never found out what he meant by just in case. I figured there were probably a lot of just in cases in his day.
Alas, behavior like that is a thing of the past with only about 7 percent of American workers saying they drink during the workday, according to a University of Buffalo study.
But should entrepreneurs abstain? Can't they do what ever they want? They are their own bosses after all.
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| BusinessWire |
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It’s the time of year when people throw reality out the window and daydream about getting everything they’ve always wanted.
Why not health care reform?
A national small business group crafted a health care wishlist of sorts and I hope it ends up registering with more than just Santa. There’s not a lot he can do for this nation’s ailing health care system from the North Pole. And anyway, he typically goes on a long vacation after his big night.
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| Bernd Settnik / EPA |
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When we think of entrepreneurs and business leaders we typically think about people who are savvy and smart. They have everything going for them and probably have never faced any type of adversity, especially not brain disorders.
Well, think again.
I’ve interviewed many CEOs over the years for big and small firm and there were quite a few of them that had stories to tell about learning disabilities that plagued them since youth.
So, I wasn’t surprised when a study came across my desk about how 35 percent of U.S. entrepreneurs have dyslexia.
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There’s just no place for people who enjoy a good smoke.
Corporations are trying everything they can to get people to kick the habit already.
They’re offering workers cessation programs, drugs to help fight the urge, and even refusing to hire people if they admit to having a ciggy butt now and then.
But, there may be one last safe haven for die-hard smokers everywhere: Small businesses.
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| Angela Rowlings / AP file |
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There’s something I’ve noticed with people who are forever would-be entrepreneurs – it’s never the right time.
They always find reasons for why it’s not a good time to go for it and start a business. They need to save more money. The dog is sick. The kids are too young. Their day job takes up too much of their time.
Well, Banu Ozden blows all that out of the water.
She decided to become an entrepreneur at the most inopportune time – when she found out her breast cancer had metastasized to the bone.
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