When things go horribly, horribly wrong...
Cara Tobin
26 March 2008When things go horribly, horribly wrong…
Although we cross our fingers, toes, eyes and nose hairs that nothing will go wrong with our health/lives/small business, the hard truth is, things can and usually do. The big question is whether you are prepared or not. So before you start hyperventilating and growing hair out of your ears so you can cross that too, why don’t we take a more practical look at how you can save your skin…
Imagine this; you have proudly set up your shiny new home office with ergonomically sensible furniture and chic accessories like a very pretty silver phone and some cool artwork.
Your pens are arranged in colour-coordinated form on your desk and you have set your computer screensaver to your favourite movie star. You are ready for business.
Six months on; your pens have all been chewed through and you are down to Pacer pencils, your pretty silver phone is buried under the pile of paperwork smirking at you and your cool artwork has been replaced by timelines with red Texta scribbled all over it. In order to clear your head and breathe some fresh air, you decide to take the dog out for a walk. Completely preoccupied with deadlines and demands from clients, you don’t notice the open manhole in the ground directly in front of you…
With your arms and legs in plaster, you are immobile and therefore financially impotent. You are forced to face the reality of whether you can viably continue the business. This is where some savvy and informed people will sink back in to the couch cushions and watch reruns of their favourite TV show, safe in the knowledge that they have nothing more to worry about than what their partner/slave will hand-feed them for lunch. A lot of people, however, don’t have that luxury, having spent many a year wrapped in the armour of ‘it won’t happen to me’. But there are always chinks. So what is a solution??
Insurance is not a glamorous word. It conjures up images of elderly gentleman who have been in the ‘insurance business’ for half a century and never fail to spew forth a tirade of advice at dinner parties even though their retirement party was ten years ago. But that aside, insurance for your small business should be high on the priority list and not slam-dunked into the too-hard basket.
One small business owner found this out the hardest way possible. Kate Curran, a specialist painter, suffered a brain hemorrhage while practising yoga ten years ago. Miraculously she survived but Curran was unable to work in her profession for four years. She did not have income protection insurance and, in fact, didn’t know it even existed.
“I wish I had known about it as it would have made a huge difference to my life,” says Curran. “Ideally, I needed six to twelve months off to fully recover but that was not an option. So I went back to school for a year to study in a different area as I could no longer work in my chosen profession.”
So, before you get on the phone or jump on the internet and buy the first policy you find, slow down and do some research about what will best suit you. Ask other small business owners if they have income protection insurance (also known as disability protection), which company they are with and the process they went through to get it.
Talk to an insurance adviser, not a sales representative, to get an expert opinion and compare numerous different policies and companies to see which will suit your situation.
Take your time to make the decision but not so much time that you take your dog for a walk and don’t see that open manhole on the street right in front of you…
26 March 2008When things go horribly, horribly wrong…
Although we cross our fingers, toes, eyes and nose hairs that nothing will go wrong with our health/lives/small business, the hard truth is, things can and usually do. The big question is whether you are prepared or not. So before you start hyperventilating and growing hair out of your ears so you can cross that too, why don’t we take a more practical look at how you can save your skin…
Imagine this; you have proudly set up your shiny new home office with ergonomically sensible furniture and chic accessories like a very pretty silver phone and some cool artwork.
Your pens are arranged in colour-coordinated form on your desk and you have set your computer screensaver to your favourite movie star. You are ready for business.
Six months on; your pens have all been chewed through and you are down to Pacer pencils, your pretty silver phone is buried under the pile of paperwork smirking at you and your cool artwork has been replaced by timelines with red Texta scribbled all over it. In order to clear your head and breathe some fresh air, you decide to take the dog out for a walk. Completely preoccupied with deadlines and demands from clients, you don’t notice the open manhole in the ground directly in front of you…
With your arms and legs in plaster, you are immobile and therefore financially impotent. You are forced to face the reality of whether you can viably continue the business. This is where some savvy and informed people will sink back in to the couch cushions and watch reruns of their favourite TV show, safe in the knowledge that they have nothing more to worry about than what their partner/slave will hand-feed them for lunch. A lot of people, however, don’t have that luxury, having spent many a year wrapped in the armour of ‘it won’t happen to me’. But there are always chinks. So what is a solution??
Insurance is not a glamorous word. It conjures up images of elderly gentleman who have been in the ‘insurance business’ for half a century and never fail to spew forth a tirade of advice at dinner parties even though their retirement party was ten years ago. But that aside, insurance for your small business should be high on the priority list and not slam-dunked into the too-hard basket.
One small business owner found this out the hardest way possible. Kate Curran, a specialist painter, suffered a brain hemorrhage while practising yoga ten years ago. Miraculously she survived but Curran was unable to work in her profession for four years. She did not have income protection insurance and, in fact, didn’t know it even existed.
“I wish I had known about it as it would have made a huge difference to my life,” says Curran. “Ideally, I needed six to twelve months off to fully recover but that was not an option. So I went back to school for a year to study in a different area as I could no longer work in my chosen profession.”
So, before you get on the phone or jump on the internet and buy the first policy you find, slow down and do some research about what will best suit you. Ask other small business owners if they have income protection insurance (also known as disability protection), which company they are with and the process they went through to get it.
Talk to an insurance adviser, not a sales representative, to get an expert opinion and compare numerous different policies and companies to see which will suit your situation.
Take your time to make the decision but not so much time that you take your dog for a walk and don’t see that open manhole on the street right in front of you…
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