Preventing Accidents at Roofing and Carpentry Workplaces

Written by: Darlene Fossum Area Director, OSHA

Many workers, who specialize in the labor of roofing and carpentry for small employers with 10 or less employees, expire each year at their workplace in Central and South Florida.

In the past five years the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), investigated 29 fatalities related with these industries. Sixty percent (60%) of these losses of human lives were directly related with falls while conducting daily labor.

The fundamental task of OSHA is to save lives, prevent injuries and illnesses, and protect workers in the United States. In an effort to reduce the number of fatalities in roofing and carpentry industries, our Agency is providing information to educate employers and employees on how to identify and avoid possible accident factors. This information contains assistance on the development and implementation of Safety and Health Management Systems. Similarly, OSHA is also increasing inspections and other activities in work areas to aid in the reduction of accidents and fatalities in the construction industry within Central and South Florida.

OSHA does not only provide assistance for employers and employees to understand and comply with established laws by the Federal government, but it also offers free consultation on subjects related to safety and occupational health through an independent program with the University of South Florida (USF). This program is confidential and does not bear penalties or fines, when violations are discovered.

With your assistance, the goal for OSHA is to prevent and reduce accidents and illnesses within workplaces during 2008.

*For more information about OSHA programs, visit our website http://www.osha.gov/. You could also call us at the following telephone number (954) 424-0242 or visit the office located at 8040 Peters Road, Suite H-100, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33324.

Who...What...Where

Written By Ted Fangos, Victory Business Coaching

SlowEconomyStrategies.com

As a business coach, It’s my job to be a positive influence on my clients… but I guess even I have to admit this economy is getting to be... lets just say, a bit challenging.

One of the biggest mistakes I see business owners make during a downturn is pulling back on marketing & advertising. Are you kidding me? I understand your cash flow may be down (we’ll address that in a minute) but this economic situation can be great time for your company in the long run if we apply a little strategy. (Luis Mago would be so proud of me for saying that!) The companies who figure out how to grow (and last) now, will have much less competition when this is over.

Marketing Awareness

Do you remember when Robert Di Niro asked the mirror in Taxi Driver… “Are you talkin’ to me”? Well, unfortunately I see a lot of marketing and advertising that has potential customers thinking the same thing… And that’s not good. Any vagueness in your marketing is equal to driving down Dixie Highway throwing $20 bills out the window. Remember the cash flow thing? You can reduce your marketing budget and grow your business at the same time by applying…

Strategy #1… Who, What, When, Where, Why, & How?

Who? Who is your target market? I don’t mean male or female between the ages of blank. I mean take some time and write a paragraph describing in detail what your customer looks like.

Ex: Small business owner with 2 to 10 employees, in business for 2 or more years, 50 years old or older, with 2.5 kids in or getting ready for college, a nice big fat mortgage, nice cars, perhaps a boat, a spouse who loves to shop and take nice vacations and is looking forward to a fun retirement. You think I’m kidding? Tell me that person doesn’t have a burn to build a business that will prosper him/her for lifetime. The point is, do you see how a vivid description like that will help me direct my marketing like a laser to the correct people?

What? What (exactly) do they buy from you? If you are a realtor, do the buy a house from you? No, they buy it from the owner, right? What they pay you for is to be their consultant, their expert, their advocate to make sure they don’t make any big mistakes etc. Does your marketing convey that??? Write a paragraph applying this to your product or service and watch what happens to your sales!

When? When do they look for you? What has to be happening in their lives at the moment when they start thinking they need you! Pending retirement, new baby, marriage, children’s college, broken lawn mower, dirty pool… get it. If you think hard about this one, you can invest in your marketing when it makes the most sense and pull back a little at times to conserve capital without losing too much. Where I come from, hardware stores don’t buy newspaper ads for snow shovels in July… do you?

Where, Why, & How are really cool…
to be continued…
Victory Business Coaching helps small business owners grow their companies with world class strategies for Marketing, Sales, Employee Motivation, Time Management, Financial Analysis and more… delivered in a format that is designed to be affordable for a small business budget. www.VictoryBusinessCoaching.com

What is Fear Anyway?

Written by: By Mario Anthony Salvi

Let’s face it: fear is the number one thing that stops most people from achieving their goals.

Although fear can be a healthy response to some real-life situations and dangers—such as muggers, bears or fires—in most cases, fear is a response to the worry and uncertainty we conjure up in our imaginations. What is fear anyway? Encarta defines fear as: “an unpleasant feeling of anxiety or apprehension caused by the presence or anticipation of danger.” The second definition is: “an idea, thought, or other entity that causes feelings of fear.” In any definition of fear, the key word is: “feeling.” Actually, fear is usually nothing more than misguided feelings, based on a misuse of the imagination you were given.

To overcome your fears, first you need to understand the way your fears are coloring your perception of the world, and how that perception is affecting your reality. You must understand where your fears are showing up in your life, and how they’re stopping you from achieving your goals. If you truly want to turn your dreams into reality: you must step out in front of the fears that are limiting you, you must take the risk to move outside your comfort zone, you must move yourself from the unconscious to the conscious. Acknowledge your fears, but don’t focus on them. If you’re willing to identify your fears, acknowledge how they’re stopping you in your life and work to overcome them without avoiding them—you will unlock the door to a successful life.

People don’t become heroes because they have no fears; people become heroes because they face their fears and move beyond them. Every time you see a dark door that you’re afraid to open because it might be dangerous, face your fear and open it: success lies waiting just inches away, on the other side. When you walk through that door, you will become the hero of your own story.

I'll Give it a Try

Written by: Greta Schultz

Have you ever tried to pick up a pencil? Have you ever tried to take a drink of water? Of course not. You just do it.

Here’s another news flash: lack of commitment is why many salespeople fail. Their clients, too.

“I tried” is the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard, and I’d like to illustrate this point using the example of advertising.

There are approximately 120,000 salespeople selling some form of advertising in America. Each of those sales people will make “prospecting calls” to an average of three business owners per day. One business owner out of twelve will say “Well, maybe it does make sense for my business. I’ll go ahead and buy a small schedule and ‘give it a try’. And if it works, I’ll use your station/ paper product / (fill in the blank) on a regular basis.”

Sounds pretty good, right?

It’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. Let me share a similar example with you to prove my point. Let’s say you’re in Vegas. You’re standing at the roulette table thinking “I’m going to place a small bet on black and if I win, I’ll start betting black on a regular basis.”

Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?

There are thousands of business owners who make the decision to “give it a try” every day. And most of them experience poor results. Are they disappointed? Yes. Surprised? No. Because they have “given it a try” before, with very limited success.

Why would business owners do what they’ve done before, but expect different results? Because bad salespeople taught them to. Not every product or service works this way. But if you’ve ever heard the old adage “over promise and under deliver,” you’ll get the same result.
“I’ll give it a try” or “Let me test the waters” are the signature phrase of an uncommitted customer. I think we’d be hard pressed to find them experiencing a high degree of reward from their efforts because there is non. With risk comes reward. Show me a committed and focused client and I’ll show you success in the making.

Planning For The Unexpected This Hurricane Season

Written by: Margo Herget, Insurance Repair Specialist, Inc.

Did you know when disaster strikes 43% of businesses never reopen?23% of companies close within a year?17% of companies close within two years?Many businesses today have developed a written disaster pre-plan that deals with various issues in the event of a hurricane or other disaster, such as the evacuation of an occupied building and the prevention of lost data.Why is such a document important? When a business is affected by a disaster there are suddenly a number of critical issues that must be dealt with and pressing decisions to make very quickly. How much damage has occurred? Will data be damaged or lost? How will the business be affected? Will revenue be severely impacted? Can anyone rebuild the damaged property? How long will it take to get the business up and running again? A disaster pre-plan can answer these questions and will give the building or business owner peace of mind.A disaster pre-plan is essentially a guide for what to do when something happens that can impact either the continued operation of a facility or a tenants business or occupancy. It is a condensed policy book for facility managers and business owners that clearly outlines what to do in case of a loss. It is also a quick, easy reference for those who need to be notified in the event of a disaster, complete with their contact numbers and who to call immediately for emergency service.The types of disasters covered by pre-plans can be anything from vehicle impact damage or water damage arising from any number of causes, from an ice maker waterline leak to a major sprinkler malfunction .Other types of damage could include fire damage, ranging from equipment smoke odor to a major structural fire, or a natural disaster such as a hurricane, tornado, or flood.A disaster pre-plan is needed by any facility that has customers or tenants that may be lost because a facility is closed down, or by any business that would be adversely affected by a protracted interruption caused by a natural or man made disaster. Essentially, a disaster plan is needed at every owned or managed facility, and by extension, any insured facility.If a business facility is shut down, it means loss of service, production, and/or rent and that means the loss of customers. In addition, most insurance policies require that the business owner or tenant do everything possible to minimize the loss and prevent further damage from occurring.

A key element to any written pre-plan should include pre-selecting a multi-faceted restoration contractor. A full service restoration company should offer facility managers and business owners a complete solution for disaster pre-planning and emergency response and should have all the experts necessary at their immediate disposal to keep a catastrophe from causing a major interruption to one's business.A highly qualified emergency response contractor will be able to provide business continuity planning, along with performing the technical restoration services required resulting from any damage situation. This includes the capability of providing all essential pre-planning to minimize business interruption and/or the loss of data, and ensuring that post-disaster recovery is addressed effectively and quickly.

7 Steps to Discovering What Your Customers Really Want: Strategies for Effective Market Research

Written by: Joyce Valley, NCCI Holdings, Inc.

As marketing research becomes more Web-based, it’s a luxury to gain face time with customers, but, at the same time, can make good business sense. When you know what to provide, you can turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer.

One local in-house marketing research professional and her research team complete nearly 70 in-depth research surveys each year. Their company provides services to 600 member companies, responds to nearly 500,000 customer inquiries, and hosts educational forums throughout the US. Surveys help identify areas of potential improvement.

Consumer companies with huge customer bases can sample their audiences electronically, but conducting online surveys among smaller audiences typically yields a smaller response than a personal call. Online surveys are also more difficult to control, because they are self-administered.

Many departments within the company have asked the research team to conduct surveys to determine if the company is meeting the customers’ needs. Is Customer Service helpful, quick to respond, thorough on the first call? Is the quality and format of materials that the customers receive easy to use and valuable to them? Recently, she conducted a survey for the company’s outside cafeteria vendor.

As a result of the survey, they upgraded their technology to make the cashier lines faster. They realized, from the survey, that it was a matter of some urgency.

The following seven steps are important for every successful survey.
Project planning and design—meet with the department head to determine the goals, budget, and survey methodology (telephone interviews, electronic survey, or face-to-face interviews)
Sample generation—determine the appropriate survey audience and the number of people to include
Data collection/field work—conduct a pre-test, which helps to ensure that the responses will meet survey objectives
Data processing and analysis—edit out ambiguous and inconsistent answers, and code or categorize the data to reduce responses to answers that can be tabulated and analyzed
Conclusions and report preparation—prepare a clearly written, concise executive summary and a detailed report with recommendations
Report review—conduct a final quality check of the report’s numbers and interpretations
Deployment—present the findings and discuss recommendations and action plans with the client (event or program leader)
The detail in surveys is sometimes excruciating, but that’s how to find out how you can improve. Many times, small changes have yielded big results.

So, what do you do for a living?

Written by: Ted Frangos, Licensed Professional Business Coach

If I were to ask you “what do you do for a living”, what would you say? Would you say, I am a chiropractor, a plumber, a sales rep for xyz company, an insurance agent? If you were to ask me what I do, I’ll tell you what I would not say. I would not say I am a business coach, even though that’s exactly what I am.

Why not, you ask… Because if I were to say that to you, you would say, “oh that’s nice” or “that’s interesting”, and you may not even know what a business coach is. The chances are much less that you would know what a business coach could do for your company. More importantly, those are not the responses I want you to give me. How many times have you told someone “I am a _______ and heard a similar response followed by an uncomfortable silence? I hate when that happens! So, let’s work on this a bit.

Take out a piece of paper and write down two or three benefits you provide to your customers/clients. Make them short and sweet. Now with them in mind, write down a few problems that those benefits solve. C’mon, get a piece of paper and do it, this is really simple, will only take a few minutes and I promise it will make you money.

Done? Ok. Now all you have to do the next time someone asks you what you do for a living is answer them by saying… “You know how? [the problem you wrote down]. What I do is [tell them the benefits you wrote down]. Then wrap it up with another benefit statement. And make it a strong benefit statement.

Ex: You: What do you do Ted?
Me: You know how small business owners are so passionate about growing their
Companies, but they often feel overwhelmed, alone, or get stuck on solving
the same problems over and over again?

You: Yea, uh huh…
Me: Well, what I do is help them clearly define exactly what they need to
do, teach them exactly how to do it…then I work with them on a continuing
basis to make sure that everything keeps getting done (pause) so they can
finally enjoy the business, lifestyle [Time & Money] they’ve always wanted.
(italics added for emphasis)

Me: (at some point near the end of the conversation…be cool)
May I give you my card in case you know of anyone I can help with my
services? Do you have a card?

Like it? It’s yours to use. However it wont’t work unless you employ the answer to the old joke, How do you get to Carnegie Hall?... Practice. (Sorry, my wife and I took a few days off last week to walk around Manhatten and I get that one stuck in my head every time we walk up 57th street).

Important: This must be turned into a flowing conversation. If it sounds “canned” or like a 30 second networking commercial (which it can be also) it will not produce the desired effect. So practice. Practice with your spouse, friends, your staff, or anyone else who will help you…even with your business coach!

Ted Frangos is licensed by the Professional Business Coaches Alliance www.PBCA.biz and is the President of Victory Business Coaching Corp., in Boca Raton. www.VictoryBusinessCoaching.com