Archive
New Testimonial from Alan Weiss
Thankful to Alan Weiss for this new testimonial…
© 2-13 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
May Day Precautions and Prevention Lessons
I will never forget last year’s May Day protests. My wife Barb and I were in New York City and sat in Bryant Park watching protesters peacefully march with signs around the Big Apple. The New York City Police were out in force, looked serious about their jobs, and everyone stayed cool, calm, and collected. We never felt like we were in danger, nor felt fearful. Imagine our surprise when we returned to our hotel and saw our very own Seattle on the news. May Day riots were out of control in the downtown area with protesters smashing windows and setting cars on fires. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Here I was safe and sound in one of the biggest cities in the world, and my relatively small hometown was being ravaged.
This year, things are different. The police have already started preparations and are sure not to be caught flat-footed again. In addition, businesses are being much smarter. I just saw a push notification on my phone indicating that US Bank in downtown Seattle was closing up shop at 3 pm due to the expected protests. They made a decision in the best interest of their customers and employees. While they might not be able to prevent damage to their building, they do have control over the people they serve and employ. While it might be a slight disruption for customers, my guess is that it pales in comparison to anyone being injured.
The lesson for you as a business owner is this…
You need to learn from history. I can’t tell you how many times in my years as an insurance agent and consultant, where I have seen business owners ignore history and trends to their detriment. For example, if you have a fleet of cars that continually racks up rear-end accidents, and you take no preventative action to educate and/or discipline your drivers, you will fall victim to larger self insurance costs, higher premiums, and loss of production and revenue. In this case today, US bank knows it’s located right in the heart of the rally. They know that banks are a target. They saw what happened last year. They made a decision to avoid calamity in the places they can control. Kudos to them.
You need to be skilled at spotting trends. If you have a strong, professional relationship with your insurance agent, they should help you. This is an area that consultants are invaluable. The net result of learning from history is that you don’t repeat the bad stuff; only the good stuff! At least one business in downtown Seattle has figured it out. Have you in your business?
© 2013 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
Crisis Prevention, Planning, and Response
I just got done speaking to a tremendous group of women business owners and executives in New Jersey. They just went through a devastating storm last October that was unprecedented in its impact to communications, transportation, and power loss. We spoke about that storm, as well as other crises that can impact their businesses like – loss of power, data breach, and employee issues.
Here is what I heard loud and clear from them…
- They want to improve their ability to communicate to employees and customers in a crisis. That means setting up layers of redundancy in case of loss of power, email, cell phones, or whatever other methods are being used.
- They want a plan that is in place to deal with any crisis that comes around the bend. It must be something that is repeatable, intentional, and practiced.
- Speaking of practice, most business owners and executives rarely set out practice plans (i.e. fire drills or corporate war game scenarios). How do you know it works if you never practice?
My recommendation is to set up a 3-step process for disaster planning…
Step 1 – Set a budget to include insurance premiums, outside consulting help, technology, and internal controls. This will be different for everyone due to insurance premiums, number of employees, and perils.
Step 2 – Go through disaster and crisis prevention response and planning. Allocate at least 8 hours out of an entire year to do this and re-commit annually.
Step 3 – Buy the insurance, monitor your plan, then relax and do what you do best in your business.
You can drive yourself crazy and easily drift into analysis paralysis if you allow yourself to. Make the process simple and move forward. The problem for most businesses is that they never spend the fraction of the time they need to prepare. Doing this little process by itself may save you tens of thousands of dollars, if not more.
© 2013 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
‘Til the Landslide Brought Me Down…
These lyrics from Stevie Nicks are from her popular song, “Landslide.” For the people living in Coupeville, WA ( near my hometown of Oak Harbor), these are all too frighteningly real.
Houses perched atop a beautiful bluff overlooking the water are now dangling perilously over the edge after a landslide tore apart the hillside. The topic of insurance has been raised as many of these homes find themselves uninsured due to a common exclusion that isn’t fully understood by the average insurance buyer.
Everyone knows about earthquake insurance and they know it’s excluded on the homeowners policy. If you live in an area that needs it, you will pay a hefty price tag to carry the coverage. Many go without it for natural reasons. Newer homes built out of frame and not in a slide area are low risk. Why pay a lot of money on insurance when the chance of ever needing it is so low and the cost of the insurance and your deductible are so high? In many cases, that is a valid argument and I have often recommended a client NOT purchase the coverage because I didn’t see a huge exposure.
That is different for these poor folks with a house on the edge…
You see, the exclusion in your homeowners policy does not say “Earthquake.” It says, “Earth Movement.” On the standard homeowners policy, insurance carriers are not going to pay for damage done by either earthquake or earth movement. Earth movement is much more likely. Heavy rains cause earth movement. Changing conditions cause earth movement. Natural disasters (other than earthquake) cause earth movement. And, because many of these folks are not worried about earthquake, they eschew the coverage called “earth movement.”
Here is the deal…
If you own a home near or on a bluff, hillside, cliff, or ledge, you need to purchase earthquake insurance. Your real risk is more likely to be earth movement and this insurance policy picks that up, too. Take a look at your property. If you believe your house can be damaged by some earth movement because the direction it moves causes it to fall off the side of the word, it’s in your best interest to buy the coverage. Don’t be tricked by the mane of the policy. Earthquake insurance protects for more than just the big shaker. It protects the value of your home if it slip slides away.
My heat goes out to these folks, whether they have insurance coverage or not. We pray that the houses avoid going down the hillside. For those of you watching from afar, use it as a lesson. Look at your home and the concern related to earth movement. If you are even at all worried, you need to talk with your insurance agent and find out what the cost is. It may end up being the best insurance you ever buy.
© 2013 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
How’s Your Personal Insurance Fitness?
How’s your personal insurance fitness?
Dan Weedin
In my experience as an insurance consultant, 8 out of 10 individuals/families suffer from one of two maladies. They are either obese (overpaying for insurance) or they are weaklings (inadequate protection). In about 60% of the cases, they are both. And, just like your physical fitness level, being one or both of these can cause chronic pain, loads of lost time and frustration, and sometimes even total collapse.
I know you’re besieged in the media by NFL star “discount double checks;” Progressive Flo’s kooky plugs; and graduates of company universities trying to protect you from things that go boom! The thing you must remember is that they are all trying to sell you a policy.
I’d like to offer you a special opportunity to makeover your insurance fitness this week. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day this weekend, I want to help you find some more “green” out of your insurance. I have no ulterior motives – I don’t sell insurance, won’t harm your relationship with your agent, and only want to find ways to transform your “fitness” level to protect your most valuable assets.
Here is how this special offer works…
Through 5:00 pm Pacific time on Friday, March 15th, you can get a personal insurance fitness exam up to three insurance policies for a ridiculously low investment. I normally charge $350 for a complete exam. Starting now through Friday at 5:00 pm, you can get this for only $200.
Here’s what you do…
- You go to my Quick Pay portal on my web site and pay me – http://weedin360.com/quick-pay – Make sure you write in the comments section “Personal Insurance Fitness Exam.”
- I contact you and we set up a time to talk and for me to get your insurance policies.
- Within 72 hours after getting your policies, you will receive an unvarnished diagnostic summary of the good, the bad, and the ugly. It will include suggestions for improvement and recommendations to save you money.
- You will end up thanking me. And/or your agent will call me thanking me for finding potential problems that they weren’t aware of (has happened three times).
You know you’ve never read your policies. You have put complete trust in your agent and that is fine; but it’s simply negligent to never check and not really know if the one thing meant to protect you and your family from financial ruin isn’t adequate (or if you’re spending too much.)
Rave reviews from happy clients – Read more – http://www.insurancego2guy.com/testimonials.php
You go to the doctor to check out your own physical fitness and health level. Why not find out how fit you are in your insurance?
Trim the fat, beef up your muscle, and enhance your own peace of mind.
© 2013 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
Foresight 20/20 Video Series: Episode #2 – Lost in Cyberspace
Cyber crime is a huge peril that often gets overlooked by business owners and executives. This episode will focus on steps you can take to prevent a crisis dealing with the volatile world of technology.
© 2013 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
Avoiding the Dreaded Nose in the Rear
A funny thing happened on the way to the living room.
My mother occasionally uses a wheelchair to move back and forth from the bathroom to the living room, and I’m the chauffeur. As we took the straightaway down the hall, Captain Jack and Bella burst in front of the wheelchair and made a beeline to the living room, obviously in a hurry to claim their favorite spots.
Bella was in front with Jack in close pursuit. As the entry into the living room came up, Bella put on the breaks to make the corner. Jack was following too closely and couldn’t stop. BANG! Captain Jack’s nose smacked Bella right in the rear and catapulted her about half a foot and she skidded into the living room. Jack shook off his nose and as he entered the living room, Bella greeted him with an indignant WOOF and a right cross (which narrowly missed the good Captain).
Funniest thing I’ve seen in awhile. I wish I could have captured it in video, but those things rarely do. My first thought – following too closely and road rage!
Rear end accidents happen every day on our roads, and the main reason is following too closely. If you’re business includes sending people out into the roadways driving huge machines with the capability of destruction and your company name on the side, then you’d better do your due diligence on prevention…
- Make sure you consistently train your employees on safe driving practices. Yes, they will get tired of hearing it but who cares. Keep pounding in the message and make sure they sign off that they heard it.
- Run Motor Vehicle Reports every year on any driver – both personal and commercial. If your driver has a Commercial Drivers License, they are required to tell you if they pick up any ticket, even one when driving on personal time.
- Set up a mentoring program for new drivers. Use veterans to ride with them, observe them, and mentor them. Offer incentives to the mentors based on results. Now everybody has skin in the game and you are the benefactor.
Bottom line – you CAN prevent auto accidents. You CAN avoid all the hidden costs that come with accidents. And, if you overlook this part, its more your fault when accidents occur.
If you take the time to committing to your drivers proactively, you will save tens of thousands of dollars because the accident just simply never occurs. You can’t measure that, but take my word for it. You’d rather not have accidents and keep the money in your pocket.
© 2013. Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
Foresight 20/20 Episode #1 – Who Do You Love?
© 2013 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
Crisis Case Study: The Shot in the Dark
This is in the category of the “You never know what can happen” in your business.
The local news led off with a story about an assisted living facility in a small rural area north of Seattle having a shooting on site. It seems that a facility manager got in an argument with an 86-year old resident. The elderly man went back to his room, got a gun and went and shot the manager in the stomach. It appears that the manager, who was immediately rushed to the hospital, will survive. The 86-year old is in jail. A tragic story for all involved.
This blog post has nothing to do about gun control, the response by the staff, mental health, or elderly care. It solely is a study that you can never know what unbelievable event can occur at your business. Who could imagine an 86-year old man going back to his room after an argument to get a gun and shoot his adversary? That only happens with inner city gangs, right? Wrong.
Have you trained your employees to be prepared for any event that could suspend operations, involve a 911 emergency call, or damage the company reputation? If you haven’t, you’re not alone. However, the company you keep is dangerous to your health. Not being prepared to deal with a crisis will cost your business huge revenues, loads of stress and anxiety, bad media coverage, and reduced morale. I estimate that even a minor crisis will cost the average small business $75,000 in hidden costs. That means even if you have insurance, this comes straight out of your pocket! It pays to be prepared…
I have an upcoming webinar to help small businesses anticipate, prevent, and be prepared to respond to crisis. It’s a small investment to make to arm your business with the strategy and techniques it needs to avoid a crisis and respond when one does occur. The webinar will be recorded so even if you can’t make it live, you will gain the benefit of the tools.
Click here to join us on February 22nd.
© 2013 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
Professional Growth Opportunities in 2013…the Clock is ticking!
This is your friendly reminder about a ton of great opportunities for you to jump into 2013 at full speed. There are multiple opportunities for you to increase your income, reduce your labor intensity, and enrich your life. How can you pass that up?
Here is the list, and I’ve checked it twice! All nice – no naughties!
FREE Teleconference – 50 Ways to Call Your Mentor
Join Fellow Master Mentor Robbie Baxter and me as we help you learn how to maximize the value of being coached or mentored. You’ve invested your time and money; you might as well get all you can out of your relationship with your mentor. Find out how in this 60-minute teleconference.
http://baxterweedin.eventbrite.com/#
FREE Teleconference – Thought Leadership Strategies with Alan Weiss
Join me as I interview Million Dollar Consulting™ author, Alan Weiss. He will offer you strategies and techniques to move you to being the thought leader in your industry. This is a “can’t miss” opportunity to hear THE thought leader in solo consulting, speaking, and mentoring.
http://weedinonconsulting1.eventbrite.com/#
The Experience Weedin Project
Drive your business into warp speed to start 2013! You will get four unique webinars on crucial issues related with growing your business. The one-hour webinars will focus on helping you dramatically improve your speaking, writing, language, and intellectual property creation. Discounts before the end of the year apply.
http://weedin360.com/experience-weedin-project
Insuring Success Video Series
For the savvy insurance professionals! Get this 50-episode video series that begins on January 18th. These are 5-minute, hard-hitting, value laden videos to help you grow your book of business; work more efficiently and enjoy life more. $200 for the entire series prior to the end of the year. The ROI on this is HUGE!
http://insuringsuccessblog.com/insuring-success-video-series
Libby & Dan 2013
We are back! Million Dollar Consultant Hall of Famers Libby Wagner and Dan Weedin combine to give you double the value in an almost free event. This was a popular event (twice) in 2012. We are back with new strategies and techniques to boost your business. Space is limited for this dynamic event. We even buy you lunch! Register today!
http://nwconsultantmentorsfeb2013.eventbrite.com/#
Note – Libby and I are working on bringing Alan to Seattle. We will be breaking that news soon. Stay tuned!
© 2013 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
