Taxes, Economy, and Productivity In the Workplace

July 1, 2016 by

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For many people considering starting their own business, the statistics are not very encouraging.  According to an article in Forbes magazine, 7 out of 10 small businesses survive at least 2 years in the United States, and although some people believe those are grim statistics and do not reflect the real reasons why many business close their doors after two years, the truth is many do close their doors and that’s what counts.  Choosing the best state and the best people to help you start your business seem to be key if you want to succeed.

The Growing Gig Economy’s Impact On Small Business

There’s a trendy term making its way through the business world: the gig economy. As a small business owner, you’ve likely heard it being thrown around at networking events or read about it in industry publications. But what does it mean, and how does it affect your business? In this article, we’ll discuss exactly what the term “gig economy” refers to and how it’s shaping today’s small businesses.

Defining the Gig Economy

There was a time when the word “gig” conjured images of a garage band booking a concert at your local bar and grill. Now, however, the word refers to any project an independent professional completes in exchange for pay.

It can be concluded, then, that the term “gig economy” references the increasing trend in today’s business world toward hiring independent contractors (think interims, consultants, freelancers) as an integral part of companies’ task forces.

State Ranks 10th Worst For Small Business Taxes

Connecticut ranked 10th worst in the country for small business taxes, according to a report issued Wednesday. It is the fourth straight year for that ranking.

The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council (SBEC) ranked Connecticut 41st of the 50 U.S. states in its annual Small Business Tax Index. The last time the state wasn’t ranked in the bottom 10 was 2012 when it was 40th. The report is issued just ahead of the new fiscal year, which begins July 1. Connecticut did not pass any new taxes in its budget set to take effect Friday.

SBEC uses 25 measures to create a ratings system for the index. The measures include the state’s personal income tax rate, taxes applied to LLCs and other types of companies, gas and internet taxes, among other factors.

Connecticut’s index rating was 65.467, which put it between Nebraska with a 57.933 and Maine at 65.492. South Dakota ranked first at 12.114 and California was last with a rating of 84.547. In addition to Maine, Vermont was another New England state that rated below Connecticut.

7 Small-Business Owners Share Their Best Productivity Tips (Infographic)

Efficiency is a buzzword often bandied about in the office, but what does it actually mean and why is it so important?

Merriam-Webster defines it as “the ability to do something or produce something without wasting materials, time, or energy.” In other words, efficiency — rooted in the Latin verb efficere, which means “to accomplish” — is essentially making haste without waste. In the results now-focused world of business, it’s accomplishing things quickly without frittering away company time or money, both of which many entrepreneurs cannot afford to lose.

To help you mind your business — and, by extension, your bottom line — in good time, the folks at Make It Cheaper, a service that helps small and medium-sized businesses negotiate cheaper rates on insurance, broadband and electricity, have rounded up seven key efficiency lessons from a host of entrepreneurs. From delegating tasks to avoiding distractions, check them out in the short and, yes, efficient infographic below.

 

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Ohio’s Economy

January 27, 2016 by

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At the beginning of 2016, and even at the end of 2015, the global market has lost trillion of dollars, and the end of it doesn’t seem to be near.  The U.S economy and Ohio’s economy cannot do better than what is happening globally.  It is not surprising then to know that the unemployment rate increased in December of 2015, and with the quarter of a percent increase in interest rates, small business owners are a bit hesitant about hiring new employees, and have the challenge of meeting payroll month after month.

For more news about this and other topics, follow the links below.

Ohio jobless rate climbs to 4.7% in December

Ohio’s unemployment rate ended 2015 by going in the wrong direction.

The state reported on Friday, Jan. 22, that the jobless rate rose to 4.7% in December from 4.5% in November.

Nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 15,200 over the month, to 5,451,500 in December from a revised 5,436,300 in November, according to data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

However, the number of workers unemployed in Ohio in December was 269,000, up 14,000 from 255,000 in November. The number of unemployed has decreased by 23,000 in the past 12 months from 292,000, the state said. A year ago, in December 2014, Ohio’s unemployment rate was 5.1%

Goods-producing industries, at 900,000, added 3,500 jobs over the month, as job gains in manufacturing (+3,200) and construction (+500) outweighed job losses in mining and logging (-200).

Ohio ranks in bottom third nationally for financial stability of residents: CFED Scorecard

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ohio ranks in the bottom third of the nation when it comes to the financial stability of its residents, according to a scorecard released Monday.

The 2016 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard ranks the 50 states and Washington, D.C., in a range of areas, from financial assets and income to businesses and jobs to education. Ohio ranks 36th out of 51. The Scorecard is done by the Corporation for Enterprise Development in Washington, D.C., or CFED, which is focused on empowering “low- and moderate-income people to build wealth.” Ohio ranked 35 last year.

The Scorecard refers to such measures of financial stability – most often based on analyses of government data — as outcome rankings. Of 61 outcomes, Ohio performed below the national average on several of them most often crucial to ensuring financial stability for a state’s residents, according to Lebaron Sims, research manager at CFED.

Small-business lending: The next fixed income frontier?

​Forget the U.S. government — how about lending to your neighborhood dentist instead?

That’s what firms like Direct Lending Investments aim to allow investors to do, albeit indirectly. The $450 million fund buys loans from nonbank lenders, and packages them in portfolio form for consumption by accredited investors (although it is attempting to transition into a more accessible closed-end fund).

The potential opportunity arises from a few different factors. Over the past several years, traditional bank lending has slowed, and yields on Treasurys and other ultrasafe bonds have fallen, which has increased the demand for nontraditional loans, resulting in outsized yields.

For instance, even as Treasury bonds returned basically nothing in 2015, Direct Lending Investments delivered an 11.7 return. This as the default rate on loans in the portfolio ran at 4.6 percent.

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A Way to Limit Common Management Mistakes

December 14, 2015 by

64510516You’ve probably heard this saying, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”  It’s commonly attributed to Albert Einstein, but that’s a mistake – the exact origins of the quote are unknown. However, as mistakes go it’s a “no harm, no foul” one.

Like this one, some mistakes are little ones, and then there are those big enough to close businesses.  The ones big enough to close businesses usually are the result of the owner’s and manager’s repetitive, unproductive behaviors (i.e. insanity).  The kind of mistakes that they repeat over and over, regardless of facts which show the behavior isn’t working.

Maturation in humans and animals is the process of being able to learn from our mistakes, which results in positive behavior changes.  That’s what we call experience – I tried this, it didn’t work, I learned from it and will try something else that’s hopefully better (and repeat). 

There are several common management mistakes which most people make.  However, there’s a simple time tested way to avoid or minimize the damage from them.  A way which has evolved over centuries and has the power of experience behind it – ask for help. 

The majority of small businesses start because the owner knows something about the product or service.  He’s worked in a specific field for someone else and then gone out on his own.  He’s good at what he does and knows his product, but what he’s not good at is the “other stuff” (i.e.  marketing, accounting, legalities and regulations, human resources, taxes). 

Nor should he be.  While those areas are important in running a successful business, no one has the level of expertise or experience to understand them all.  He shouldn’t expect to be good at or knowledgeable about everything it takes to run a profitable company.

Yet, overwhelmingly small business owners expect just that of themselves.  They won’t ask for help, because they see it as a personal failing.  They believe they can and should figure it out for themselves.  However, they get sidetracked by trying to do the things they aren’t good at and lose focus on their strengths.

One of the best ways to limit mistakes in business (and life) is being willing to learn from others.  Learning from other’s mishaps saves us from having to go through the costs and hardships of making them ourselves.  There are more than enough chances in life to mess up, why not take the opportunity to let someone else do it for you when possible.

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Ohio Job Growth, Outsourcing, and Health Costs

November 18, 2015 by

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Many small business paying for health insurance coverage for their employees have seen an increase in their premiums year after year, and they expect 2016 will not be any different. And although paying for health insurance coverage for their employees is an expense that keeps increasing, the alternative is not something they are considering doing.  To retain or attract top workers for their companies, the incentives they offer are as important as the salaries they promise.

For more about this and other news follow the links below.

Should your small business outsource IT?

Depends on how small a business it is.

To outsource or not to outsource, that is the question many small businesses struggle with.

For certain support tasks, like payroll, outsourcing is universally considered the small business protein shake: without it there’s no way to compete with the big guys. But for other business functions, outsourcing is more like the candy bar: it’s tasty at first, but in the end, there’s little real benefit.

IT was once considered a no-brainer for small business to outsource. After all, good IT is expensive and hard to find. Why further stress a fragile revenue stream with another salary?

But in more recent years, IT evolved from a purely supportive department to an integrated revenue driver. For companies who rely on their IT for innovation, outsourcing IT is not a no-brainer; it’s unthinkable.

So what is right for small business: outsourced IT or an internal department? Let’s examine what they need to consider.

Small business health costs: Up this year and next?

The vast majority of small businesses are paying more for health insurance for their employees under the health care law, and many expect their costs to keep going up next year, according to a survey by the advocacy group National Small Business Association.

Ninety percent of the 810 owners surveyed said their costs are up in 2015 over last year, and 84 percent expect to pay more in 2016.

The number of companies that offer health benefits to their employees fell 5 percent to 65 percent this year from 2014, the survey found. The largest decline came in companies with 10 to 20 staffers; 73 percent are offering benefits versus 86 percent last year.

But nearly half the owners provide health insurance to more than 80 percent of their workers. Almost all the owners — 94 percent — believe offering health insurance is important to recruit or retain top workers.

Local entrepreneurs report growth, job gains

COLUMBUS — The Columbus chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s annual EO Global Entrepreneur Indicator shows overall growth and opportunity in central Ohio.

The indicator is intended to reflect top Columbus entrepreneurs’ economic experience during the past six months and their outlook for the coming six months.

Seventy-five percent of those involved in the Columbus survey say employment rose in the past six months; the numbers were 70 percent in Cleveland, 56.8 percent in Cincinnati and 58.3 percent globally.

However, only 60.7 percent of those surveyed locally expect an increase in hiring over the coming six months. That’s in contrast to 80 percent in Cleveland, 67.6 percent in Cincinnati and 62.8 percent globally.

Those surveyed in Columbus reported strong profit and revenue numbers both in the past six months and in their outlook for the coming months, besting the percentages of the other Ohio cities’ entrepreneurs in most cases.

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Ohio Small Business News and other Stories

February 20, 2015 by

54640451There may be small businesses that believe social media or marketing will be the answer to some of their financial woes, when in fact, having a quality product that consumers want and need may be the answer to all of our problems. Marketing and social media can help a business promote their products and services, but they cannot sell them. Knowing how to use social media, and knowing what to expect from their use is crucial to any small business owner. Follow the links below for more information about Ohio small business news.

Success Story: Ohio

By Dan O’Brien

Police Officer Invents ‘Bolo Stick’ to Protect Schools.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The device is remarkably simple: a steel bracket and anchor pin that affixes to the base of a door, preventing an intruder from opening or forcing that door open.

What’s even more remarkable is that no one else has thought of it until now.

“I’ve been a police officer for 28 years, I’m an instructor at the police academy,” says William Barna, inventor and owner of the Bolo Stick, a security tool that he is marketing to local schools and hopes to sell across the country. The name of the product is derived from a common police term, “Bolo,” short for “be on the lookout.”

Over the last several years, Barna, a resident of Howland, became interested in how school systems responded to security threats, such as a potential gunman in the building. All followed the “Alice” plan, an acronym for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate. “They would shut the doors, lock them, shut the lights and pile desks and chairs in front of the door to make it harder for an intruder to come in.”

Should Ohio’s minimum wage be increased to $10.10?

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The low-wage workers’ movement, which successfully lobbied last year for minimum wage hikes throughout the country, could rally to increase Ohio’s minimum wage to $10.10.

Last week, state Sen. Kenny Yuko, Democrat of Richmond Heights, introduced Senate Bill 25 that would give minimum wage workers in Ohio a $2-an-hour raise in January 2016. The state’s minimum wage is currently $8.10.

Artheta Peters of Cleveland, who earns the current minimum wage after 13 years as a home health care worker, said she is underpaid for providing one-on-one care to the sick and elderly. She is among the home health care workers who demonstrated locally last year as part of the national fast-food workers’ strikes. Peters and her fellow home health care workers rallied, not only in solidarity with fast-food workers, but also to demand a $15 minimum wage in their field.

Beware Of Small Business Wire Transfer Scam

Late last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a wire transfer scam alert for all small businesses in the United States. According to the FBI alert, between October 2013 and December 2014 a total of 1,198 complaints from U.S.- based companies were received dealing with wire transfer scams. Losses from these incidents totaled more than $179 million. The FBI also reports that the scams can follow a Ransomware incident, and may involve a fraudster contacting a vendor and requesting a change of payment to an alternate fraudster-controlled bank account.

How To Mitigate This Type of Scam

If you’re a small business owner, you may be at risk for this kind of scam. The FBI recommends the following mitigation steps for these types of scams:

  • Keep all of your anti-virus software up-to-date.
  • Educate your workforce about security best practices.
    • Be sure that any changes to payments via electronic transfer are verified with an employee of the bank and at a phone number that you utilize for assistance.
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Gov. Kasich’s Budget Proposal

February 3, 2015 by

business (6)Many of the states that are considered “small business friendly” are those states that do not have income tax. Gov. John Kasich tax reforms for Ohio and the proposed elimination on income tax from small business owners, is an attempt to help Ohioans share the wealth of the state. Among other proposed tax initiatives is increasing personal exemption for Ohioans earning less than $40,000. For more news about Gov. Kasich tax plans follow the links below.

John Kasich to propose eliminating income tax on most small businesses, boost exemptions for low-, middle-income Ohioans

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The budget proposal Gov. John Kasich will unveil Monday will include reforms that would eliminate state income tax on nearly all small businesses in Ohio and increase exemption levels for lower- and middle-income Ohioans.

Kasich revealed his plan in an appearance Thursday before a conference of the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies. He also used the event to highlight initiatives in his budget that will help to lift the poor out of poverty and make Ohio’s welfare programs operate more effectively.

His tax plans, touted as “a comprehensive plan for helping all Ohioans share in our state’s prosperity, call for:

  • Elimination of income tax from small businesses — pass through entities such as sole proprietorships and S-corp. companies that report income on the owners’ individual tax returns.
  • Increasing the personal exemption for Ohioans earning less than $40,000 a year from $2,200 to $4,000 in 2015.
  • Increasing the personal exemption for Ohioans earning $40,000 to $80,000 a year from $1,950 to $2,850.

Governor’s new budget to include the elimination of the state’s income tax for many small businesses

CLEVELAND – Cleveland’s West 25th Street is a large part of the city, no doubt, but it is a large part made up of small parts.

“Half of Cleveland’s jobs are in small businesses,” said Sam McNulty. The Market Garden Brewery founder should know—as a small business owner he is an employer and one who could benefit by Governor John Kasich’s budget proposal to be unveiled Monday.

The plan would eliminate the state income tax on small businesses with annual gross receipts of $2 million or less.

“It’s significant and instead of just sending this off to the state… we’ll be able to efficiently deliver those same dollars to the business, reinvest and again creating jobs,” said McNulty. “What this does is this gives all of us the ability to grow the city even more and really supercharge the renaissance we’re seeing.”

The tax cut would cost the state about $700 million over two years and the income tax exemption another $372 million, a fraction of Ohio’s current $60 billion-plus budget.

Big Tax Cuts For Small Businesses

CINCINNATI (Paula Toti) — Governor John Kasich officially released his new budget proposal on Monday. He says the state is doing better financially and it’s time for income tax cuts for everyone. Under the plan if you make less than $80,000 a year, you would see an increase in the personal exemption you can claim. Tax rates would also be cut under the Governor’s plan, with the top income tax rate under five percent (verses eight and a half). The part of the plan getting the most buzz is to eliminate state income taxes on small business. The tax break on small businesses would be big. However, what a lot of people don’t realize is there is currently a big break. In the 2014 tax year, 75 percent of the first 250 thousand in income is state income tax exempt. Kasich would increase that to 100 percent, and the bigger part may be that it would expand to any company with less than two million in gross receipts. The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber says that’s 85 percent of its members. While it might not mean every small shop will lower prices, the chamber says it likely means more jobs and investing in the local economy.

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Time Management For Your Business and Personal Life

January 7, 2015 by

business (5)Almost half of Americans make a New Year’s resolution, and a very small percentage of those people are successful.  But one of the most frequent New Year’s resolutions is the wish to spend more time with their family or loved ones. If your business is taking too much time away from the things you wish to do, isn’t this a year to fix it?  Efficiency in the workplace can be accomplished, thus giving you more time to take care of other issues that will enable you to have more time to enjoy life.   For more about time management and efficiency in the workplace, follow the links below.

5 Fundamental Ways To Save Time And Increase Personal Efficiency In 2015

One constant in my management career – and I strongly suspect in many, many others – was that with challenging projects, challenging people, and a host of intractable business problems, there were never enough hours in the day to do what, in a perfect world, needed to be done.  Simply put, in management you never have enough time.  Accordingly, here are 5 fundamental ways to save time and increase personal efficiency in 2015.

Letting go – Are you delegating all you should be?  Are you holding on to things that others on your staff could be doing just as effectively as you?  Do you tend to bottleneck projects, with others waiting for your decisions and being delayed in the process?  The fact is, all really effective executives are also highly efficient delegators.  There’s no choice.  With multiple projects and priorities swirling around, they have to be… or they wouldn’t be effective for long.

Keep at bay the Great Devourer of Time – I’m speaking of course of meetings, which have a vast appetite for corporate time… and, as everyone in business knows, are too often inefficient.  Time wasted in meetings when other projects needed doing was a constant pet peeve of mine in the business world.  To the extent you can save time both in those meetings you attend (Do I really need to go? Can I send someone else in my place? Can I find out what I need to in a quick phone call instead?) and those you set up (Do I really need to schedule an hour? Might a half hour do? Or even 15 minutes?), your schedule will thank you for it.  Naturally some meetings are valuable and essential, no doubt about it.  But if you approach them all from a certain skeptical standpoint of operational efficiency, you’ll likely find yourself returning useful time to your calendar on a regular basis.

5 Secrets to Managing Your Business While Traveling

Traveling the world and running a business at the same time seems like a glamorous lifestyle: You can work from anywhere you want, make your own schedule and be your own boss.

But the characteristics that make it desirable also turn it terrible.

After all, with complete freedom to choose between exploring far-off lands (and people) and sitting in an Internet cafe doing SEO chores, participating in conference calls and writing emails, who would choose to do the latter tasks? Not many people.

Given the option, you would probably close your computers and go exploring with those beautiful Scandinavians who just invited you to the beach.

The digital-nomad lifestyle may seem appealing, but there’s nothing glamorous about freaking out because your Internet connection in a small town suddenly went out two minutes before an important conference call or product launch.

Yet it’s possible to find a balance and successfully run a business from the road, relying on time management and careful planning.

Build Your Business For Lasting Success With This Tip From The Grateful Dead

Whether you’re into hippy jam bands or not, you have to admit: The Grateful Dead were masters of their business. Sure, they only had one Top 10 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. They didn’t win a Grammy during three decades of active music production (though they did finally receive a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007).

But they found a niche and they dominated it — and their strategy is one that businesses of all kinds can learn from.

You’ve heard about the fox and the hedgehog: the ancient Greek poet Archilochus penned the oft-repeated phrase “… the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” The poem is a philosophical touch point for business theory, personality testing, and more. The Hedgehog’s one big thing — curling into a ball to protect himself from attack — helped him fend off the more cunning fox, whose every creative effort to eat the hedgehog is foiled.

The hedgehog approach is key to starting a successful business. A successful startup knows its one big thing and does it better — or cheaper, or faster — than anyone else.

It’s exactly what the Grateful Dead did in developing and marketing their music. Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, the founders of Hubspot, argue in their book Inbound Marketing that the Grateful Dead found extraordinary success by doing three simple things: they created a niche market, they upended traditional marketing strategies to build an audience, and they focused like a laser on the one thing they could do best.

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Now is a Good Time to Reflect and Direct

January 7, 2015 by

business (10) The company party was a success, clients were feted, venders gave you more liquor than you will drink in all of 2015, vacations are over and people are settling back into their work routines.  If you have not already done so, now is an excellent time to think about and set your company goals for the coming year.  In addition, this is a good point in time to get input and by-in from your advisors, key people and employees.

This time of year is a window of opportunity, because, it is human nature to use milestones (i.e. the New Year, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays) as an occasion for people to look at themselves.  They reflect on where they have been and set goals for where they want to go.  They see these recognized, fixed points in time as a place to start anew, wipe the slate clean or correct past mistakes.

An effective manager will utilize this knowledge of their employee’s behavior and mindset.  He will use this insight to create focal points and manage the employees towards the company’s goals.  He takes advantage of people’s natural inclination to use a milestone as a starting place and rallying point.

Concerned that you missed the 1st?   Don’t be, it doesn’t matter; there are other milestones to use instead.  While the focus is usually on the New Year it does not have to be then – people can and do reflect, start fresh and commit to a goal at any time.  What matters is that it has a defining starting point.

Therefore, launching a new set of goals can be at the beginning of the fiscal year, the company’s anniversary, the July 4th picnic or Labor Day.  Monday is the most popular day of the week for people starting new goals and is shown to be the best day for kick-off, and benchmarking, meetings.

A successful manger will learn about and use his knowledge of human nature to reflect and direct.  He will use people’s natural proclivities for milestones (and benchmarks) to set and meet goals for the business.  As Warren Bennis (a pioneer in the field of leadership) once said, “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality”.

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Is Ohio Good For Your Business?

December 30, 2014 by

business (3)The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council has released the 19th. Annual “Small Business Policy Index 201 4.”  The SBE Council rates the states on policy measures and costs Impacting the small Business community and entrepreneurship.  Ohio according to the SBE Council is the number 11th. State to be the most entrepreneur- friendly.  South Dakota, Nevada, Texas, Wyoming, and Florida the most entrepreneur-friendly states do not impose an income tax.  For more about this and other news follow the links below.  Have a Happy and Safe 2015!

Gov. Kasich shares his vision of what Ohio can become

COLUMBUS — Attend one of Gov. John Kasich’s speeches and you’ll likely get a history lesson on Ohio’s economy in the past, present and future.

Kasich has a vision of what Ohio can become — a place where the tax and regulatory environment help support and encourage new energy, biotechnology, information technology and other emerging industries alongside the state’s mainstay manufacturing and agricultural base.

It’s the innovation, Kasich told an audience of business people recently, that’s going to help to drive young people to stay or relocate to Ohio.

“These are the things that will keep young people here,” he said. “… What really gets young people pumped up is the ability to see the future through the jobs that they do. That’s what we have to drive in Ohio. And that means we must have an environment in Ohio that attracts that. We have to have an environment in Ohio that really encourages entrepreneurship and small businesses, because small businesses drive change.”

Feds’ push for better foods, more neighborhood stores is slow-going

WASHINGTON, D.C. – First Lady Michelle Obama took center stage as a cluster of cabinet secretaries and nutrition experts gathered in the Old Executive Office Building, next to the White House, to applaud her “action plan.”

Her plan was to use government influence to purge the United States of “food deserts,” or neighborhoods where poverty-stricken residents have lousy or no access to healthy groceries, fruits and vegetables. Everybody – even the poor – deserves proper nutrition, officials said that day.

Yet four and a half years after the White House made that announcement, committing $400 million in federal loans, grants and tax credits to spur grocers to action, the goal is far from being reached, if Ohio is any measure. Mrs. Obama set 2017 as the year in which the last food deserts would disappear. But that almost certainly won’t happen.

Advocates for the poor insist that the market exists for many more stores to sell broccoli and carrots rather than pushing chips, candy and processed foods that are high in sugar and fat. Poor diet is linked to obesity, type-2 diabetes, heart disease and other chronic health problems, and health researchers say the grocery industry can play

Ohio ranks warmly for its small business policies

Ohio is a good place for small businesses to operate. That’s the word from the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, which has released it Small Business Policy Index 2014, which ranks the 50 states based on policy measures and costs for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

As for Ohio, it ranks No. 11 on the list. The ranking may help spread the word on how Ohio has become proactive in working with small businesses.

The index examines 42 different policy measures, including an array of tax, regulatory and government spending measurements.

The top-ranked state was North Dakota, while the bottom spot belonged to California.

a role in reducing the number of people at risk for these diseases. A study by the Columbus-based Finance Fund and a Philadelphia-based partner, the Food Trust, found that more than 2 million Ohio residents, including 500,000 children, live in neighborhoods underserved by supermarkets. They may have access to food at corner stores, but it is unlikely to be fresh or healthy.

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Health Coverage For 2015

December 18, 2014 by

business (7)Many small businesses look into their health care plans at the end of the year to look for a new insurance carrier, coverage for new employees, or new health coverage plans for the entire business.  Rising prices in health coverage are making small business look at other alternatives, and although reports suggest that the number of insured American is increasing, businesses still need to look into the different health coverage options they have. To read more about this and other news follow the links below.

Small businesses dropping insurance coverage due to Obamacare

Another unintended – but not unexpected – consequence of Obamacare is being felt as the program enters its second year.

More than 20 million Americans who work for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees are covered by employer insurance.  The 50-employee number is significant because if you work for a small business with more than 50 workers, your employer is mandated to cover your health insurance.

But with insurance rates rising, many small businesses of fewer than 50 employees are opting to drop their coverage and have workers purchase their insurance through the Obamacare website.

If employees qualify for government subsidies, like the managers who switched from Italian Oven’s corporate insurance to individual Obamacare coverage, everybody can win.

Owners don’t have to pay premiums, meaning they can give workers raises, invest in equipment or add to profits instead. And employee take-home pay can rise if subsidies — available even to families with middle-class incomes — are worth more than what a company was contributing.

Will You Finally Start Your Own Business? The 3 Stages Of Choice

It could be argued that our lives are nothing more than a series of decisions strung together by contemplation, emotion and sweat. When your decisions involve others – especially those close to you – choosing a path can be mind-bending.

Entrepreneurs face tough calls every day, says Sebastian Bailey: psychologist, author, Forbes contributor and co-founder of consulting firm Mind Gym. “(Entrepreneurs) are faced with decisions around how they assess opportunities, how they make entry decisions, how they’re going to exploit opportunities, how they make exits.”

Each new business owner must search within him or herself to make the tough calls and some entrepreneurs might find that their own spirits stand between them and the right decision in an important moment.

Being Vulnerable in Business Can Be a Good Thing

When it comes to business we have been led to believe we can’t be vulnerable, show our weaknesses or discuss our challenges. Most of us fundamentally believe if we show this side of ourselves, our clients, employees and partners won’t want to work with us and our business will be seen as a failure.

This is completely and utterly untrue.

We live in a world where bravery is often only seen as a physical thing, such as jumping out of a plane or saving an injured wild animal. We forget that being vulnerable, where you are prepared to discuss your weaknesses and failure, is intensely brave and powerful.

Most successful entrepreneurs will tell you relationships are essential to business success and the strongest relationships are made when there is an emotional connection. This emotional connection can only be built with honesty, where two people are brave enough to share their stories of failure and success.

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