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Planning essential for business recovery

Paige Kuhlmann, a business continuity consultant with the Louisiana Small Business Development Center, housed at Nicholls State University, said a written plan is the first, best way to prevent a disaster from crushing your business.

“If you’re like most small businesses, every hour counts when you try to respond to a disaster,” she said. “You need to have a plan that will get you back up and running as soon as possible.”

That starts, Kuhlmann said, with assessing risks. In South Louisiana, that obviously means hurricanes.

Once a business owner knows their risks, they need to write a plan for how to respond.

“A lot of people say, ‘Well, I don’t need to sit and write this down, we’ll just remember it,’” Kuhlmann said. “But memory is a poor aid during a disaster.”

The plan should let every employee know their role in the response. “Every employee should know exactly what they are responsible for if something happens,” Kuhlmann said. “Who is going to keep the documents? Who will be the first person to open up the office? Who is going to be in touch with disaster officials? You need to set all this up beforehand.”

If an evacuation is necessary, it’s important to know who will come back when. That means picking a handful of employees who are essential to operation — those who aren’t essential or who can do their jobs remotely should be kept out of the area until the situation stabilizes. she said.

If the disaster is severe enough, getting back may require special registration.

According to the Louisiana State Police website, large-scale disasters that require an extended clean-up process trigger a three-tiered permit process.

Tier One businesses include those that contract with the state for clean-up efforts and those who handle hazardous materials. Tier Two businesses include health care providers, animal recovery, and “critical infrastructure” businesses. Tier Three business are those that don’t return until the all-clear is given.

For a Tier One or Tier Two permit, businesses must apply with their local governments, which determine which tier is applicable. Forms can be found at the websites of both the Lafourche, www.lafourchegov.org, and Terrebonne, www.tpcg.org, parish governments.

Any employee entering the disaster area before the all-clear must have a government-issued placard with his or her tier status. That limits the number of employees that can enter early.

Whoever returns first, an emergency plan should include every employee’s contact information, Kuhlmann said, including where they plan to evacuate. When possible, it should include an “evacuation landline,” because cell phones often don’t work after major disasters.

Evacuation doesn’t just mean moving people — it means moving equipment and information. Any disaster plan should include a list of sensitive equipment and documents that need to be transported out of harm’s way.

A small business owner should keep a file with copies of important documents someplace away from the office. This includes licenses, contracts, insurance information, personnel files, and any other important paperwork. For insurance purposes, this file should also include pictures of the office before any catastrophe and a list of equipment housed at the office.

Sometimes a truly severe disaster can ruin even carefully-laid plans. That’s where the Small Business Administration can help.The SBA offers low-interest disaster response loans to small business owners affected by declared disasters, according to Alex Contreras, with the SBA office of disaster assistance.

Contreras said business owners can get up to $2 million for both physical damage and economic losses resulting from a disaster.

“That money lets them pay their bills, meet payroll, and basically keep the business afloat while they get back on their feet,” Contreras said.

The SBA can only offer the loans during officially-declared emergencies. If such an emergency is declared, SBA officials move into the affected areas. Small business owners can request a loan from the agency, which will send out agents to assess the damage and structure an appropriate loan.

That’s where Contreras said a written business plan is essential.

“We always strongly advise businesses to create a disaster preparation plan,” he said. “Businesses that are prepared are the best positioned to return.”

Contreras said business owners shouldn’t rely on agencies like the SBA to save them from disasters.

“You can’t be sure you’re going to be approved,” he said. “Besides, a lot of these things are smaller events that don’t get declared.”

If an emergency is declared, business owners can find an SBA office by calling 1-800-689-2955, or by visiting www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance.

Staff Writer Matthew Albright can be reached at 448-7635.

Office 365 goes live, gives SMBs a taste of the enterprise

Microsoft today launched Office 365, its cloud-based productivity and collaboration suite, in 40 countries around the world. Office 365 combines access to Exchange e-mail, Lync messaging, SharePoint collaboration, the Office Web Apps, all into one monthly subscription.

Seven different price plans are available; one for small businesses and individuals, at $6 per user per month, four enterprise plans from $10 to $27 per user per month, and two for kiosk workers, priced at $4 and $10 per person per month. The small business and enterprise plans all offer 25 GB of e-mail, SharePoint access, and Lync messaging; the more expensive price tiers then add Office Web App access, the full desktop Office suite, and Lync voice capabilities. There’s also an à la carte option allowing mix-and-match selection of features if the standard plans don’t fit an organization’s needs. The enterprise plans are more expensive than the comparably featured small business plan, but offer better support—the small business plan has no phone support—and better security—HTTPS access to SharePoint is only found on enterprise plans.

Office 365 will also replace the current Live@edu set of cloud services for educational institutions. This service is still yet to go live, however.

Announcing the product’s launch, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer particularly emphasized the value Office 365 can offer small businesses. Unlike BPOS, Microsoft’s previous cloud-hosted Exchange, SharePoint, and Office Communications offering, which had a five-seat minimum, Office 365 can be used even for single-person businesses. Small organizations have access to the full range of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync capabilities, with almost none of the administrative overhead. Ballmer claimed that this levels the playing field between small and large companies, saying that Office 365 gives “small and midsize businesses powerful collaboration tools that have given big businesses an edge for years.”

With its new support for Office and Office Web Apps, Office 365 has a more extensive feature set than BPOS, drawing natural comparisons with cloud suites like Google Apps and Zoho. A unique strength Microsoft has in this area is the full desktop Office application—recognizing both that the Web applications are not yet suitable for all tasks, and that not all users are able to be online at all times. Support for sharing files with Office 365 will also be built in to the Mango update to Windows Phone, to provide better mobile access.

Microsoft promises 99.9 percent availability with Office 365. Its BPOS service has suffered numerous bouts of downtime lately—most recently, network connectivity problems preventing North American customers from using their e-mail. Though Office 365 is a different system from BPOS, it may be some time before the new platform can regain the trust lost by its predecessor.

Also released today is Office 2010 Service Pack 1. A comprehensive pack of security fixes, the release notes claim it updates Outlook to support Office 365.

Wedding plans bloom as NY legalizes gay marriage

By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press
–
14 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — As the news flashed around the globe that New York state had legalized gay marriage, New York fashion designer Malcolm Harris didn’t waste any time. He dashed off a Twitter message to his boyfriend of nine years: “‘Will you marry me?”

A city away, in Boston, Bernadette Smith decided to immediately relocate her business planning gay weddings to New York City.

In Brooklyn, pastors Ann Kansfield and Jennifer Aull received their first two requests to wed gay couples at their church in the borough’s Greenpoint section. They scheduled one for Labor Day weekend.

Even as supporters of gay marriage celebrated victory in New York on Saturday, preparations were being made to make gay weddings a reality in the state.

Couples who had talked about going out-of-state to wed changed their plans. Reception venues got their first calls. Churches that accept gay unions said they were looking forward to hosting ceremonies.

After a lifetime of waiting, there was a sense of urgency.

The law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo late Friday night doesn’t take effect for 30 days, but Harris — who got a “yes” to his Twitter proposal — said he and fiancé K. Tyson Perez planned to get a marriage license right away, wed on paper, and then have a blowout reception in six months.

“I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with him,” Harris said.

“This is going to be as traditional as it gets. We’re going to do it at the Four Seasons, a place that is like gay church to me,” he added about the atmospheric restaurant where he planned to hold the event.

The law passed amid opposition from the largest and most influential religious groups in the state, but in New York City, at least, there were still an ample number of churches that have already said they would happily officiate a gay marriage ceremony.

The Rev. Stephen H. Phelps, senior minister at the Riverside Church, in Manhattan, said he was looking forward to replacing the commitment ceremonies that have been done there for years with something state-sanctioned.

“I think it is an occasion for members of our society who have been burned by narrow-minded religion to see that it doesn’t have to be that way,” he said.

At a gay pride celebration in Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park, the Rev. Joseph Tolton of the Rehoboth Temple Christ Conscious Church, a Pentecostal congregation that is predominantly gay, said he couldn’t wait to start.

“I’m going to be very busy on Saturdays,” he said.

Congregants Yvonne Lindesay, 55, and her partner Elaine Livingston, 62, said they’re planning to get married after living together for two years, after watching the results of New York’s critical Senate vote on television Friday night.

“I cried. Our phone was ringing off the hook — from straight people too,” Lindesay said.

Smith, who founded a gay wedding planning business in Massachusetts after it legalized gay marriage, said she had been hoping to relocate to New York for some time, and had already begun laying the groundwork to establish a New York officer for her company, 14 Stories, in anticipation of the vote.”

The move is partly a matter of survival, she said. Over seven years, her client list has been dominated by people traveling to Massachusetts from elsewhere to wed — a type of tourism that may now shift to the Big Apple.

“I was supposed to have a gay wedding today with a gay couple from New York,” she said. “They were a no-show. Of course, for a good reason.”

She said New York has quite a set of parties to look forward to.

“The weddings are incredible,” she said. “I think maybe because there is a lot of pent up anticipation … It’s really about appreciating and savoring the legality of it. Because some couples have literally been waiting for years and years. To be around that energy, where they are not taking a thing for granted … there’s usually not a dry eye in the room.”

At the Greenpoint Reformed Church, Aull said she and co-pastor Kansfield, who got married themselves in Massachusetts years ago, have presided over same-sex unions before. But she expects there will be something different, more joyous, about being able to do it legally at home.

“There is always a little bit of a bittersweet aspect when you are doing a marriage, and there is a sense that it is not recognized by anyone,” she said.

Associated Press reporter Julie Walker contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

HORAN Hires Chief Financial Officer

Kurt Krebs, CPA Joins the HORAN Team

CINCINNATI, June 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Cincinnati-based HORAN, a leading consultant in employee benefits and financial services, proudly welcomes Kurt Krebs as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

“Kurt is charged with all fiscal management aspects of the company,” states Terry Horan, President and CEO. “He will be an excellent addition to our team, with his extensive experience in planning and policy-making to ensure compliance with local, state and federal requirements.”

Kurt provides leadership and coordination of the company administrative, business planning, accounting and budgeting efforts as well as due diligence to create, coordinate and evaluate the financial programs and supporting information systems of the company to include budgeting, tax planning, real estate and conservation of assets.

“I’m excited and honored to be joining the HORAN team,” said Kurt. “HORAN exemplifies integrity, teamwork and community involvement. I’m looking forward to building on the growth HORAN has recently experienced.”

Prior to joining HORAN, Kurt worked as Line of Business CFO at Fifth Third Bank, Audit Manager at Ernst Young, and as a Financial Analyst at Kraft Foods.

Kurt earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accountancy from The University of Notre Dame and is a designated Certified Public Accountant.

Kurt lives in Loveland with his wife Bridget and three children.

About HORAN

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio with office locations in Kenwood, Butler County and Dayton, HORAN is one of the largest privately held insurance and financial services organizations in the Greater Cincinnati-State region. HORAN specializes in life insurance for estate and business planning, employee benefits consulting and wealth management.

HORAN’S qualified staff represents more than 450 companies and 200,000 individuals and manages more than $700 million of assets for its clients. More than 8 % of the Greater Cincinnati Tri-State population is covered by health insurance offered through HORAN, and our clients now span locations in most of the United States.

HORAN is able to offer best -in-class solutions to its clients through its proprietary membership in three premier organizations, M Financial Group, United Benefit Advisors and Retirement Planning Advisory Group.

For more than 60 years, HORAN has served as a trusted advisor and thorough planner to both individuals and companies. Our integrity and industry knowledge are foundations upon which HORAN has built a reputation for delivering high quality products and services. For more information visit horanassoc.com.

Media Contact:
Emily Frizzi
513-745-0707
emilyf@horanassoc.com

SOURCE HORAN

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Rising Star: Crystal Grave, snappy web CEO

Crystal Grave’s career move came while planning a friend’s wedding. Grave used the information she gathered to create Snappening.com, a Web-based database that puts potential customers in contact with vendors.

Grave, who has a marketing background and formerly worked in business development at Barnes Thornburg, had experience in event planning.

“In the midst of doing the search for my friend, I realized how cumbersome and annoying it was to find local event venues, and that for someone who doesn’t have a familiarity with event planning, it would be daunting,” she said.

Snappening is similar to Travelocity in that it connects consumers to local event venues and planners.

“Once you put in your data points, you can use that to contact event planners to get quotes and contact venues directly,” said Grave, who launched Snappening in March.

The site offers about 1,800 venues and 100 event planners. It currently serves the metropolitan Indianapolis area and is looking to expand. Most information on the site is free, but users can opt for a more robust search for a fee.

The launch of Snappening fulfills Grave’s dream of business ownership.

“I always had an entrepreneurial spirit to provide a service to people,” she said.

How did you manage to stand out in a crowd and advance quickly in your career?

My motivation comes from having an idea and making whatever I was working on better. You are finding a need in the community. My dedication and passion for improving my interest in innovation has been key to launching my company.

What was your first job or entrepreneurial experience? How did it impact your future?

Entrepreneurship, for me, started as soon as I figured math and money. That was somewhere between 6 and 8 years old. When I was young, I had lemonade stands and sold cookies.

I think a lot of that shaped my foundation for seeing issues and problems and attempting to conquer those problems. I’ve never met a challenge that I haven’t been willing to tackle head-on.

What’s the toughest mistake you ever made, and what did you learn from it?

Sometimes it’s difficult to be in a corporate environment and have limitations regarding budgets or politics. I had to learn early on that just because something is a great idea doesn’t mean it will come to fruition. I had to learn to pick which battles to go for head-on.

How important is it to have a mentor? Did anyone in particular help you advance in your career?

It’s crucial to have mentors. You can learn everything you want from a book, but it doesn’t substitute for someone who has been there, done that.

My prior employer sponsors a group called the Venture Club, a club of entrepreneurs. I derived a lot of information from that. I am a big fan of just asking people who generally know something better. I pick mentors everywhere I go. It’s important to have people to talk to and bounce ideas off of.

What advice would you give to other young people wanting to start a Web-based business?

The biggest thing to starting Snappening was putting it down on paper and making a business plan. Find one of the most complicated, thorough business models that ask a lot of questions about how you are going to run the company. It’s a good process before you commit cash or get partners involved.

The next thing I tell a lot of people is if you don’t believe in yourself or idea, then no one will.