Keeping your walkways clear and ice-free may help avoid injury—not only for yourself and your employees— but also for customers, postal carriers, delivery drivers, and others. Follow these winter walkway tips:

• Begin to clear ice, snow, and other debris from your walkway, driveway, parking lot, overhangs, and gutters as soon as possible after precipitation ends. Clear the entryway wide enough to allow for a wheelchair or stroller.
• Make sure that cleared snow is placed far from walkways and entryways.
• Clear mailboxes and fire hydrants so that they are visible and accessible.
• Use door mats at entryways to avoid tracking snow inside. Be sure the mat’s edges are flat and even to avoid tripping.

To help protect those who frequent your business, you may also lay sand to provide traction or rock salt to de-ice your walkways. Remember, your walkways are your responsibility!

Today, claims of “negligence” are filed more frequently than ever before. This is bad news for professionals because the failure to provide reasonable service can be cited in many situations. Negligence may be claimed in conjunction with a mistake, an oversight, or a failure to deliver services in accordance with standard established by peers. In the past, mostly doctors, lawyers, architects, and engineers had to worry about the implications of negligence and protect themselves from potential lawsuits. But times have changed. Today, a broad range of professionals need to think about the financial protection offered by insurance. Professional liability insurance (also called errors and omissions insurance) may provide a solution.

Disgruntled customers/clients/patients can file a claim against you or your business whether it is legitimate or not. In such situations, it is not uncommon for plaintiffs to sue multiple parties, despite their level of involvement in the particular situation. Legal fees, not to mention lost working hours, can be costly. Professional liability insurance can help cover these losses and expenses, as well as those incurred by judgments or settlements.

Professional liability insurance covers omissions, errors, misleading statements, breaches of duty, and other like claims arising from services rendered. The terms, rates, and conditions of liability insurance vary among issuing companies, policies, professions, and locations. It’s very important to thoroughly understand the policy’s terms and conditions before purchasing insurance, and long before a claim arises. Some key policy issues include the following:

Reasonable Accommodation

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities, unless it would cause undue hardship. A reasonable accommodation is any change in the work environment or in the way a job is performed that enables a person with a disability to enjoy equal employment opportunities. To learn more, visit The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at www.eeoc.gov.

Dealership Financing

The Small Business Administration’s Dealer Floor Plan (DFP) Financing Program offers government-guaranteed loans to finance inventory for eligible auto, RV, boat, manufactured home, and other dealerships. The DFP program allows dealers to borrow against retail inventory and acts as a revolving line of credit for a dealer to obtain financing for retail goods. The dealer repays the debt as the inventory is sold and can borrow against the line of credit for new inventory. Learn more at www.sba.gov.

Closing a Business

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provides information about Federal taxes for business owners who are closing a business. The owner must file appropriate income tax returns for the year it closes, as well as file all employment tax returns and payroll taxes. The Small Business and Self-Employed Tax Center includes instructions, checklists, and tax forms that apply to changing business structure, declaring bankruptcy, selling a business, terminating a retirement plan, and disposing of property. For more information, visit www.irs.gov.

Family responsibilities don’t disappear once working parents leave their homes and head for work. Childcare, in particular, is a workplace concern that could affect an employer’s bottom line if employees are unable to find reliable care for their children. When employees feel torn between their work duties and their family obligations, productivity declines, and absentee and accident rates increase. The more time working parents spend worrying about daycare, the less time and energy they are likely to focus on their work.