Risk reduction is not difficult but it doesn’t mean that coming up with a plan to minimize unwanted results on your business is a child’s play. Before you come up with the transportation risk indicators that you want to exploit in the organization, you should first think about a few things. First is the about the goods that you are transporting. If you have been transferring or delivering items that are hazardous such as chemicals, you should know that there are legal duties that you need to comply with. This is also true when it comes to shipping goods such as foods, wastes and animals.

The delivery KRIs are a part of the transportation risk management system that you have established for the activity. Even though there are risks that can be avoided, there are also some that require you to deal with it. When it comes to measuring the risks that your business might encounter, the transportation risk indicators are definitely your best bet in protecting your company’s assets. Knowing the steps into determining the risk indicators that you will be using can really aid you in setting up a good transportation risk management system.

After you have identified the goods and the risks that they might bring, you can now keep track of them using the transportation risk indicators. Make sure that the delivery KRIs are aligned with the business goals and you should also think about the main risks that you would like to keep your business away from. Among the key risks today when delivering or transporting goods from one place to another are products damaged during transit, fire, explosion, loss and theft and accidents such as chemical burns.

With the transportation risk indicators, you can easily keep track of the most important components included during the process of delivery. You will be able to ensure that you have the best means for transport, protect the unusual, large or heavy loads and also secure the entire trip. Typically, there are four areas that the whole transportation risk management system concentrates upon. These are the safety of the goods, the appropriateness or condition of the equipment, materials or vehicles, the health of the personnel and the satisfaction of the customers.

We may put the blame on provider threat evaluation concerns for all the mounting paperwork that the company must handle in the conduct and management of an effective and productive provider-buyer relationship. These are the necessary evils that the organization must live with in order to manage the threats that such outsourcing activity brings to the business organization.

For those who are involved in the business activities relating to transactions with an external provider, it is essential that decisions and actions are understood and supported. Be that as it may, one must prepare at all times as such threat evaluation can be a very complicated and stressful undertaking especially for those given the unenviable responsibility of implementing one.

The questionnaire aspect, though considered by many as one of the more challenging part of the task, has significant importance in meeting the overall objective of the provider threat evaluation undertaking. What makes the job doubly difficult is the failure by information security specialist in paving the way for a more efficient way of assessing programs involving security, information and systems.

There is now an emerging trend in the business community where a formal group of business organizations have recently come up with their standard provider threat evaluation program. The general idea of this new approach is for all the member companies to select providers from their pool of accredited service providers and use a single instrument in assessing the business threats of a particular outsource proposal.

This setup provides synergy in the way member organizations are able to make their final evaluation and evaluation of a particular service provider as they can share information and consult among themselves for a particular business threat concern on a member company. This expedites the entire evaluation process and broadens the scope by which an evaluation is going to be based.

In retrospect, we can consider this as a very promising approach which can be adopted by other companies who are facing the same issues and concerns. Such motivation to group and share information and resources in order to manage the possible threats that an outsourcing job may bring to a company, may even bring fierce competitors together in a group in order to come up with a more relevant and effect business threat evaluation program for their respective companies. This is akin to getting in bed with your enemies. Yet, if we consider the benefits that a company gets in such an arrangement, most will definitely embrace this approach as we all agree that there is power in numbers. A company can achieve more through the extended support of an organization that exist for a common concern and motivation of member companies.

As companies expand their business to multiple locations, the number of staff also increases. The way business operations are carried out tells a lot about the future of the company. With a multi-location based organization, the chances of miscommunication between employees are significantly greater. This poses tremendous risk and hampers collaboration between employees. Team work can get seriously affected if an operation in a procedure is not correctly performed. Typically, departments prefer playing the blame-game that results in bitter attitude and dampening of morale in the company. Risk management software enables companies to collaborate in a structured environment where many employees are required to work together to execute procedures.

Most companies face an enormous challenge of providing proper and adequate information to employees. Usually, the information available for procedures is incomplete or nonexistent. This poses a severe risk of non-compliance and non-conformance. If a company does not adhere to existing standard operating procedures (SOP), it runs the risk of being presented with a warning from the FDA for the inability to adhere to FDA regulations. Even worse, a company can lose its license for manufacturing. Risk management systems help companies overcome non-conformity by keeping everyone on the same page. The risk management system provides companies with an online repository that can be readily accessed by authorized users. So, the risk of incomplete information is virtually eliminated. Apart from this, the software also helps in maintaining updated version of documents which enables employees to only follow the latest SOPs to enact procedures.

Many companies fear risks that appear as a surprise. The strength of sustaining business lies in how any company can foresee unseen risks that may arise without any warning. This calls for laying out all cards on the table. A company should be able to conduct research that enables management in understanding various factors and dimensions of the business. Speculation of several business elements presents information that can be favorable in making decisions in the longer term. Risk management software serves as an aide for companies to conduct extensive analysis and deriving conclusions. This helps in figuring out the strengths and weakness of the business and much needed foresight in decision making. This enables companies to make choices that help in avoiding risks which may hit the business without any intimation.

Whether it’s getting good business coaching, training to be a better salesperson, improving your marketing strategy, or building confidence in your business identity – intelligent risking, investing time and money into your companies growth is the best way to achieve success.

Managing intelligent risk and investing money into their business is essential for the small business owner (SBO), but what I’ve found is that they often choose to manage it by avoiding it all together. This is by far the riskiest strategy at all.

I frequently come across SBO’s, that can’t understand why their business isn’t going anywhere. They desperately want help, but they just won’t invest any time, money or resources to get it. In their minds, the risk is too high, or “they can’t afford it”. Instead of taking a calculated, intelligent risk in improving their business, they go on hoping that the one big deal will come through, or something will change. Sometimes a stroke of luck may happen, but most of the times it doesn’t. This is why it’s proven that you have better odds playing in Vegas than running a successful small business past 5 years.

In business, some people succeed and some don’t succeed – the ones that do succeed are often the ones that can manage and take intelligent investment risks.

In the end, guess what happens to these people that don’t invest in their company and don’t risk or spend anything – usually nothing. The business plods along and they hope that something will change their fortunes and help their business skyrocket to the top. If they’re lucky, their competition doesn’t move ahead and get stronger, more entrants don’t move into their industry and they don’t get swallowed up; that’s if they are lucky. Relying merely on luck is a scary place to be for any SBO.

Granted, there’s a fine line between taking a calculated, intelligent risk and investment in your business and idiocy, but avoiding risk and not spending any money on your business isn’t a good strategy.

My Personal Story of Risk:

A couple of years ago I was in the same situation as most small business owners:
I was putting in a lot of hours and doing “okay” but I just wasn’t close to achieving the level of success and growth I wanted.

I needed a change, and I needed to take an intelligent risk.

I met Bill Gluth of Develop Your Vision a couple of years ago through a mutual friend. Bill’s a business strategist, and a damn good one, but at the time I didn’t have a lot of money and I sure felt like saying, “Well that’s too much”, “I can’t afford it”, or “Check back with me later, I am going to shop around”. I didn’t have a lot of money and Bill certainly wasn’t cheap, but good help is never cheap; you ALWAYS get what you pay for, and I knew it.

Spending, or as I like to call it, “investing” that money in Bill was the best business decision I’ve ever made. I took an intelligent risk and it paid off – huge!

I knew what was at stake here: if I did nothing that would to put me right back in the position I was in – mediocre results and getting lost in the crowd of competitors. I wasn’t willing to risk that.

Well, less than 2 years later I tripled my revenue, doubled the amount of clients I work with on an monthly basis, went from a 1 person operation to 5, and finally got rid of my old Hyundai for a nicer, new car. Pretty good risk, wasn’t it?

Whether it’s sales, business coaching, marketing, or design, if you’re not content with your business’ success but you’re worried about not being able to afford help or taking a risk, Ask yourself:

What’s really at stake here? If I do nothing, will I be right back in the same position I was in, and will my business grow?
What strategies do I have in place for growing my business and getting more customers?
Are my competitors likely to do nothing in improving their position as well?
What will happen if my competition invests in his/her company (raising the bar), how will that affect my sales? How much might this cost me?
Is this business worth investing in, or is there something else I should move on to?

I will leave you with one final thought on making intelligent investment risks in your business, Mr. Miyagi said it best in the Karate Kid, “…left side of road – okay, right side of road – okay, middle of the road – squish!”
Special thanks to Bill Gluth for his wonderful talents, coaching and support; you can visit Bill at =>www.developyourvision.com

About Jeremy:

I help small businesses build more confidence and credibility into their business brand. Through marketing and design initiatives; I help you feel better about your company. Making you feel good about your business gives you more confidence and less anxiety when you are networking, promoting or selling your business. If your business needs the reliability and talent of an in-house marketing and design department but doesn?t want additional employees, salaries and benefits, give me a call at 480.391.0704 – I have a new approach for you.

Business intelligence for private sector is divided into four classifications and they are querying, the process of reporting, OLAP and business analytics. More importantly, when business intelligence is utilized in a certain private firm, the company will be able to profit from it as much as the other divisions do with their business intelligence processes. The BI actually provides consultancy and pieces of advice for the business owner or manager so that when it comes to making the right decisions he will be able to select the right one for his business. In addition, the BI can pave the way for new researches to be made in order to strengthen the efficiency and productivity of the company. This is one of the most important features of the BI tool and one of the main reasons why businesses are seeking out for them. You may notice that there are a lot of organizations that struggle to be productive. This is because they lack in the data that they need in order for them to operate competently.

The private sector business intelligence actually helps in the management of the project for the firm. You will be able to publish holistic reports for your subject specific projects and be able to develop them so that you will be able to uphold your company’s reputation to your clients. Now, among the most avoided occurrences in every business are the risks. If they are not successful in keeping away from the risks, they will have to deal with them. In order for you to do this, you should have already gathered the essential data that will assist you in avoiding the business risks that can be detrimental for your company. While you cannot entirely steer clear of the dangers, you can always be sure that you have the right processes and methods that will pull you out of the hazards when you need so.

Business development relies upon the approaches that you have employed in your company. The decisions you have settled on can either make or break your future in the industry. The business intelligence for private sector can essentially help you in managing your workforce and this can very well lead into the success of your business.

The first priority of any pharmaceutical company is to spend less time researching a new drug. Many departments are working independently of each other in conducting groundwork for the research. This presents the problem of isolated work silos that consist of critical information trapped within the manufacturing process. Risk management systems help employees collaborate in an integrated environment where processes are linked together. Having a web-based repository allows companies to maintain consolidated data in a structural format. This eliminates data redundancy which hampers analysis and causes miscommunication between the employees. The risk management system provides companies with a common platform for collaboration, which offers centralized control for storing SOPs, research work, and all other kinds of related information.

Since pharmaceutical companies deal in life sensitive business, the FDA has adopted a risk-based paradigm to monitor the pharmaceutical industry as a whole. Compliance is something companies must achieve in order to sustain their business. FDA regulations and Pharmaceutical Current Good Manufacturing Practices demand companies adhere to certain rules. The FDA has devised a risk prevention methodology that companies must follow to avoid risks. The steps in this framework begin with the identification of a hazard, nonconformity, or source of variability. A risk management system can provide analytical capabilities and a reporting console that help identify the risks that are faced by companies. Once risks are identified, they can be prioritized using FDA and industry standards. This helps pharmaceutical companies comprehend which risks are prone to hit the business before others as well as the implications of each risk on an individual basis.

So many people are doing exactly that–playing not to lose vs. playing to win during these changing times. In fact, if you feel the recession has hit you in anyway, I would be so bold as to say you may be playing not to lose and missing out on the amazing opportunities that come when we play to win. The ride is much more fun when we are playing to win!

Here is how to Play To Win vs. Playing Not To Lose:

You must redefine your definition of winning and losing. Many experts are saying we are not going through a recession, but rather we are emerging into a new era of how we do business and how we live our lives. That in my humble opinion is very good news! However it requires us to redefine the rules of success and the rules of failure. Peter Drucker said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” As more and more Americans become entrepreneurs, the rules for running your own small business are rapidly evolving. If you find your business not growing as it did earlier in the game, or you find you are burning out much faster, or you are not earning more income each year, then continue reading. . .

Are you avoiding fear or avoiding risk? If you answered yes, then you are playing not to lose rather than playing to win. Henry David Thoreau wisely said, “Most people live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” It is human nature to feel safe in a certain comfort zone. We value life being predictable to a large degree. We value sameness, structure, stability and security. Too much of these qualities, however, and our lives become stagnant. By attempting to maintain our comfort zone to feel safe, we actually begin shrinking it. The same applies in business. Unless we step out of our comfort zone by taking risks, learning new things, trying new adventures, we will stagnate. Avoiding fear in our lives and business begins to shrink our comfort zone. Until we decide to stretch ourselves, our comfort zone will continue to shrink with time, resulting in failure and unhappiness in our lives. It is healthy and natural to coast at times. It is important to remember, however, when we coast we are always going downhill! Here is a hint: If we are not playing full out, then we are not playing to win, but rather playing not to lose. This week, ask yourself, “What risks am I avoiding in my life or business?”

Is Your Business Thriving or Merely Surviving These Times? I hear so many entrepreneurs say, “I just want to get through this economic time.” Their thoughts are about surviving, their goal is not about thriving. Surviving is playing not to lose; setting the intention of thriving even now is playing to win. The difference between surviving this year or thriving is directly linked to whether we choose to play not to lose or play to win!

1. Owner Safe? You, the owner needs to be safe for your firm to be safe.

a. Personal Liability

A venture owner is a particularly likely target for a lawsuit. A typical owner has both increased wealth and increased visibility. Your personal lawsuit risk is the back door to your company. Higher liability limits on your personal insurance policies including an Umbrella (Excess Liability) policy are important to lock and bolt this back door.

b. Owner Succession Plan (Life Insurance to fund?)

Proper estate planning and owner succession should be part of your business plan. Don’t work a lifetime to build wealth with company ownership and then pass it to Uncle Sam in taxes instead of your family. Also, the value of your venture depends on your leadership. If you are not available, a plan for a successor can be crucial to its value if you are no longer available to be that leader. Life insurance on you, the owner, can be a tool to help manage this risk.

c. Owner Health Insurance (personal bankruptcy risk)

If you are your own boss, you often will need to provide for your own health insurance. Approximately half of the bankruptcies in the United States are due to unpaid medical expenses. If you become overwhelmed with medical bills, it could impact your firm. Don’t expose yourself to the potential catastrophic financial risk of a major illness or injury by not protecting yourself with a major medical insurance plan.

I particularly like the High Deductible Health Insurance plans that are Health Savings Account compliant for business owners. Self-insure the everyday medical costs with your contributions to your H.S.A. funds but have the Major Medical Insurance backstop provided by the High Deductible Health Insurance to protect you (and your company) from the financial costs of a major illness or injury.

2. Asset Safe?

Your investment in the property assets of your firm can be critical to your operations and ability to continue to operate. Replacing business assets damaged or lost can also affect your profits. Protect your company assets from loss with commercial property insurance.

a. Buildings

If you own your firm’s facilities, loss due to fire, tornado or other perils can endanger this significant investment. If the buildings or other fixed assets are mortgaged, your bank loan normally will require insurance to protect the lien.

b. Building Improvements

Often overlooked, most commercial ventures with leased facilities have a considerable investment in fitting out the landlord’s space to suit their operations. This can include very expensive installed equipment. Think in terms of a fire that destroys the building. The landlord’s insurance normally will only rebuild your space to bare walls and concrete floor. Your insurance protection will need to be structured to fund the cost to rebuild this bare space back to the facility you need.

c. Contents / Equipment / Inventory

Business property includes all the loose items like tools, office equipment, computers and inventory that you have. Each specific item may not be significant in cost but they can add up to be a large investment. Visualize a total loss event like a tornado or building fire and think how much it would cost to replace all your contents.

3. Lawsuit Safe?

Liability = lawsuit. Most commercial operations have specific risks of lawsuits that can result in significant financial losses. The cost of a lawsuit includes the legal costs to defend the allegation and if found guilty, the cost to settle. The business environment in the United States is very litigious – check out any phonebook cover for opportunities to hire a lawyer and sue the company of your choice.

a. Premise Liability

Any enterprise that has a business location including jobsite locations has a premise liability risk. This is often also called the “Trip & Fall” risk — a person of the public getting hurt from walking on your location. A retail store is a clear illustration of the premise risk with an open door to the public to enter and browse.

Premise Liability protection is normally a key component of the Commercial General Liability insurance contract.

b. Products / Completed Operations Liability

Product Liability is the risk of offering to the public a product that may cause injury. An example would be a restaurant serving food that makes everyone sick or a manufacturer that creates a defective product which results in injury. Even if your business operations does not create products, your company still can have a significant lawsuit exposure to a defective product you resale or distribute that causes injury and results in a damaging lawsuit.

Completed Operations is the risk of work you have finished being defective and causing damage or injury. An example would be an auto garage installing brakes wrong causing a traffic accident. Another example would be an electrician installing wiring wrong resulting in a building fire.

Product & Completed Operations protection are normally components of the Commercial General Liability contract. Manufacturers typically have a separate Product Liability contract to provide the higher level of protection needed for that type of firm.

c. Worker Injury Liability

Any employer with hired help has the risk of a worker being injured while at work and suing the business. A frequent mistake is hiring “1099 Contract Labor” and not realizing that they are employees for purpose of work related injuries. A single lawsuit from a worker hurt on the job can result in a very large settlement and overwhelm your company finances.

Worker’s Compensation Insurance is a state mandated benefit package that shifts the worker injury risk from an employer. A Work Comp contract normally also includes Employer Liability to protect a company if a lawsuit attempts to skirt the Work Comp statute. The cost of Work Comp varies depending on the type of work being done.

d. Auto Liability for commercial vehicles (Work Truck Insurance)

Many enterprises provide delivery service or use vehicles for their operations. Auto accidents are the source of many lawsuits and a significant risk for any business with work trucks and other owned vehicles. Another less recognized risk is on “non-owned autos” (example: employee auto) that are on job errands and “hired autos” (example: rented truck for a special delivery) that are rented for company activities.

Commercial Auto Insurance is available and can be customized to meet the particular insurance protection needs for your work vehicles.

e. Employment Practices Liability

Most employers don’t think about the lawsuits that can result from unintended mistakes in their relationships with their employees. Using professional practices in hiring, terminating and promoting employees is the best defense to lawsuits resulting from an angry ex-employee but any employer needs to have insurance protection as a backup.

Employment Practices Liability is often a component available with a Commercial Insurance Package policy.

f. Professional Errors & Omissions Liability

If you are a licensed professional or provide important professional advice, you are at risk of a lawsuit resulting from giving the wrong advice. Consultants are particularly at risk for Professional Liability because your business activity is professionally grounded advice. Even if your advice was sound, defending a lawsuit can still overwhelm your company finances.

Professional Errors & Omissions Liability is normally available as a separate insurance contract.

g. Other Lawsuit risks?

No one can predict all the possible events that could result in a lawsuit. A prudent owner should discuss their business liability risk with their lawyer on a regular basis. You visit your doctor for an annual health check-up, why not an annual legal liability check-up with your lawyer? Your insurance agent can then discuss insurance plans to provide protection for lawsuit risks identified by your lawyer.

4. Business Continuation?

The secondary economic hardship of an insured loss can be more challenging than the actual damage.

a. Income & Continuation – Ongoing wages and expenses

Income and Continuation keeps your firm alive while the damage is being restored. Most enterprises cannot afford to cease operations and must find an alternative location and continue to serve their customers. Also important to any company is retaining its important talent.

b. Extra Expense to accelerate reopening or relocation

Being out-of-business due to an insured loss can damage your market share as clients seek service elsewhere. The sooner you can reopen the better. Extra Expense helps accelerate re-opening or relocation by minimizing the time your firm is closed.

Business Failure Rate

Did you know that almost 8,000 start a home Internet business every day in the United States? Now, take a look at this other statistic: According to the U.S. Small Business Association, only 2/3 of all small business startups survive the first two years and less than half make it to four years. Are you going to be part of this last group?

Like all of us, you’re going to make mistakes with a home business start up. However, you can correct the minor ones, but the major ones could wipe out the idea of starting a small home business. Here you have some causes of these failures.

Reason for Business Failure

1. Choosing the wrong type of business – Nothing will cause you more frustration, waste of time and money than choosing a business you don’t like or one that requires skills you don’t have. Find a line of work you love and where you can excel using your own natural talents.

2. Lack of the necessary knowledge – You need to learn all you can about your product or service and what you need to set up your business. Do a research about your competition and things such as marketing, software, equipment, working capital needed and budgeting, health insurance etc.

3. Lack of Planning – You need at least a basic idea of the steps you need to follow to develop and succeed in your business. Good home business systems must be based on reliable and current information. If you have questions or need direction, read articles, books, or find a sponsor to help you with guidance.

4. Lack of Discipline – Discipline and consistency necessary are absolutely necessary to be successful in any business. This also includes being organized and willing to sacrifice. Organize your time and activities so you can perform them on a regular basis. Also be willing to sacrifice time, money, and effort, especially at the beginning. All of these will pay big dividends later on.

5. Lack of Patience – Provided you do your part, you need at least one year before your work from home business idea starts showing some decent signs of success. Read the success stories of highly successful people and see how many became successful in a few weeks or months.

6. Falling Prey to Home Based Business Scams – Most of these so called “opportunities” are either total scams, or you work hours upon hours with little or no results. You need to make an informed, not an emotional decision for your in home business idea. See our recommendations for truly Legitimate Home Based Businesses.

7. Lack of a Website – In today’s world, a web site is a must business tool, and a low-cost investment compared to its potential. It’s the best and easiest way to show your products and services and reach millions of customers worldwide 24/7 365 days a year. Most of your competition has a web site, and not having it is like trying to compete with a hot dog stand across from a McDonald’s.

How to Avoid Business Failure

Home businesses fail for all kinds of reasons, and there are always risks. However you can reduce them by continually seeking the necessary knowledge about your home business niche and putting the required effort to succeed. You must develop the discipline of continuous learning from someone more experienced than you. Also, the Internet has an infinite supply of FREE information available; use it to your advantage.

There are three techniques to handle risk… Avoid, Control, and Transfer. These techniques can be symbolized by A.C.T. Let’s discuss the first one.

Avoiding a risk is removing the potential for loss. If, for example, the tennis courts at an apartment complex are in need of repair, management could avoid the risk by removing the tennis courts and planting grass. This problem is solved.

Controlling risk is proactive and it’s preparing for problems ahead of time. So, in the case of the tennis courts, the tennis courts could be resurfaced with a softer surface and first aid kits could be placed close-by. This would certainly solve the problem and might be an acceptable solution.

Transferring risk is moving the risk to another company. Let’s say we contracted with an insurance company to cover any accidents that occurred on the tennis courts. This would transfer the risk to the insurance company.

Insurance companies can provide coverage for both tenants and property owners. Tenants can buy insurance to cover their own personal property. Owners of rental property can buy insurance to cover, fire, flooding, and liability. An owner can also purchase insurance to cover loss of rent in the event of an emergency which causes tenants to relocate while repairs are being made.

Of course, one can always use the ostrich “head-in-the-sand” technique of “retaining” risk and hope nothing will ever happen. But, it’s the Property Manager’s duty to help property owners identify risks. And, this is relatively easy to do. Just follow the advice of the great philosopher Yogi Berra… “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

Property Managers need to also assess the risk that their own business is being subjected to. Remember, you are an in-between-man… between the tenant and the property owner. Either one of these parties could file suit against you and/or your company. So, be sure you cover this risk.