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Small Business Group Health Insurance: a Wise Investment

admin — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:05:06 +0000

A small business organization normally consists of 2 to 50 employees; and it is the endeavor of the whole organization that combines to bring success to the organization. What if an employee falls ill? Yes, your whole organization will be affected and thus might put a negative impact on the output. Here, comes the benefit of purchasing a small business group health insurance policy.

We all will agree that the cost of medical treatments is on a rise and for a simple treatment; you need to shell out hundreds of pounds from your pockets. This might land you up in heavy financial burden. So many people avoid going to doctors and later on these small ailments turn into complications. Same happens in a small business organization. Because of the high cost of medical treatments, the employees of a small business organization might not go to a specialist for routine check-ups. This might prove detrimental to the organization. A small business group health insurance will ensure that the employees in an organization are provided with adequate benefits to take care of their health.

Earlier small business group health insurance was not so common, because the rate of premium of these insurance policies were generally higher. But, these days there are many insurance companies that provide with cheap and affordable small business group health insurance. Otherwise, many a times it is seen that the premium is equally divided between the employer and his employees.

In a small business group health insurance policy, the employees will be provided with a list of doctors and in any case of illness, the employee can consult those doctors. This way you can evade the tension of searching for doctors.

Apart from that many a times the employees’ family is also covered under small business group health insurance. Illness in one’s family can also affect the work of an employer. So with a comprehensive small business group health insurance policy the well being of an employee’s family can also be taken care of. Even an employer can avail the benefits of a small business group health insurance.

Before investing in a small business group health insurance, you need to do some research for yourself. You have to do an extensive research of the insurance market and later you can even compare the policies. After that you can buy the policy that is fitting into your budget. With internet facilities, you can perform this task at an ease. You can collect various quotes from the different companies and later on choose a policy that will suit you the best. So go get a small business group health insurance now!

Get a Line of Credit for Your Small Business

admin — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 03:00:36 +0000

Now the small business owner can get a line of credit with no hassle. Even in today’s economic climate with banks faltering and the stock market declining, smart banks and credit companies are still looking to invest in small business opportunities. Oftentimes, a line of credit can mean the difference between success and failure for a small business. Lines of credit can be used to purchase inventory, pay utility bills, manage payroll, advertise, or to fund expansion projects. A line of credit can also allow a small business to weather downward trends in sales without having to make painful budget cuts and unpopular layoffs. A line of credit also allows a small business to avoid high interest loans from traditional banking institutions. Lines of credit are also much simpler to manage than typical loans or financial advancements, and securing a line of credit for your small business has never been easier. While traditional banking institutions offer lines of credit for your small business, there are also other options. Conventional credit card companies are great resources a line of credit. They usually offer introductory low interest rates, flexible payment options, and are usually easier to secure than small business loans from a bank. The Internet is great tool to utilize when searching for an available line of credit for your small business. There are several web sites that offer searchable databases of credit offers. You can limit the search by any number of criteria, making each search specialized to your particular needs. These details can include credit limits, payment options, interest rates, and credit company options. Also, by applying online, many credit card companies offer different and better credit line terms for small businesses. These better terms can mean the difference between success and failure in a competitive business environment.While credit card companies are a great and easy way to secure lines of credit for your small business, a bank can also be a good place to look for a line of credit. The terms may not be as good initially as a credit line issued from a credit card company (especially from an online application for credit), but banks a generally more trust worthy and the credit line terms are more predictable. When applying online for credit lines, there can be hidden terms or stipulations that are hidden in pages upon pages of small print. It is often difficult to realize all the terms and limitations of an online credit line. Interest rates are a good example. While introductory rates can seem excellent, once those introductory rates expire, the interest rate can skyrocket. This increased interest rate can cost your small business thousands of hard earned dollars, thus straining your business’ bottom line. Credit lines issued from banking institutions are more straightforward, and while their introductory interest rates are not generally as desirable as online credit institutions, the increased rate is generally much lower. When trying to secure a line of credit for your small business all aspects of the credit line are important. While credit lines can help your small business purchase inventory, pay employees, and weather downturns in sales, the wrong terms for your credit line can cost your small business thousands of dollars.

The Ambiguity of Small Business Definition

admin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 03:35:58 +0000

When different people are using the phrase ‘small business’, do they refer to a common set of definitions? Like, how many employees are listed in the payroll? Or, the number of years it’s operative? A literature review of 23 papers, which have been published from 1958 to 2002, tries to shed light on this issue. The review revealed an inconsistency regarding both characterization and definition of small business. The variety of definition used in these papers unable to set an agreeable format for small business definition. Mayer and Goldstein (1961) define small business as an employer of less then 200 employees. Potts (1977) set the barrier on 20 employees in addition to a minimum eight years that the business is operative. Robinson (1982) define firm as small if the number of employees is less then 50, the annual sales is under three million dollars and it’s operate as sole ownership. Covin and Slevin (1989) define small business according to number of employees – more then five or less then 500, as well as a minimum of five years that the business is operative. Rue and Ibrahim (1998) define small firm as an employer of more then 15 employees. Perry (2001) set an upper limit of 500 employees as a sole identifier for business to be regard as small. The review clarify that the ambiguity is stable over time. The lack of uniform definition in the sixtieth continued throughout the decades into the millennium. The industries targeted by the different scholars do have one common base; the focus was on industries with low to average economic growth such as manufacturing, trade (retail, wholesale) and service.

Scholars have addressed the problematicalness regarding the inconsistency of small business definition for quite time, Golde (1964) which examine small manufacturing employers with less then 500 employees, argue that it’s an arbitrarily definition which can adequately feet non manufacturing firms. Welsh and White (1981) claims that small business tend to group in certain industries, such as – wholesalers, retailers, service and manufacturing. Peterson et al., (1986) note that the most common definition is the one that used by the Small Business Administration (SBA), in part, that definition state that small business can be define as one if both its ownership and operation conducted independently, and it’s not dominant at the industry which is operate in. D’amboise and Muldowney (1988) write about the complexity of small business definition, which can be a result of the variety and different types of firms this phrase try to encompass. Pickle and Abrahamson (1990) address the question, what is a small business? There answer is that some will regard small business as such if it’s employ certain number of employees, others will claim that small business is one that limits his operation to local market, and part will classify business as small according to it’s nature (e.g., local pharmacy, clothing store, jewelry store).

Small Business Marketing: – Enjoy Clear Direction & Peace of Mind

admin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 03:33:23 +0000

The return on investment for the engagement of MJH Group for Small business marketing is based on the following;

Business Growth

• Increased sales and profit from effective strategy and campaign outcomes

Marketing Strategy

• The insight and direction provided by our strategic recommendations

• Provision of a documented strategic marketing plan which acts as the blue print for the successful marketing of your business

• Allowing you to proceed with confidence

• A planned and structured approach to marketing success

Campaign Outcomes

• Effective communication of your brand and offer

• Generate awareness in the market to achieve

• New customer acquisition

• A greater share of wallet from existing customers

• Increased sales and business growth

Commercialisation

• Assess the viability of new products or services

• Develop and implement strategies for the introduction or relaunch of products and services to provide commercial success

Direct Bottom Line Savings

• Direct Bottom Line Savings due to effective marketing management

• Measuring the ROI of promotions and campaigns to determine effectiveness

• Customer focus reducing the risk of ineffective promotion or campaigns

• Redirection of marketing investment into areas with the greatest return

Effective Brand Management

• Long term business growth through the ongoing and positive development of your brand in the marketplace

Effective Positioning

• Identifying the positioning strategy and building a strong market position to insulate against competition and the threat of new entrants

• Maintaining the desired position of your business in the market place

Communication

• Effective communication via regular meetings and easy to follow project plans to ensure you are kept informed and up to date on the progress of activities throughout the life of the program

Peace of Mind

• Experienced marketing professionals providing peace of mind that the marketing program is taken care of: you have one less thing to worry about

• MJH Group is transparent in our selection of clients to ensure no conflict of interest during engagements

• A marketing resource dedicated to the growth and development of your business.

For more details visit our site:

http://www.marketinganswers.com.au/

Small Business Health Insurance: Escaping The Catch-22

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:03:56 +0000

As the economy continues to tank so do the number of Americans without health insurance-and the number small business owners who can afford to insure their employees.
A recent survey by the NFIB Research Foundation, a small business advocacy group, showed that only 47 percent of small business owners offer employee health benefits. Those employing 20 or more people are more than twice as likely to offer employee health benefits as those with fewer than 10.
The survey found that the low numbers are primarily the result of new small businesses opting not to cover employees. Most small businesses who offer benefits have offered them for a while and are reluctant to drop them for fear of losing good employees.
“It’s much better for employee morale if a small-business owner never offers health benefits, than it is to offer them and then be forced to take it away because it is too expensive to continue,” said William J. Dennis, NFIB’s senior research fellow. “Small-business owners experience considerable turmoil in their early years. They often experience cash flow problems and are reluctant to incur additional expenses such as health insurance. What’s new to this picture is that it appears that new small-business owners are waiting longer or choosing not to offer health insurance benefits to their employees at all.”
The fact that new small businesses are choosing not to offer benefits is a disturbing trend because of the swift turnover of the small business population. If the trend continues, the number of employers who never offer benefits will increase. And that will hurt small businesses because it will limit thet talent pool from which they draw.
What Can Be Done?
Small businesses aren’t alone in struggling with the cost of health care (and premiums) in the current economic climate. The U.S. Census Bureau reports 47 million people, or 15.8 percent of the U.S. population, were without health insurance during 2006
Unfortunately for the small business owner, new legislative approaches to help the uninsured may actually hurt them. One popular option is the “pay-or-play” mandate, in which employers are required to either provide health insurance for their employees or pay a penalty to offset costs the government incurs to provide health care for the uninsured. The rules likely would only apply to full-time employees.
Proponents say such mandates could significantly reduce the ranks of the uninsured, since the vast majority of the uninsured are in families with at least one full-time worker. Many of these are low-income families, suggesting that such measures could benefit the working poor.
Opponents argue that many low-wage workers will just be paid less, reduced to part-time or laid off to offset the insurance costs.
In their paper, “Employer Health Insurance Mandates and the Risk of Unemployment,” researchers Katherine Baicker and Helen Levy found several factors affect the extent to which such mandates cost more jobs:
? Cost of the insurance.
? How much of the cost of coverage will be passed on to workers via lower wages.
? How many uninsured workers have earnings so close to the minimum wage that their wages cannot be reduced enough to offset the cost of the new coverage.
The authors found that the mandate would still leave 54 percent of American workers without coverage.
“The vast majority of those who benefit from pay or play mandate live in families with incomes twice the poverty line or more and, depending on how coverage is determined, the mandate will leave a significant share of the working poor ineligible for such benefits either because their hourly wage rate is too high or they work for smaller exempt firms,” the authors wrote.
Most experts agree that such mandates are bad for small businesses. Employers are faced with hard choices. In the NFIB poll, only 20 percent of small employers said they would simply provide the insurance as required. Many more said they would either cut jobs or move more employees to part-time status.
Moving people to part-time work is a particularly attractive option to small business owners. In fact, how part-time employees are treated is a key influencing factor on whether small businesses support pay or play legislation.
According to NFIB, “The treatment of these employees will alter relative costs in one direction or the other, providing small employers’ strong relative incentive to change.”
Small business experts agree that if part-time employees are covered by a mandate, most employers will respond by simply eliminating jobs, adding to the jobless rate and doing nothing for the rate of uninsured.
Small business owners have always faced an uncertain future but the current economy and the health care crisis make this an extremely tough time to take the startup step.