DK Blog
If you are an employer, providing your employees with workers' compensation coverage, or insurance can be a good policy. "What is workers' compensation?" you might ask. It is essentially an insurance policy you carry on your employees in case they are injured, disabled, or get sick on the job. Another name for it, by the way, is workmans' compensation. In fact, depending on your jurisdiction, you may be legally required to provide workers' compensation, but it varies from place to place. One state or country may not have any law on the matter, whereas others might actually provide the coverage entirely via its tax base. Some jurisdictions simply regulate workers' compensation coverage, or may even maintain high risk insurance pools for companies that can't get coverage. In some cases, companies can self fund coverage, skipping the need for an insurance carrier entirely. Self funding is either a choice, or if regulated, a company can often self fund after satisfying its Labor Department it has sufficient assets to do so.
In any event, the big advantage to providing workers' compensation coverage is the minimization of risk. In most jurisdictions, and employer providing its workers coverage cannot be sued for work related injuries, disability, or illness should it have a qualifying plan in place and the affected worker accepts coverage. So, by paying a regular premium, the employer can avoid a lot of litigation, as well as the risk of having a big judgment handed down against him. By providing and accepting coverage, both the employer and employee are basically agreeing to stay out of court in return for each holding the other harmless. The employee is provided for until he can return to work and cannot be fired for having been either the cause of the subject event or missing mandatory days of work.
If you are a small Internet/web company of only 5 people and you don't even have a physical location, if you receive a wage garnishment Notice, you have to answer it. You can't just say "what is wage garnishment to me?" and throw it in the trash. Or, "We don't do garnishments." Granted, you may have grounds for arguing against it, like lack of jurisdiction, or that you no longer employ whomever the garnishment is after, but you still have to file a timely answer. In the answer you can state whatever arguments you might have. That is your right. Additionally, you can't fire your employees just because they have gotten into this trouble and caused you the hardship of filling out extra paperwork and possibly bearing the cost of paying your payroll provider an extra fee for cutting two checks instead of one each pay period. The Consumer Credit Protection Act protects your employees from you firing them for being garnished, at least for the first judgment they get against them. So, don't fire an employee for being garnished unless you want to risk being sued for their lost wages and a bunch of other things beyond the scope of this article.
Speaking of damages and trouble, if you fail to answer a garnishment letter, you can be on the hook for anything you should have paid out according to the garnishment, plus costs and attorney's fees. It doesn't matter if you end up paying the same wages twice. So answer any garnishment notices you get, else you might be found in contempt of court. So remember, saying "What is a wage garnishment anyway?" Or, "We don't answer them," is not an appropriate answer. Every employer must respond appropriately as a matter of law, even if you are a small technology company with only 5 employees and you have no physical location. Perhaps you do have a defense, but put it in your answer. You already have enough problems with too much paperwork!
Cable television is not cheap for most of us. $100 to $200 per month adds up. $200 per month for cable service costs $2400 per year, and that is not a small chunk of change. The good news is that you can reduce this cost by as much as 90% by cancelling your cable subscription and signing up for Netflix, Hulu, or both. Netflix and Hulu are both around $10 per month. All you need you probably have, but for perhaps the correct cable for hooking your laptop and HDMI TV together. And you can get an HDMI cable cheap at your local electronics store.
Here is what you do:
1. Check your laptop and your television to see if there is an HDMI output on your laptop and an HDMI input on your TV. If yes, go to step 2 below. If no, consider upgrading.
2. Check around the house to see if you have an HDMI to TV cable to connect your television and laptop. If yes, go to step 3 below. If no, note your laptop and TV make and model, call your local electronics store and ask them if they have the cable you need in stock. If so, go get it.
3. Hook your laptop and TV together and sign up for Hulu, Netflix, or both. If you get the clarity and connection and streaming you desire, go to step 4.
4. Cancel your cable subscription and start saving!
If your company is behind in the A/R department, bad things can happen. Cash starts getting tight, your bank starts asking questions, meeting payroll is tenuous at times, and when you have to place a large down payment on a materials purchase, you are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Heck, revenue looks good. But, revenue is only as good as the cash that comes in. You can have all the revenue in the world, but cash is king. You need to fix collections.
Maybe it is easier said than done. But Pat Dickson at www.patdickson.com seems to have an answer. He says he fixes collections all the time by taking 3 easy steps. First, get the actual person responsible for paying you on the phone and get a commitment to pay, in writing. Second, if you aren't getting paid because you messed up, get a high level manager behind you and get the problem fixed. Finally, keep following up and threaten legal action if you must.
In today's world a lot of businesses are having a hard time making enough revenue to float, and things get worse when the revenue you do earn turns into delinquent accounts. In the end, if a business has enough cash, it is going to survive until the cash runs out. In fact, even a bad business with cash will live longer than a good business with no cash. The point, to cite the old cliche, is cash is king. So, if you are a contractor, subcontractor, or vendor, a contractor check to see if the person you are doing business with will be able to pay you is invaluable. Always make sure you check someone's credit status before you provide them with any labor or materials. At worst, try to get at least half your money down before you do anything, and if that fails, try to get paid the value of your materials once you can provide proof you have ordered them.
A contractor check can involve a bunch of things, like looking at financial statements, contacting the Better Business Bureau or chamber, the Registrar in your state, looking at litigation files, and even asking for references. Then once you've done your due diligence figuring out your risk in taking a job, you can negotiate terms that help offset the contractor's bad financial position. You can do things, like mentioned above, like demand money down, as much as all of it, depending on circumstances, ask for immediate payment for the value of any procured materials, or even put in your contract a provision saying you can stop work if you aren't paid the full balance of any past due amounts by the end of every month during the course of your project. Think of creative solutions and don't be shy. You have a lot of bargaining power if your Contractor has a cash crunch, needs you to perform work, and he knows you know he is in a bind.
