The Massachusetts Division of Occupational Safety (DOS), with regards to lead paint, has adopted new safety standards that apply to the renovation, repair, and painting (RRP) regulations. These amendments, effective July 9, 2010, apply to work in which more than 6 sq. feet of painted surface per room inside, or more than 20 sq. feet of painted surface outside, or window replacements where lead paint will be disturbed in target housing* or child-occupied facilities**, built before 1978.

Contractors who work in facilities under these criteria must be licensed as “Lead-Safe Renovation Contractors” by the Division of Occupational Safety. A person who has taken a “Lead-Safe Renovator-Supervisor” or “Certified Renovator” course and is in possession of a current certificate of training, must be on site and in control of the work at all times. Workers on site must be trained by the certified supervisor or a licensed training provider.

The work completed must be according to the work practice requirements in 454 CMR 22.00, as well as, testing of materials, work area isolation, exclusion of personnel, covering of objects, work methods, and cleanup. Record keeping and notification requirements are also included.

If the renovation work you are completing is subject to these terms, your business must become licensed, supervisors trained and certified, and workers trained. Failure to comply with these regulations may be subject to penalties.

*Target housing is defined as any residence built before 1978, with the exception of housing for elderly or persons with disabilities (unless a child under the age of 6 resides or is expected to reside), and zero-bedroom dwellings.

**A Child-Occupied Facility is defined as a building or portion of a building (built before 1978) that is visited by the same child of less than 6 yrs of age, for at least three hours a day, at least twice a week, for a combined weekly visit of at least six hours or 60 hours annually. These facilities may be located in target housing, or in public or commercial buildings. Any building that contains a child-occupied facility and has a common area that is routinely used by a child under the age of 6 yrs, is related. The external part of the building that is adjacent to the child-occupied facility is also encompassed by the child-occupied facility.

For detailed regulations, licensing applications, and FAQs check out The Massachusetts Division of Occupational Safety.

©2012 Business Concepts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Myth: All emails and texts are safe and private.

Fact: They are no longer private if a work-provided device is being used.

On June 17th, the Supreme Court ruled that public employers now have the right to view messages being sent via a work-provided device, if there is suspicion that work rules are being violated. It is not a violation of constitutional rights. After a related suit in the state of California had been taken to the Supreme Court, the justices said that the law tilts the balance in favor of the employer, not the employee. “Because the search was motivated by a legitimate work-related purpose and because it was not excessive in scope, the search was reasonable,” said Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in City of Ontario v. Quon. As a result, employees need to take heed and anticipate that their information is being viewed at all times.

So, where does this leave you, the private business owner? Well, remember that this involves public employers, not private. Essentially, this doesn’t apply to you. However, all employers should adopt and distribute policies that clearly state that employees should have no expectation of privacy while using employer-owned equipment, nor should they expect communications they make using employer-provided equipment and systems, such as email, text messages, cell phones, social media, and other avenues of technology, to be private. (Stoel Rives, Oregon law firm)

If it’s not necessary for the employee to use a device to complete their work, it is suggested that they not be provided with a company-owned device. In the case that an employee does need to use a device, try to regulate what is being viewed/sent on the phone. It may prove helpful to use a plan that provides only a limited amount of texts, minutes, or internet service. Personal information should be relegated to privately-owned equipment and systems. This will help avoid embarassment and potential legal issues for all parties involved.

©2012 Business Concepts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

For some reason we tend to trust our computers way too much with our priceless information. We load pictures, music, bank records, personal information, etc onto the machines thinking it’s all in safe keeping. Unfortunately, we forget that they are only machines and that they can get sick, stolen, ruined, and even crash without any warning. Isn’t it worth the time and money it takes to ensure the safety of your priceless information?

When you “back up” your computer, it means that you make a copy of the data to use if your files get lost and or destroyed AND that you can restore the data using these backed up files. Many of us perform the backup activity. (If you are still one of few out there who still doesn’t backup your data, please… DO IT! It’s easier than you think!) However, most of us wonder if we needed to actually restore our data from the backup copy, would it be there on the disk or drive like you thought it would be?

There are four basic options when it comes to deciding what medium to use to store your backup data. Each option has pros and cons and you need to decide what best suits your personality type and usage needs best.

• Removable Hardware- is a writable CD or DVD, flash drive, or USB storage. Writable CDs and DVDs allow you to be able to store data on a disc and then read it on any compatible computer. DVDs do hold more data than a CD, but both are good for a medium amount of data (music, videos, etc). Flash drives and USB storage components are good for transferring data from one computer to another, are portable, and easy to use. They, however, hold only small amounts of data.
• Software- where you can install it and “set it and forget it”. The good part is that you don’t need to think about backing up again until your storage runs out of room. The bad part is that you may need to dish out another penny or two to buy an external hard drive for more storage.
• Online Services- is done through online companies that keep your files protected in the “outer space” of the internet. This is a good because it keeps them safe from physical harm (fire, theft, flood), and also makes it so that you can access the files from any computer. Online backup is usually used in conjunction with backup software.
• External Drives- are small equipment ‘boxes’ that seem to be the solution of choice since they have such a large memory, are relatively cheap, and are portable. Essentially, all you have to do is plug it into a USB port, drag the files to the drive, and let it go to work.

Now for the “hard part”: You must remember to perform the backup! Some software programs can be set to remind you automatically, but you must do it when reminded, not just click ‘remind me later’!! Actually schedule a time once a week to perform that back up! And ‘just do it’!

Finally, you want to perform a check to make sure that a recovery will actually recover what you are expecting to recover. You can do this periodically. One of our clients uses Seagate (an excellent backup software and hardware), but keeps getting an error message that says something is not working correctly! Ignoring this message will jeopardize her files, and probably make her ‘restoration’ of files incomplete. We all know, if one file doesn’t get backed up properly, it’s probably the one that we really needed most! And, with any backup solution that you choose, remember to make an extra copy and it off-site, somewhere where it will be safe in case something happens to the original backup. (We keep our work backups out of the office in a fire proof and water proof safe.)

If you are interested in finding out information about specific products and pricing and reviews, go to www.cnet.com and type in the key word ‘backup software’. If you are interested in free backup software (many are very good even though they are free) type in the keyword ‘free’.

Here’s a staggering statistic- 4 out of 5 people have lost files on their computers, yet 64% only back up their hard drives every 2-3 months or less, according to the disaster recovery firm, Acronis. The reason for this is mainly because it used to be complicated and take up a lot of time. Now, however, there’s no excuse- it’s quick, painless, and simple. Stay tuned… more about data recovery and back up coming next week!

©2012 Business Concepts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Beginning the week of April 19th, small businesses should receive a postcard from the IRS. If you don’t get a postcard, check go to IRS.gov . This tax credit is designed to help small business owners like you be able to afford health care coverage for your valuable workers. If you pay employee health insurance premiums in 2010, you may be able to claim this new credit.

In order to be eligible, you must provide health care coverage to your workers, have less than twenty five full-time workers, and pay wages less than $50,000 annually. (Taxable and tax-exempt firms both qualify.) The amount of credit could be worth up to 35% of premiums paid in 2010.

Here’s how to figure out if your company is eligible to take advantage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (where does the government come up with these names?)

1. Determine the total number of workers. (Don’t include owners or family members)

Full-time workers + Full-time equivalent of part-time workers = Total Workers

(work at least 40 hrs/week) (divide total annual hrs of part-time workers by 2080)

If the total number of workers is fewer than 25, keep going!

2. Calculate the average annual wages of employees.

Total annual wages paid ÷ Number of workers (from step 1 above) = Average Wages

If the result is less than $50,000

3.) Do you pay at least 50% of health care premiums?

Then you may be eligible!

©2012 Business Concepts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Is that what you find happens in your business? Are you always fighting fires or starting to work on something only to find something else really needs your attention? As a business owner, we must create space and systems to help stay focused on the one thing that is the best use of our time at the moment. We also have to honor the schedule, plan, or commitments we have made to help us stay focused (my personal challenge!). Although the tips listed below are ‘simple’, you might find they are not easy to do at first. Try them out… stick with them. Remember, it takes at least 21 times (or more than 30 days) to change a new practice into a habit. It may take a few months to notice the change!

Here are 5 steps you need to take to re-teach your brain to fully focus.

The first step is to become aware of exactly what it is that is distracting you. Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted, suggests hiding your to-do list, position your desk so that you are facing a blank wall, turn off the radio and TV, and mute the sound on your computer. If you have to, you can even use earplugs.

The second step is to figure out the time of day when you’re most awake and productive. If you’re best time is the morning, that’s when you should get right to work. Your brain does, however, need to take a break after 90 minutes.

Step three is to set aside just 12 minutes a day of quiet time to relax, breathe deeply, and clear your thoughts and realign your focus. Then ask yourself, “What am I trying to accomplish?” This will help your brain focus on your intention.

Step four, maybe the easiest to follow, is to drink a cup of coffee or black or green tea. Caffeine is a genuine attention booster, according to some studies, and gives us pleasure. Enjoy yourself while you are improving!

Step five, last but not least, is to notice when you are getting sidetracked and then bring your focus back to what you are doing and move on. Just remind yourself of the goal and get back to where you need to be.

All of us are in business for ourselves to control our own destiny, have a bigger impact, have more freedom and make more money. Applying these simple tactics on a daily basis can help you more quickly achieve these goals and have a better sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

Do you feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of every work day?

©2012 Business Concepts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

In the movies, we watch our hero being sucked down into a pit of quicksand. Just before going under, he reaches out and grabs a tree branch or a rope from a friend to pull himself out! When we fall into uncertainty, oftentimes our rope, the structure we need to help us out of our rut, is just beyond our reach. It seems like the more we try, the harder we commit, the more the goal evades us, and the right choices become less apparent. As with quicksand, the more you struggle, the faster you sink. Fear and doubt creep in. They cripple you, preventing you from pursuing your goal, no matter how badly you want it. During these times, we need to reach for a structure to help pull us out of our stuck place.

Dr. Jeffrey E. Auerbach, in his book Personal and Executive Coaching, discusses a structure that I use on a daily basis to help myself, my family and my clients get out of the places they feel are like quicksand in their lives. It’s called the “GOOD” Model and it is used to identify what the desired goal is, what obstacles are preventing us from achieving the goal, and what options are at our disposal. Once we see that we have choices, we can do something. We can then get back on track, and take small action steps -moving forward on the path of hope and purpose. We feel more inspired and that inspiration gives us what we need to create new behaviors. Concisely, the “GOOD” model stands for Goal, Obstacles, Options, and Do-actions.

Take Martha, for example. She was absolutely stuck, drowning in a sea of unbelievable responsibility. Over the last year, she and her husband had taken their ‘small’ business and launched it into a multi-million dollar venture. She was happy, she thought, but clients, vendors, employees and accounting were becoming overwhelming. She had wanted to create this successful business, but now she felt trapped, as if she were out of control. She was afraid someone would discover that she wasn’t doing as good of a job as she should be. She was falling behind in her bookkeeping. Even though it appeared as though she were ‘living the American dream’, she was actually drowning in quicksand. The more work she did, the harder she ran, the faster she fell behind. She needed a rope to pull herself out of the quicksand. When I first introduced her to the “GOOD” model, she laughed. While it might be a good idea for some, she said, Martha was skeptical that it was robust enough to help with her problems. Although I understood, I asked her if she would humor me. Being desperate for a change, she decided she would walk through the process and picked her biggest challenge: the backlogged accounting work.

Martha’s goal was clear: She was 9 months behind on recording the financial transactions of the company and since she was the head instructor, she did not have time to sit in the office day after day to catch up on the required data entry task. She needed the books brought up-to-date, immediately.

It was easy for Martha to identify the obstacles she saw that were keeping her from achieving her goal. First of all, she had too many responsibilities on her plate. Secondly, because she was actually trained to do accounting, she felt she could not hire out the job — that would be a waste of money. The third obstacle was that she could never trust someone else with the financial details of her business. Lastly, and after some digging, we discovered that Martha didn’t really want to do the accounting for the farm. She wanted to pursue her true passion: teaching the students.

The options that we uncovered for Martha as we moved through the “GOOD” model included hiring out the job to someone (maybe even the CPA), getting one of the other employees to do it, delegating some of her responsibilities to make time in the day for accounting work, or choose to do nothing about the backlog. Once Martha was able to see that the problem had a finite set of options (in her case, there were four), she could stop thrashing around.

At first, Martha didn’t like her options, but she began to see that she had choices. She felt hopeful. She could take responsibility and make a decision. She could see some small, possible, action steps to take. If she chose one of the options, and later realized that it wasn’t working, she was free to change her choice! The structure of the “GOOD” model was pulling her out of the quicksand and empowering her to do something positive towards her goal of catching up on the backlog. Someone had thrown her a rope she could reach!

At times, we all need an outside influence to help us walk through the “GOOD” model. But, no one knows you better than yourself, so no one can empower you better than yourself. Martha’s story reminds us that when we have focus, purpose, and choices, we are not victims of circumstance. No matter what life throws at us, we can slow it down and evaluate what we really have. Martha now disciplines herself to walk through the “GOOD” model whenever she falls into the chaos-pit. She remembers that wrapping a structure around her goals allows her to get back on track and live the life she loves. I challenge you to apply the “GOOD” model to that place in your life where you want to get un-stuck. See if it will work for you. Empower yourself today!

©2012 Business Concepts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

How similar are your values?

Yes, yes, we know. You bring different things to the table, and what you are good at, your partner is not. Yes, I know you both work hard and respect people. But what about the ‘rest of the values’ that are core to who you each are? Before you jump into the partnership, can you accurately evaluate where you and your partners are the same and where you are different? Do those areas ‘matter’?

• Can you happily tie one leg to them and risk your pride, your money and your ‘ideas’ for an extended period of your life?
• Are you willing to possibly risk your family, your future, and your lost opportunity of not being able to pursue something else because you have created this partnership?
• Do you really work better with others than you work with yourself?
• Are you a high achiever?
• Are your partners all high achievers?
• Are you going to ‘get sick and tired’ of some of the partners after the thrill of launching a new business wears off.
• Will you be able to function in this partnership and blossom as a Better, Stronger person while achieving your goals? Or, will you lose yourself in an attempt to compromise or overcompensate to make the partnership work?

Now that you have evaluated your similarities in values, how will you resolve conflict with your partners in the areas you don’t always agree?
Conflict in a business will be inevitable. It’s just like life. The most significant times handling conflict becomes important is when it has to do with the direction of the company, how to handle a sensitive issue, or a decision regarding money, clients, employees or priorities. Fear is a funny thing, and when emotions are high, usually fear is involved and it makes even the most rational individuals, irrational.

Evaluate how you currently handle conflict on a daily basis. Will your way work well for you and your partners? If you do not handle conflict well in your everyday life, how will you do a better job in the partnership? Here are seven great questions to evaluate how you handle conflict now and some indicators of how you might handle conflict with a business partner.

• Can you learn a new way to handle conflict?
• Can you disagree without being disagreeable?
• Can you speak up for yourself and what’s important to you?
• Do you have good boundaries?
• Do you have passive aggressive tendencies?
• Are you ok with Conflict and Disagreement?
• Are your partner(s) very verbal or not? Are you?
• Ask yourself, Can I spend a lot of time with these people? (Or this person?) Do I like, know and really trust this person (or persons). Do you know these people well enough that you could predict how they probably would decide given certain choices?

Before you become partners is the time to really evaluate how you handle conflict honestly, not when one of your partners has found someone to sell the company to, or wants to bring in his brother in-law to work for you.

If you are already partners, how can you use these talking points to build communication around handling conflict before you need it?

The bottom line is you and these partners have to run a three legged race.

No one wants to talk about it when things are rosy and you just want to move forward and sign the lease, but ‘stop, drop and roll’. As one of my clients lamented after things turned negative in her partnership ‘what did I think? We were all going to just stand around, holding hands and sing kum-ba-ya when things got tough? Why didn’t I ask more questions?’

All of us know someone who has started into a business partnership with lots of good ideas and good intentions. Most of us know one or two where it turned out ok and some of us even know partnerships that still exist and are going strong. However, the statistics are clear: most partnerships do not work because ultimately, the relationship between the partners was not the most important piece of the business.

Handling conflict with grace and tact requires a high degree of emotional intelligence, clarity, and commitment both to what values you hold and to yourself. But, ultimately, for partnerships to work, compromise has to be at the heart of it. That means egos have to be checked at the door and the relationship must come first. It’s a lot of work, but we know people who have done it. Do you?

©2012 Business Concepts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

We suggest that each of the potential partners answer these questions in writing.

Why in writing, you ask? Any of us can do hand-waiving and make it sound good, and even convince ourselves. However, hand-waiving will not put food on the table or keep you out of court.

If you ‘Just want a Partner’, do you have a reason? What is your ‘why’?

• Do you and your potential partners have similar values?
• Are you in similar stages in life?
• Are you in complementary stages in life?
• If one of you is single, and one of you is married and has teenagers, you both will not be working to midnight each night to ‘get a project done’. Does that matter to you?
• Will it matter to you if you are the one doing “all the work” for the next 4 years? For some this is ok. For others, it is not.

Are you ‘really partners’?

In what way? What does that mean to each of the potential members of the partnership?

• Will you both be able to contribute the same ‘amount’ of money, time, intellectual property, sweat equity?
• If not the same amount, will you be able to contribute the same proportion of value? Will one of you contribute all the cash and the other all the sweat equity?
• How will you measure this?
• How will you quantify it when you want to do a comparison? How will you determine if one of the partners has done ‘more work’ this year and should get a bigger ‘bonus’? Will you vote on this? What if you only have two partners? Who will cast the deciding vote (see the last point.)?
• Will one of you be expected to cover work each time there is an emergency because of personalities or home requirements? Will you rotate?

Generally, there is always someone who tends to do a little ‘more’ work and someone who tends to ‘do’ a little less than others. Is this ok? Will the shares of ownership reflect this? Will you do an LLC or an LLP that can change the percentages each year to better reflect contribution or will you set up a fixed partnership of a Subchapter S Corp or C corp.? (talk to your attorney)

Someone must be the leader.

Who will have that extra 1%? As a stockholder, what is that person going to do to give them the right to own 51% and ultimately make the decisions if there is a disagreement? (In the case of 3 partners, who gets the 34%?)

What if you are doing a 30/70 split?
How will you decide this ratio?

It is not typically decided on using the ‘work load’ model, it is typically decided on by ‘what value’ that person brought to the partnership (i.e. money, contacts, experience, etc.) P.S. Money always trumps everything else.

If you are the larger shareholder (i.e. you decide to have the 51% or the 70% ownership), you will typically be a 70% shareholder and receive the bulk of the profits. However, the law also says that you have a fiduciary responsibility to the smaller partners financially. This means that you will have a special legal relation of trust, confidence, or responsibility in certain obligations to others.

This is serious and if there are conflicts, the laws tend to protect the little ‘guy’. (If you go into a partnership, make sure your lawyer has explained this part of the agreement clearly to you and make sure you understand what is at risk. This is above our pay grade at BCI, but we have excellent lawyers to refer you to if you need them.)

Have you ever decided to have a partner and later regretted that decision? What about those of you who have partners and are better for it? Let us know about your experience…

Check in later and we’ll talk about the question of : How will you Resolve conflict as partners?

©2012 Business Concepts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

3 Basic Questions to ask Before Incorporating

Everyone wants a partner in business. Why? It seems like it could be more fun, easier, and that partners could fill the gap in skills that you don’t have. These are valid reasons. However, in the last 12 years of working with Entrepreneurs, we find most who want partners can’t articulate why. Here are three basic questions to ask yourself, and your potential partners, before spending money on a lawyer to incorporate your business together.

1. Who will Do What?
Companies do not need two people at the top who do the same thing. They don’t need two who are both good at sales, both good at operations, or both good technologists. Companies need all facets of the business covered and each founding member needs to be able pull their ‘weight’ in their area of expertise. Does everyone who is being considered to be a partner have a unique ‘offering’?

Potential partners must be able to articulate what ‘job’ in the partnership they intend on performing, and what values or skills he/she brings to the partnership. Conversely, each potential partner should be able to clearly explain what his ‘partners’ will be doing in the company and how each of those roles is unique.

2. What is the Distribution of Work?
Generally, there are four pillars of business: Marketing, Sales, Operations and Administration. Inside these pillars are four processes that make up the business of the business and include New Product Development, Sales, Delivery, and Customer Service or Post Sales. So, which of the partners will:

• Oversee selling the product?
• Delivering the service?
• How much of the total process is sales?
• Will you have employees? Who will oversee them?

To be successful, these duties and percentages must be defined.

3. Can the Business Hire this expertise?

a. If the business is predominately one person’s idea, ask yourself, do you really need a partner? Could you hire these skills through contractors, interns and, in the future, loyal employees?

b. Could you make the business work if you formed this partnership and your partner suddenly leaves you (dies, moves, quits)? Would the company fold without your partner?

Do you ‘just want’ a partner? Some people love the idea of having a partner, so even though their answers indicate they don’t need one, some just want to be part of a ‘partnership’. This is ok, but must be recognized for what it is. We’ll be talking next about Partner Questions to ensure success if you do partner up!

If you can answer all these questions, and still feel excited about creating a business partnership, go see a good business attorney. A good attorney will have a many other questions to help you prepare to be successful! If you need a referral, call or email us at info@business-concepts.biz and we can refer you a list of the ones we have used and liked.

©2012 Business Concepts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This blog is going to be very specific around the topics that business owners and CEOs care about. I’ll apologize up front…there won’t be any cute discussions about our dogs or our employees’ kids. No, there is only one point of this blog, just as there is only one point of our business: We are on a mission to empower entrepreneurs to build bold and fulfilling companies and keep more of the money they make. As such, each of our posts or discussion threads will be focused on the things that are top of mind to the CEO and help them gain clients and make money… Hence the name of the blog: The CEO’s Agenda.

Things that we are going to talk about include: Should I

• have a partner?
• incorporate?
• help my employees with benefits?
• How to handle operational issues?
• When to seek outside assistance?
• When to hire that first employee, or the 20th one?
• How to think about branding, positioning, and who your customers really are, and
• What are the problems your company solves?

Once in a while we might even venture into the scary sales area, since if it’s not on the top of mind of the CEO, you might need a new CEO! And, of course, what if your business is killing you? How does the CEO or business owner or partner decide what to do then? How does an executive decide to hire a mentor/coach/advisor? How does an entrepreneur ask for help without losing the power of being the leader? All excellent topics and since we’ve been there ourselves, we have a lot of opinions on what works, and what doesn’t.

Please feel free to share your perspectives often. The small business owner and start up entrepreneurs need good, solid experiential stories from others who have either learned the hard way, or learned from someone else!

©2012 Business Concepts Inc. All Rights Reserved.