Business Information for Entrepreneurs by an Entrepreneur

The number of individuals filing claims for unemployment is steadily climbing as the economy continues to spiral out of control. Small business owners are especially vulnerable to failure during these times of uncertainty. If your small business fails, are you eligible for unemployment benefits?

Protection for Employees

Small business owners must consider the rights and interests of employees as part of the unemployment issue. As long as you are paying state and federal taxes on workers' wages properly, they are completely eligible for full unemployment compensation. If you have to let employees go from your small business as a result of economic crises, they will not have any difficulty securing coverage from the local unemployment office.

Protection for Yourself

Contrary to popular opinion, simply paying state and federal taxes on workers' wages does not make you as the employer eligible for unemployment protection if your business fails. Eligibility is determined by the structure of your business. Generally speaking, sole proprietors are not eligible for unemployment benefits. This is because a business owner is not considered an employee. They do not pay the unemployment tax, and are therefore, considered ineligible for coverage.

Under certain circumstances, however, the owner(s) of a limited liability corporation or incorporation may be eligible for benefits, so long as there is enough evidence to show that the business failed as a direct result of economic circumstances. In this case, the corporation rather than the individual is considered the employer. As long as the proper taxes have been paid by the corporation, a business owner should be able to collect unemployment benefits.

Risky Business

In general, self-employment is a significant risk because of the looming threat of small business failure. Small business owners generally aren't aware that they could lose not only their business, but the government won't be able to help them get back on their feet in the aftermath like employees who are laid off or lose their jobs for other economic reasons. As a small business owner, it's important to have a backup plan in the event that failure knocks on your door.

Nearly everyone is using some form of social networking today. From Facebook to MySpace and LinkedIn to Twitter, there are many online resources that provide personal information about its members.

From a business perspective, some of these sites contain information that can positively or negatively impact your decisions about a potential employee. In essence, you can use social networks to conduct employee background checks. There are several different factors that you should consider before turning to social networks as a source of information on candidates for your job vacancies.

A Low-Cost Alternative

Using social networks to conduct employee background checks is a cheap and easy way to find information about prospective hires. If your small business doesn't have the time, money or resources to invest in professional background checks, then social networks might be an appropriate solution for you.

Work-Life Balance

Your employees are entitled to a sense of balance between their personal and professional lives. What they do outside the workplace is their choice to make, and you may discover things about potential candidates' personal lives that would never arise in a job interview with social networking websites. Keep in mind that it's important for everyone to have a healthy work-life balance. Social networks are a part of that balance for the people you are interviewing, and they are entitled to a certain degree of liberty and freedom.

Ethics and Social Networks

Social networks may contain personal information about potential employees. There are certain facts that should not influence your hiring practices. For example, information on social networks regarding marital status, sexual orientation, race, class or gender cannot be used when making a hiring decision. Having access to such information may have a negative impact on your ability to make objective decisions about who you want to hire and why. If you turn to social networks as a source of background information on employees, be sure to keep ethical and legal issues in mind.

Social networks should never be used as a sole source of information. You should always contact personal and professional references in addition to any background check. Remember that the ideal candidate may not have a picture perfect record. Regardless of what you might find on social networks, weigh skills, attributes, accomplishments and education carefully before making any hiring decisions.

When the news of a public relations problem breaks, it doesn't take long for information to spread. PR issues involving corporate scandals, employee-customer relations, and bad business practices are not as rare as one would like to think. If you own an internet-based business, fighting PR fires is even more difficult. The problem with owning and operating an online business is that each and every one of your customers can quickly become a critic. Whether it is blog posts, customer reviews, or a quick email to friends and family, online customers share their experiences like wildfire.

Here are some important factors you should consider when a PR issue arises that is related to your internet-based business:

• Know what is being said about your business and who is saying it. You might need to enlist the help of other employees to comb internet pages looking for tidbits attacking your business. Make sure to access a variety of online resources, from social networking sites like Facebook to online discussion forums like Craigslist and Yelp, as well as private blogs. Create a file that includes what is being said about your business and who is saying it. These are people you will need to include on your contact list once you issue a formal statement.

• Tell your customers what the facts are. Issue a formal statement that contains as much hard evidence and fact-based argument as possible. Be matter-of-fact about the details and be genuinely sincere if an apology is necessary. Contact the customer(s) who have been directly impacted by the crisis prior to releasing the statement and deal with their concerns one-on-one.

• Revise policies and rebuild your reputation. Throughout a crisis, you will be able to identify breakdowns in certain areas. This might mean you need to adjust certain policies regarding customer service, best practices, or things like refund or exchange policies. Revise your policies in a directed fashion to try and eliminate the same mistake from happening again. Look for ways to repair broken relationships and reconnect with your consumer base.

The most important thing to do when fighting a PR fire online is to act quickly and amicably. Do not take allegations that are made about your internet-based business lightly. With millions of readers all over the world, anyone looking at negative PR materials is a potentially lost customer.