Fix Your Risk

In the almost year or so that I’ve been writing this blog, I average about 10 views a day for new posts.  Yesterday’s post got 72 views which led me to believe that Facebook for Contractors is worth expanding on.  And thanks to everyone that took the time yesterday to view my post.

Among the older crowd, Facebook still has a bad reputation.  A lot of my older peers and clients that I have spoken with, still view Facebook as something that their kids use to tell their friends what they had for lunch today and to post pictures of how hammered they got on the weekend.  While this still makes up a large part of what Facebook is used for, it has also taken on a new role for older folks and businesses.  The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is people over 35 who are using it to market themselves, as well as reconnect with old friends/college room mates/co-workers etc.

What does this mean for contractors?

It means your potential clients, customers, suppliers, peers, and business contacts are on Facebook interacting with each other and you are MISSING out on the conversation.

We all know your industry (construction) is going to have a hard year in 2010.  There isn’t much work available and unemployment is at an all time high.  How helpful would it be if someone showed you how to stretch your marketing dollars and marketing reach further than ever for almost no charge at all?  I’d hope that gets you excited, because when you finally open your eyes to what is currently available online to spread your firm’s footprint, you will be blown away.  Like you, I work in a brick and mortar industry.  Contractor’s can’t buy insurance online (at least not the kind of coverage that will correctly cover your company) just like they can’t pave a road online.  What we use the internet for, is to help educate potential clients and customers about what our capabilities and strenghts are and to keep them up to date on what is happening in our industry as to how it affects theirs.  Want to see what I mean?  Check our BLOG out.  For the next era of construction, a lot of project owners will turn to the internet not the yellow pages to choose who will do their work.  Do you want to be the company that misses out on the opportunity because you were too stubborn to get online and be found by the people that are looking for you?  The smart construction firms are getting online, revamping their websites that were last updated in 2002, making facebook fanpages, tweeting (we’ll get into this tomorrow), and showing prospective clients the type of work they do, posting pictures of jobsites, posting pictures of safety practices(this will lead to lower insurane rates), and showing the face of their company instead of being another generic construction firm in the yellow pages.

http://www.squidoo.com/Whatmattersnowfreeebook

Point your browser to the squidoo lens about it, and get a free ebook download about some revolutionary ideas to ensure you have a great 2010.

It’s 82 pages long and features contributions from over 60 influential bloggers, authors, and tech industry insiders.

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who are planning on decking the halls this weekend with lights, icicles, and inflatable Santas, here is a video about OSHA’s best practices for ladder safety.  If it works for them, it would probably be prudent of you to utilize their strategies at home if you are planning on decorating higher than 6 feet off the deck.

Turkey Shoot-From the Workers Comp Insider

William Wehnke, 51, claims to have spotted a wild turkey in his field in rural Annsville, New York (population 3,000). He took aim and fired at the turkey and managed to hit Matthew Brady, a workers comp investigator, who happened to be crouching in the field, dressed in camouflage. Brady was apparently performing surveillance on Wehnke, who is collecting workers comp benefits for an unspecified injury. Whatever his disability, Wehnke is obviously capable of operating a shotgun.

Local authorities are not buying Wehnke’s story about the turkey. He’s been arraigned on a three-count grand jury indictment that includes felony second-degree assault and unlawful manner of taking. He is even charged with using inappropriate ammunition for hunting turkeys. Wehnke is in a lot of trouble for his little turkey shoot.

Investigator Brady was hit in the side, back and legs. He underwent surgery and presumably filed his own workers comp claim for what is surely a work-related – if highly unusual – disability.

In incidents like this, nobody wins.  If Wehnke was truthful about his worker’s comp injury in the first place, odds are that his employer and their insurance carrier wouldn’t have cried foul on his claim.  Meanwhile, Brady probably thought he had caught someone in the middle of a fraud, which would be the highlight of his week, as a fraud investigator.  But instead of just catching Wehnke in the act, he caught a lot of buckshot in his back and legs, bringing back imagery of a certain former Vice President.    Extreme irony if I ever saw it.

Finally upgraded the blog to a custom URL that I purchased about 2 years ago.  All it took was one slow afternoon at the office to get the motivation to switch it from wordpress to http://www.dphelan.com.  Thanks for reading.  If you want some even more in depth construction risk advice, point that mouse over to the Construction Risk Advisor Blog

I was hitting the ski slopes when a bizarre accident occurred.

While fumbling my way off a chair lift, another chair hit me from behind and knocked me out cold. I woke up with a headache, in a hospital bed and immediately called my insurance company.

After explaining what happened the insurance rep said, “We’re covering nothing on this claim. You hit yourself in the head with a chair on a ski lift. You’re an idiot. And that’s a pre-existing condition.”

Contributed by:Dan Seidman, http://www.salesautopsy.com

A story broke this weekend about how a woman in Canada lost her health benefits after she was seen having a good time in Mexico via a facebook picture.  I don’t see a problem with having a good time in Mexico, but it’s a different story when you are sick-leave from your job due to depression and getting benefits for it!  Keep this idea in mind when an employee has a questionable work comp claim.  The insurance carriers are getting smarter about their claims monitoring, while the claimants are winning Darwin awards left and right.

original article from Mashable.com

What kind does your company have?

Is it formalized with buy-in from the owner all the way down to the newest employee?  Or is it in place because it is the only way you can bid all the jobs you want,  and OSHA says you have to?  Most contractors fall in the middle.  Safety is important, but not to the point where we let it delay a project from being completed on time.  Or, we pay a lot of attention to safety immediately following an accident, then we slowly get lazy about it until someone gets hurt again…

Listen folks, the insurance market has been soft(less expensive and more readily available) for contractors for the last few years.  According to industry experts, the next hard market is right around the corner and having an effective safety program, is a good way to show insurance underwriters that you care about limiting the amount of claims they have to pay and care more about whether all your employees get home every night instead of getting the job done as fast as you can.  Having a safety handbook is helpful, having safety meetings is helpful, wearing hardhats and other PPE is helpful.  Putting them all together is VERY helpful and believe it or not, will have a bearing on your insurance pricing.

Is this what your safety program looks like? If so, now is the time to get it a real helmet.

If you’re a contractor, you probably get the same emails i get from the AGC, ABC, NRCA, etc.  The outlook for the industry is still pretty dismal through the end of this year.  Instead of being the 99th name on a bid list of 100, what kind of opportunities could you create for your company if you changed what you do?  I’m not implying that a site contractor should start roofing or vice verse, but you have no doubt heard the buzz about “green” and LEED certified projects.  Seems to me that these two niches have been penetrated quite well by the electrical guys who have branched out into solar, and it seems that there are plenty of opportunities for other types of contractors too.  Look into what you could change to give your company the edge it needs to remain profitable while other contractors are blaming the economy for why they are hurting for work.  Environmentally conscious contracting isn’t going to go away, so instead of fighting it, it might be time to see how you can get a piece of the action.

Check out with this Wisconsin based Dun-Rite Exteriors is doing differently… Recycled Shingles

You’ve probably heard by now, that there is a piece of malicious software going around that is supposed to “come alive” tomorrow and do bad things to computers running on a microsoft operating system.  No one knows whether this is a viable threat or just another Y2K type situation where everyone is getting worked up about it, but nothing happens.  Either way, make sure that your anti-virus software is up to date, your windows firewall is turned on, and it would probably be prudent to not do any online banking first thing in the morning tomorrow.  Not sure, why I even posted this.  If you read blogs, you probably have heard about it by now.  Either way, slow news day, so take it or leave it!