According to December survey data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics,

​Roughly 26.8 million Americans are either unemployed, experiencing reduced pay and work hours or have left the labor market entirely.

• Of the 26.8 million:
  • 10.7 million are officially unemployed,
  • 7.5 million are experiencing cuts to pay and hours,
  • 4.9 million have dropped out of the labor force and
  • 3.7 million are currently misclassified as employed when they’re either unemployed or absent from the labor force.

It's a fallacy to think that you achieve absolute security and complete peace of mind, especially with your finances. You can prepare and save huge sums of money only to find out it was enough to cover situation X, but situation Y, the one you hadn't considered, not even close. If the pandemic taught us anything, it's that no industry, business, or our economy is immune from significant disruption given the right circumstances. 

That said, there are steps we can take to better address the inherent risk we face in and our lives and especially with our finances,  The below list comes from an article by Michael Kay and while I've used these points when providing professional advice, the way they're stated here is unlike how they're normally presented by an accountant or financial planner. I especially appreciate items #2, #4.and #6 as they don't require a degree in accounting or finance to see their importance.

1. Provide a medical evaluation before a worker is fit-tested or uses a respirator.
2. Perform an appropriate fit test for workers using tight fitting respirators.  
3. Assess the workplace to determine if COVID-19 hazards are present, or likely to be present, which will require the use of a respirator and/or other personal protective equipment (PPE). 
4. Establish, implement, and update a written respiratory protection program with required worksite-specific procedures.  
5. Provide an appropriate respirator and/or other PPE to each employee when necessary to protect the health of the employees (ensuring the respirator and/or PPE used is the correct type and size). 
6. Train workers to safely use respirators and/or other PPE in the workplace and retrain workers about changes in the workplace that might make previous training obsolete. 
7. Store respirators and other PPE properly in a way to protect them from damage, contamination, and, where applicable, deformation of the facepiece and exhalation valve.  
8. For any fatality that occurs within 30 days of a work-related incident, report the fatality to OSHA within eight hours of finding out about it. 
9. Keep required records of work-related fatalities, injuries, and illness.

OSHA 1-Page Frequently Cited Issues

OSHA Full Report

The timing of the Forrester blog post is almost just as good as the message. While the events of 2020 impacted the entire world, winners and losers have emerged which happens almost always with any kind of major event. A significant issue with COVID is the list is heavily skewed to few (bigger and better capitalized businesses) winners, and far too many losers.

That's a bit of what drew my attention to this post  as while we continue to deal with new waves of the pandemic, we're also entering a critical business phase with many businesses intently focused on the upcoming holiday shopping season and making the most of Q4 2020. However, if that is to the detriment of 2021, it could be disastrous.
All too often businesses (especially small businesses) expect Q4 to be the quarter that you make up for the rest of the year, but it often comes as a detriment to sales in the first part of the following year. Why, well everything else is secondary, and plans and strategies are often developed to late in the process with the new year just a couple weeks away or already here. Additionally, because the plans come together in a hasty manner, lessons learned, new insights, and data analysis are glossed over, thus causing more problems in the new year.

To this point, since the events of this year destroyed most business plans in early 2020, almost all businesses have been stuck in a cycle of reacting to each problem without solving them.  While that's not going to change much for the rest of the year, to get any kind of control over the situation in 2021, the process needs to start now and include plenty of planning and analysis.

A few of the key areas Stephanie highlighted that can be adopted by almost any business are:

• Develop a yearlong [channel] sales enablement plan - If we're honest most businesses don't even know what sales enablement is, and when an individual or business is not selling or missing sales targets, it becomes convenient to use any excuse imaginable without considering your own deficiencies. The fact is, if you're not prepared to sell and sell effectively the chances of you meeting or exceeding your sales targets is unlikely. If you don't know where to start with sales enablement here is a link to a great resource I posted in a LinkedIn post. At a minimum it will get you moving in the right direction and leave you much better off regardless of knowledge on the subject.

​

• Refine your [channel] sales strategy - The post mentions "to ensure it's alighted with the company's sales goals and objectives" and "This includes centering your strategy on meeting the need of your target customers or buyers", which is 100% true,  I would only add, to make sure your strategy aligns with market conditions and the possible changing needs of your customers or clients. 

Personally, I believe these points can be applied to any business by adding or dropping a few words or terms.

One of my own that I will add and important to keep in mind:

• Consider an alternative & more flexible sales strategy for 2021 - The point being, a measure of uncertainty (likely great, and elevated for a while) is going to follow us into 2021, even with all the best news possible for the remainder of the year. A quick and easy way to start this is by utilizing some or all of the strategies in the book "the 12 week year" (link to the 41 page summary). While there is no guarantee for success, by focusing on quarterly goals, learning along the way, and applying & modifying what you've learned in subsequent quarters, a framework and pathway for better business results in the future can be developed, something we need now more than ever.

#sales #strategy #pandemic #covid19 #salesenablement #businessplan #smallbusiness #business #budget

1. Get a Guarantor for the Contracts
2. Ask for Payment Upfront
3. Get a Lawyer
4. Begin Negotiating ASAP
5. Ensure Constant Communication
6. Get a Realistic Projection
7. Offer a Reduced Payment
8. Auto-Charge Credit Cards
9. Restructure Your Payment Terms
​10. Get Trade Credit Insurance
11. Move On and Find New Clients
12. Diversify Your Client Base

Welcome to the Growth, Profits, and Wealth Blog where we'll be featuring this new and yet to named series where we’ll look at the accounting, tax, advisory and business angle of topics such as Risk Management, Restructuring, Distressed Assets, Automation, Best Practices, and Growth Initiatives.  This is our introductory post and cast which is about was delayed close to a month because of the never-ending tax season.

The idea is to touch on a range of matters affected by the Pandemic for just about a minute or two, to get you informed, help you be better prepared as a practitioner or business owner, give you some reference material, and get you back to work.


First topic is Pandemic Insurance of course, and we'll be coming back to this topic in the weeks and months ahead.

The insurance Industry is moving pretty quickly to provide some measure of Pandemic Insurance, now that we're several months into the pandemic, and also because this is what Fintechs, InsurTechs, and specialty insurers are really designed for. What's interesting is seeing the formation of these insurers and the ownership mix of their backers.  May are tied to large insurance companies, private equity, and wealthy individual investors. While these are newer insurers or startups a number of those research have very experienced insurance professionals at every level.

These setups makes a lot of sense as the close ties to large existing insurers gives them access to ReInsurance so the risk can be diversified by other insurers who want to take on some of the risk for a portion of the premiums. On the operations and startup cost side, the ties so private equity and wealthy investors gives them access to capital to create, operate, and administer these policies.

The problems, well where to begin:

First, while this sounds all well and good, these initial insurers and policies are here to make money not do the world or economy a favor.  Thus, these policies are going to be some of the most expensive insurance available.  Not only is it a hot topic with limited data, but the spike and second closure in some areas makes this about the worst possible time to buy and likely the policy would not even pay out immediately.

In the U.S. News Article "Pandemic-Proofing..." it mentioned policies that offer up to $1MM in coverage, however that coverage comes with eye popping premiums of $80,000 - $100,000 annually.  Part of the problem here is with very limited data to model (if even possible) most policies at the moment are using all worst case scenarios to make sure if they do find a buyer they're likely to come out break even or better in the short and medium term.  

Perhaps this is why back in May Warren Buffet said he would interested in offering in offering Pandemic coverage, but only at the right price, which is a great leading to something that is overlooked with insurance coverage, which is as one's risk protection is another’s investment. 

In the July 23rd Insurance Journal article the insurer One80 was able to write polices up to $100MM ,  I don't see this as a realistic offering by traditional insurance companies or a solution for small businesses. It's much more likely that these policies fill a niche that needs can actually afford them, perhaps Hollywood, perhaps live entertainment, but will almost certainly have lo effect on the economy. Instead insurers and businesses appear much more likely to wait to see if the Federal Government provides a backstop for insurers or something similar.

Another major issue I see is, if the language and terms are not broad enough these policies could very easily still leaving gaps in coverage, setting things up for this same type of problem in just some other form.  

Lastly, and most importantly in my opinion, while these policies might be associated or have some backing by major insurance brokers and carriers, it's very important for the businesses, advisors, & agents to know who is actually underwriting and backing the policy. 

Insurers and policies have ratings for a reason but the fragmented structure of these new insurance makes them susceptible for abuse.  A little bit of clever or confusing marketing slight of hand is to and the ability to use a large carriers name and ratings to:

• mask who's the actual underwriter,
• is the insurer or policy even rated, and
• what effect does this have on getting paid if you do file a claim.

I'm not accusing anyone, but the opportunity for abuse and risk is real, and insurance that is at high risk for nonpayment might very well be worthless in the end.

We'll call that a wrap for now and let you all get back to work!

That's enough for now, thanks for listening and I'll be back with one or two more casts by this weekend, and then back next week as we'll being our normal schedule.


https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2020-07-10/pandemic-proofing-insurance-may-never-be-the-same-again

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2020/05/07/567764.htm

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2020/07/23/576695.htm

​https://www.carriermanagement.com/features/2019/11/12/200256.htm

While the #SBA announced that they had stopped accepteding new applications (does not mean you should stop applying) at least for now, that should not deter you. As I've said in previous posts, the #CARESAct (which includes the #PPP & #EIDL programs) is very likely the first in what will be several #stimulus packages.

1) So while the SBA is not currently accepting new applications, it doesn't mean all lenders have stopped accepting applications (hint, hint) so be sure you're in a position to do so at a minimum. We'll be helping clients directly in this regard.

2) While the CARES Act has gotten all the buzz, there are other local programs that exist. In Maryland several jurisications have similar loan & grant programs to do the same or serve a similar purpose. We'll be sending Clients more detailed information with additional states/jurisdications in the coming days.

Here is a quick list of jurisdications with prorams (click the link for additional details)
Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Cecil County, Frederick County, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County .


http://ramlcpa.link/uxi2

#ramlcpa #coronavirus #covid_19 #smallbusiness #business ​

Release Date: 
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Release Number: 20-32
Contact: Press_Office@sba.gov, (202) 205-7036

​WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin and U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Jovita Carranza issued the following statement regarding the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program:

“The #SBA has processed more than 14 years’ worth of loans in less than 14 days.  The Paycheck Protection Program is saving millions of jobs and helping America’s small businesses make it through this challenging time.  The #EIDL program is also providing much-needed relief to people and businesses.
“By law, the SBA will not be able to issue new loan approvals once the programs experience a lapse in appropriations. 

“We urge #Congress to appropriate additional funds for the Paycheck Protection Program—a critical and overwhelmingly bipartisan program—at which point we will once again be able to process loan applications, issue loan numbers, and protect millions more paychecks.
​
“The high demand we have seen underscores the need for hardworking Americans to have access to relief as soon as possible.  We want every eligible small business to participate and get the resources they need.”