NEBA November 2015 Newsletter

NEW ENGLAND BUS ASSOCIATION

ISSUE 11/ NOVEMBER 2015

NEBA MONTHLY NEWS & INFORMATION YOU NEED.

Buy-Sell

Agreements The 6 Musts of a Successful

Holiday

Marketing Campaign

Marketing

Automation Pitfalls

FMSCA HELPs TRAin veterans

as commercial drivers

HOW TO GET AN IRRATIONAL PERSON TO LISTEN TO REASON/

THE 6 MUSTS OF A SUCCESSFUL HOLIDAY MARKETING CAMPAIGN/

PROPANE COUNCIL DONATES $30,000 TO SCHOOLS DRIVING PROPANE BUSES/

School buses already make up the largest share of mass transportation in the U.S. and....

3 PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAITS EFFECTIVE LEADERS KNOW HOW TO MANAGE/

Fall is upon us, with the holidays waiting right around the corner. Holidays are a...

6 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT BUY-SELL AGREEMENTS/ How would you like your business partner’s ex-spouse to help run your company?

THE 9 EMAIL MISTAKES THAT MAKE PEOPLE IGNORE YOUR MESSAGES/

Great leaders boast a range of skills and traits, but one of the most underrated is a keen...

Despite the rise of social media, instant messaging, and all manner of apps, reports of...

SAN FRANCISCO IS LEARNING HOW TO LIVE WITH TECH SHUTTLES/

STEP AROUND THESE MARKETING AUTOMATION PITFALLS/

A boom in hiring spurred tech companies to offer shuttles to their new employees...

Marketing automation should serve as an extension of a marketer’s team, working to...

The first thing you need to do to get an irrational person to behave rationally is to calm...

FMCSA AWARDS $2.3 MILLION IN GRANTS TO HELP TRAIN VETERANS IN JOBS AS COMMERCIAL TRUCK AND BUS DRIVERS/

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety...

FMCSA RELEASES ADDITIONAL ANALYSIS ON ALTERNATIVES FOR SAFETY MEASUREMENT SYSTEM/

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) today released a...

HURRICANE JOAQUIN HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF PLANS TO KEEP OPERATING/

Hurricane Joaquin’s wild ride up the East Coast over the last week stirred up chilling...

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Chairman’s Message With a Nationwide shortage of qualified drivers one might be tempted to “settle” for a driver that is less qualified or improperly trained. Unfortunately this probably happens more than we care to admit, especially in the Bus industry. I won’t go in to the many reasons we, as an industry must resist doing this, but suffice it to say it is a BAD practice to follow. Now is the time to plan for the next busy season and to take the time to train all your drivers properly. Losing a job or two because you’re short a driver is a small price to pay compared to using unqualified drivers that may cost a life or two!

Gregg Isherwood President New England Bus Association

Secretary’s Message Fellow NEBA Members, The Board of Directors requested that we work on a three year plan regarding our annual meetings. With that said we have chosen the following locations, 2016 Burlington VT, 2017 Cape Cod MA, 2018 Sebasco, ME. Three great annual meeting location’s. As we finalize our details we will share more information. I have just returned from a visit to the Essex Resort & Spa in Essex VT. Plans are coming together for another outstanding meeting. We are lining up speakers and activities as we speak. Hope to see you all there. More details to follow next month, until then Happy Motoring..........

Mitch Guralnick

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Propane Council Donates

Propane Council Donate Driving Propane Buses School buses already make up the largest share of mass transportation in the U.S. and are the safest mode of transportation to and from school. This year, however, the yellow bus is getting an upgrade. More than 500,000 students will ride a school bus powered by the alternative fuel propane this back-to-school season.

“Diesel has long been the standard in school transportation, but for districts that want to reduce harmful emissions, save money and create a safer, healthier ride, propane is an excellent alternative,” said Roy Willis, Propane Education & Research Council president and CEO. Recognizing these benefits, schools across 45 states – a total of more than 7,000 buses – have transitioned to propane. The trend prompted PERC to start a campaign to teach communities about the benefits of propanepowered transportation. The Council is partnering with journalist and former teacher Jenna Bush Hager and the nonprofit Adopt a Classroom to donate more than $30,000 to teachers at schools adopting propane buses.

“It’s clear when you talk to school administrators and transportation departments that they are saving more than just dollars and cents by going with propane buses,” said Hager. “The switch is improving their school as a whole and giving them the opportunity to invest in more teachers or school programs.”

The Propane Education & Research Council’s donation will benefit teachers at seven schools

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this fall, including Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Massachusetts; Kyrene Monte Vista in Arizona; Broward Education Foundation in Florida; Wilkes Elementary in Oregon; Five Star Education Foundation in Colorado; St. Francis Elementary in Minnesota; and Friendswood Jr. High in Texas.

Donations began today with an event at Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Boston.

Hager surprised teachers at the school and announced that they would receive a total of $10,000 from PERC to purchase supplies for their classrooms. Boston Public Schools is the first district in the city to switch from diesel to propane buses.

The transition from diesel to propane buses has been reported in 20 of the top 25 designated market areas, and four of the 10 largest school districts in the country are using them. Among the health and safety advantages of propane buses is that they are quieter than diesel and they reduce exposure to diesel exhaust, which the World Health Organization classifies as a carcinogen.

“As a former teacher and parent, I know that the school day begins and ends on the bus,” Hager said. “When we give our kids a safer, healthier start to the day, it can improve their entire experience in the classroom and at home, too.”

For more information on propane school buses, including bus safety tips for parents and kids courtesy of the National Association of Pupil Transportation, visit BetterOurBuses.com. To donate to teachers in your local community, visit AdoptAClassroom.org.

es $30,000 to Schools

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Propane Education & Research Council:

The Propane Education & Research Council is a nonprofit organization established, operated, and funded by the propane industry. PERC drives technology development to expand adoption of propane as a clean, domestic, and affordable energy source and leads safety and training efforts among propane retailers and consumers.

PERC programs benefit a variety of industries including fleet vehicle management, landscaping, residential and commercial building, agriculture, and material handling. For more information, visit Propane.com.

Jenna Bush Hager: Jenna Bush Hager is a Contributing Correspondent for NBC News’ “Today.” She is a two-time New York Times bestselling author, mother of two, and a former Washington D.C. elementary school teacher. She serves as the Young Leadership Ambassador & Chair for UNICEF’s Next Generation committee, which aims to save, protect and improve the lives of children around the world. In 2011, Hager was honored as one of Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year.

AdoptAClassroom.org: AdoptAClassroom. org gives teachers a hand by providing much needed classroom supplies and materials to help their students learn and succeed. As an award-winning 501(c)(3), AAC makes it easy for donors to provide funding and support to K-12 classrooms in public, private and charter schools throughout the U.S. On average, teachers spend $600 of their own money each year to equip their classrooms - 20% of teachers spend more than $1000 annually. Since 1998 AdoptAClassroom. org has raised over $22 million and benefited more than 5 million students throughout the U.S. AAC holds a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator.

For more information, or to adopt a classroom, please visit www.adoptaclassroom.org.

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The Propane Education & Research Council is a nonprofit organization established, operated, and funded by the propane industry. PERC drives technology development to expand adoption of propane as a clean, domestic, and affordable energy source and leads safety and training efforts among propane retailers and consumers.

PERC programs benefit a variety of industries including fleet vehicle management, landscaping, residential and commercial building, agriculture, and material handling. For more information, visit Propane.com.

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Leaders Know How to Manage

3 PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAIT LEADERS KNOW HOW TO 10 www.greenazine.com

TS EFFECTIVE O MANAGE

GREAT LEADERS KNOW HOW TO MANAGE NOT JUST BEHAVIORS, BUT THE THINGS THAT CAUSE THEM.

Great leaders boast a range of skills and traits, but one of the most underrated is a keen grasp of psychology. When you

understand what motivates people’s actions and perceptions—for instance, why they respond in particular ways in certain situations, or the reason why they’re procrastinating—you can adjust your management style to address the causes of those issues, rather than just their symptoms.

A basic working knowledge of psychology can also help leaders become more self-aware. And that can become a virtuous circle, helping you help others attain self-mastery. Here are three key psychological traits effective leaders understand.

1. MOTIVATION For the most part, people’s actions are motivated towards reward and away from pain. And while there’s a whole field of study devoted to figuring out just what it is that motivates people in the workplace, pain is often an unavoidable part of many companies’ experiences as they grow and evolve. There are times when you have to overcome challenges and push through difficulties to get to the reward.

Inexperienced leaders aren’t always able to balance the two because they don’t have a firm enough grasp of motivation. Sometimes they’re too keen on avoiding pain in the short-term and motivate their employees with superficial incentives.

Good leaders help their teams feel engaged and empowered no matter what hurdles they face.

People are often motivated to do great work when they feel that work is meaningful. It’s important to show your team that what they’re doing has a tangible, valuable impact in the real world.

2. FEAR AND ANXIETY Difficult situations come up no matter who you are or where you work. Effective leaders have to know how to deal with those emotions—in their team members as well as in themselves—in order to make smart decisions. If you can only be counted on to exercise good judgment when things are going smoothly, you aren’t an effective leader just yet. www.greenazine.com

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It starts by recognizing that fear can be an overpowering emotion in business situations.

Controlling it isn’t easy, but experience and mindfulness are key. Good leaders know how to place into context the factors that generate anxiety, then think rationally about tackling them.

The goal is to circumvent the automatic, fightor-flight response we all experience in situations that make us afraid—in other words, mastering instinctual reactions so we can make logical choices. Leaders who can control their emotions and get back to reasoning can then show their teams how to do the same. One thing that helps is having an informed faith in your company’s product and vision. When you believe in what you’re doing, it’s easier to get past your fears and overcome whatever obstacles stand in your way.

3. UNCERTAINTY There’s plenty of uncertainty and change in business—you might even say those two things are the only certainties there are. Still, most people don’t like change. Human beings excel at making predictions about the future, but we don’t always excel at making accurate predictions. That tendency to foresee negative outcomes is a good survival instinct, helping us avoid unnecessary risks. But it also causes much of the fear and anxiety that can be so paralyzing.

Good leaders know how to manage uncertainty about the future in ways that lead to good, forwardthinking choices, not decisions made out of fear.

Getting this right isn’t easy, but it’s a prerequisite for innovation. Under the right conditions, being unsure what the future holds helps you see opportunities and stay open to information that keeps you on a steady course forward. In other words, effective leaders can harness uncertainty in order to take educated risks.

A very simplistic view of leadership might have it that leaders are just more courageous than “ordinary people.” But it might be truer to say that good leaders have simply learned to understand some of the fundamentals of workplace psychology. At all events, leaders need to be able to see what others might have a tendency

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A basic working knowledge of psychology can also help leaders become more self-aware.

And that can become a virtuous circle, helping you help others attain self-mastery.

Here are three key psychological traits effective leaders understand.

to miss. If you can understand why people think and behave in certain ways, you can make smart decisions and keep your team engaged no matter what’s thrown at you.

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How to Live With Tech Shuttles

San Francisco Is Learning How to Live With Tech Shuttles A boom in hiring spurred tech companies to offer shuttles to their new employees. San Francisco’s public transportation system wasn’t initially prepared for the influx of charter-style buses.

The tech bus wars may be close to a truce. Efforts to better integrate an influx of shuttle buses ferrying employees to tech companies into the transportation system of San Francisco are paying off, according to the city’s Municipal Transportation Agency. While challenges to accommodating the wheeled mammoths remain, the agency’s recent report on a pilot program aimed at better coordinating logistics of stops points to some benefits of the shuttles.

“The shuttles take cars off the streets by giving commuters an alternative to driving in order to get to work.

However, they are sometimes larger than Muni buses, can produce more emissions per vehicle than smaller vehicles, and can present an unwelcome presence particularly on smaller city streets,” reads the Oct. 5 report from the agency, commonly referred to as Muni.

Shuttle services aren’t new to San Francisco, but a boom in the tech sector has made them more prevalent as new employees of startups and tech 14 www.greenazine.com

companies like Google and Facebook flood the area. As pressure mounts on the area’s housing system, climbing rents and shady eviction practices have displaced long-term residents of San Francisco and Oakland. The charter-style tech buses serving tech industry residents have come to symbolize contentious housing and economic issues.

Protests of the buses have criticized the shuttle services for interrupting public transportation services. And according to Muni, the increase in the presence of the wheeled mammoths has resulted in logistical and spatial complications for a public transportation system unprepared for the influx.

“Commuter shuttles have used the streets of San Francisco for decades, but their numbers have increased in the last few years. Without designated curb space for loading and unloading, private commuter shuttle operators have imperfect choices to make about where to load and unload riders,” notes the report.

The shuttles could stop in travel lanes but that blocks traffic and is unsafe for riders getting on and off. The shuttles could pause at Muni stops and get riders closer to the curb, but that can interrupt Muni service.

Muni established a pilot program last year to try to deal with these types of issues. The agency established special zones for shuttle stops as well as zones for the shuttles to share with Muni buses. Shuttles using the shared zones pay a fee to the city.

The report doesn’t state how much revenue fees have generated for San Francisco, but CityLab took a stab at calculating the total. Based on a current fee of $3.67 per stop event, assuming 3,000 stop events daily, the web magazine calculated that shuttles pay about $11,000 a day to the city. That adds up to $2.86 million in revenue over 260 working days per year.

Muni reports that its attempts to work with shuttles have been more or less effective. The agency says the program should be continued in a more permanent way in a form similar to the pilot program.

“The alternative to the Pilot Program was not the disappearance of shuttles, but instead a return to the pre-pilot days, when shuttles stopped at more than twice as many locations as they do now,” reads the report. It concludes that “the Pilot Program addressed the principal issue that shuttles present by managing shuttles to minimize their impacts and maximize their benefits to the transportation system.”

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The shuttles take cars off the streets by giving commuters an alternative to driving in order to get to work. However, they are sometimes larger than Muni buses, can produce more emissions per vehicle than smaller vehicles, and can present an unwelcome presence particularly on smaller city streets,

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Holiday Marketing Campaign

The 6 Musts of a Successful Holiday Marketing Campaign Fall is upon us, with the holidays waiting right around the corner. Holidays are a perfect time to connect with your prospects and celebrate those feelings of camaraderie, gratitude and interconnectedness.

Marketers can leverage these feelings to deeply engage with their customers on an emotional level and build trust and credibility.

The holidays are a popular time to market, so it’s important to put a lot of thought into your holiday

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marketing campaign. You want to appeal to everyday emotions while also standing out from the crowd. There’s a lot of spending that occurs during the holidays -- the trick is to get your customers to spend with you and not your competitors. Here are six musts of a successful holiday marketing campaign:

1. Plan a personalized campaign.

Instead of hoping your customers will be seen with

your products and spread the word, why not take the next step and let them physically insert themselves into your ad? OfficeMax saw an enormous boon using this strategy with the “Elf Yourself � social-media campaign.

The site drew 193 million visits and continues to evolve with new characters, dances and animated graphics.

Personalize your own ad campaign by allowing customers to get involved and put themselves in the mix.

The more innovative and fun the experience is, the more

likely they are to share it on social media and beyond.

2. Get your staff involved.

Studies show there is only a 2 to 8 percent overlap between employee and company social networks. In other words, getting your staff involved can exponentially boost your marketing campaign’s effectiveness. Some companies feature their staffs directly in commercials, while others

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simply encourage their employees to participate and share the personalized campaign. However you choose to do it, you can’t afford to ignore your employees when planning your holiday marketing strategy.

3. Hit key emotions with your campaign.

People tend to think their decision-making is purely rational, but the truth is all people make decisions emotionally before justifying them rationally. As a result, a successful holiday marketing campaign should be an emotional one. Focus on the feelings that fit the season, including friendship, “home for the holidays,” good will, giving back and gratitude.

TD Bank’s #MakeTodayMatter campaign featured these emotions, and as a result generated 3.5 million hits and gained media coverage around the world.

4. Create an easy-to-share campaign.

While it’s hard to predict what will go viral, it’s possible to maximize your chances. One important element is that the campaign is easy to share. Consider that 74 percent of consumers rely on word of mouth as the top influencer of their purchasing decisions. When someone receives your campaign from a friend, it means so much more than seeing it in a commercial or Facebook ad.

Some ways to make content shareable include adding social icons to emails, allowing recipients to share with a single click and creating engaging tweets that are begging to be shared.

5. Include online deals.

People like to make a big deal out of Cyber Monday, but millions of Americans shop online on Black Friday.

In 2014, $1.5 billion was spent online on Black Friday alone. Online networks make it easy to feature deals with fun campaigns such as countdowns, contests and games. Don’t discount the power of email when reaching out to customers and advertising your deals both online and off for tempting in-store deals.

6. Create a consistent experience across all channels.

Multi-channel marketing is the norm for professionals 18 www.greenazine.com

from retailers to insurance agents. However, it’s crucial to create a consistent user experience regardless of which channels your customers are using. But there’s more to it than recreating your branding and color scheme on social media. The deals you’re offering should also stay consistent. Train your staff to fluently understand your individual deals, online-only offers and any restrictions that apply.

The holidays are the perfect time to build an emotional bond with your customers. The positive feelings of family, giving and gratitude are already at the forefront of the season and your marketing campaign can piggyback on those emotions. In addition, personalize your campaign to your customers and get your staff involved. With a sharable campaign, hot online deals and a consistent multi-channel experience, you’ll be positioned for maximum holiday-season success.

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Buy-Sell Agreements

6 Things To Know About Buy-Sell Agreements

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How would you like your business partner’s ex-spouse to help run your company? Does it sound like fun to have a bank own part of your business should your co-founder file for personal bankruptcy?

Without a buy-sell agreement in place, business owners risk facing these scenarios and other situations

that can disrupt the business and hurt its value.

Having a formal agreement can define a desired exit strategy and ownership succession plans, providing a roadmap in the event of a death, divorce or disability, says Rachel Flaskey, a senior manager in the valuation services practice of Baker Tilly, a top 15 accounting and advisory firm in the U.S. “Those are all circumstances that can be planned for somewhat,” she says. “But you also have the unforeseen circumstances: an argument or the shareholders aren’t clicking anymore. Or maybe you want to allow future owners into the business.”

A buy-sell agreement allows entrepreneurs to know up front who can buy in to the business and how the process will work, and it provides opportunities to talk about possible scenarios rather than forcing owners into expensive litigation down the road.

“It’s one form of a business continuity tool,” Flaskey says.

Having a buy-sell agreement, however, is apparently not a high priority among many business owners.

Nearly three out of four business owners lack documented succession plans (which can include buysell agreements) for senior roles. With the government estimating that nearly 52 percent of business owners are over the age of 50, that’s a lot of companies with the potential to be thrown into chaos and lost value upon the death of an owner.

Here are six things business owners should know about buy-sell agreements, according to Baker Tilly’s Flaskey:

1. They should be developed early. The time to

create a buy-sell agreement is well before it is needed.

As Flaskey says, “It’s a lot easier to get an agreement in place when everyone’s in agreement.” By the time circumstances warrant utilizing a buy-sell agreement, people could have other interests at play, making it more difficult to reach agreement on various items.

And while it’s really never too early in a business’s life to develop a buy-sell agreement, keep in mind that business needs evolve as the business evolves and could warrant changes in certain agreement provisions over time.

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2. Buy-sell agreements should include a business valuation clause. Some owners want to

include a specific formula for valuing the business (e.g., “four times earnings before interest and taxes”), but the formula may not reflect the workings or true value of the business when it is applied, according to Flaskey. Business owners are better off with a clause in the agreement outlining that a business valuation expert will assess the appropriate ways to value the business.

3. They can reduce emotional impact.

Developing the agreement before it is needed means emotions are less at play in big decisions. “People are focusing solely on the agreement rather their own individual interests,” Flaskey says. Involving an independent advisor to estimate the value or provide insight into the company every couple of years can reassure owners that they are on track and can reassure parties (including lenders) during a crisis that someone without a vested interest has reviewed the plan.

4. They should include ground rules. Buy-sell agreements should outline not only how price is determined, but also who can or can’t be a buyer and how a business sale will be funded. This is helpful in circumstances where owners want only certain family members to be able to buy out ownership and to control decisions. A clause outlining what may trigger the sale of the company can prevent having fiduciary agents (such as lenders) take control in the event of a personal bankruptcy by one owner.

Outlining how any sale of ownership is to be funded (cash, debt, insurance proceeds, etc.) helps ensure proper planning of company liabilities, Flaskey says.

5. Valuation methods matter. A buy-sell

agreement is where business owners have control over how simple or how complex they want to make the process of developing a business valuation, based on the company’s unique characteristics. It might make sense for a company that owns only real estate to get real estate appraisals and use those to develop an overall asset value. Companies with more complicated operations, however, might prefer that a price be developed using market-based, incomebased or total-asset-based approaches.

6. Buy-sell agreements have tax implications.

Uncle Sam always needs to be paid, Flaskey notes.

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A buy-sell agreement allows entrepreneurs to know up front who can buy in to the business and how the process will work.

“There are certain ways that a sale or buyback by the company can be structured to minimize taxes or to allow them to be paid over time,” she says. Without consideration of tax matters, an owner planning to fund his or her retirement by selling shares could wind up with drastically reduced proceeds.

Typically business owners involve a lawyer, their accountant and sometimes an outside valuation professional to walk through developing a buy-sell agreement. Flaskey says talking through what owners want to accomplish with the agreement is important.

“Is it to avoid arguments, to maintain value, to provide an exit, to make sure that if somebody’s not really involved in the business anymore they’re not getting the benefits of other people’s work?” she asks.

“The purpose behind it drives some of these other factors.”

For many businesses with $10 million or less in revenues, the market for selling the business is pretty small. Given the number of baby boomers nearing retirement, having a buy-sell agreement or other exit plan is really important, according to Flaskey.

“If you get to retirement and you can’t sell the business, what’s going to happen to it? You either need to be grooming management or one of your kids, you need to be thinking about selling to a key employee or converting to an employee-owned company,” she says. “There are a lot of business planning tools and a buy-sell agreement is just one of those.”

Sageworks, a financial information company, collects and analyzes data on the performance of privately held companies and provides accounting and audit solutions.

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In regards to the Motorcoach Marketing program, we love it. So far, we have made the 1000 postcards, and we did some full page handouts. We just got a stand up banner.

When I get some time, I’ll be making new rack cards for both offices. We made 500 church theme postcards and 500 in the safety theme.

We sent out the church cards through a local mailing company to every church within 50 miles. So far, we have had a great response and 4-5 people booked trips from it. I plan on using the safety ones soon by sending them to our new customers. All of our staff and drivers love the modern design and the finished products. Only one of my staff has watched the videos so far, but we will be working on that next month. So far I’m very happy with the service. It works well and looks great!

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Email Marketing

THE 9 EMAIL MISTAKES THAT MAKE PEOPLE IGNORE YOUR M 24 www.greenazine.com

MESSAGES

BILLIONS OF EMAILS ARE SENT EVERY DAY, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN WE HAVE ANY CLUE WHAT WE’RE DOING. FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO IMPROVE YOUR MESSAGES. Despite the rise of social media, instant messaging, and all manner of apps, reports of email’s death have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, according to technology market research firm The Radicati Group, in 2015, roughly 2.6 billion people will use email—a number that will grow to more than 2.9 billion by the end of 2019.

“For most organizations, it’s the communication nervous system,” says business writer and communications consultant, Natalie Canavor, author of Business Writing for Dummies.

And, yet, that doesn’t mean we know how to use it well. Experts agree that email gaffes and annoyances still plague the workplace. But you can improve your email game by following these steps.

MISTAKE NO. 1: EMAILING SOMETHING THAT’S BETTER EXPRESSED IN PERSON Before you start dashing off your missive, stop for a few seconds. Are you writing something emotional or complicated? Is this is a topic that is likely to get heated? Then an email message probably isn’t the best way to communicate it, says writer William Schwalbe, coauthor of Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better. Since tone and inflection don’t translate well through email, you could be setting yourself up for failure.

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MISTAKE NO. 2: USING A VAGUE OR USELESS SUBJECT LINE Don’t give people a reason to delete or ignore your message. Use your subject line to capture attention and be clear about the email topic, Schawlbe says. Tell the user up front what you’re purpose is, and if you were referred by someone, namedrop in the subject line. And if the substance of the messages changes during some back-and-forth, change the subject line to reflect that, he says.

MISTAKE NO. 5: NOT DOUBLE CHECKING GRAMMAR AND SPELLING Yes, it really matters. A 2015 survey of HubSpot Sidekick readers found that 40% of people find bad grammar to be their number-one cold email pet peeve. Canavor says that sending an email message riddled with grammar and punctuation errors is disrespectful, and that people might take you less seriously if you don’t present yourself well in writing.

MISTAKE NO. 3: COPYING TOO MANY PEOPLE AND HITTING REPLY ALL

MISTAKE NO. 6: BURYING THE LEAD IN A SUPER-LONG MESSAGE

Schwalbe also says it’s a good idea to establish some ground rules about who should respond to messages.

Typically, a good rule of thumb is if you’re in the “To” line, feel free to answer. If you’re in the “CC” line, your response is not needed. And while you’re at it, establish some ground rules for copying coworkers, since not everyone needs to be copied on every email. It just clogs up inboxes.

That goes for replies, too—don’t use the Reply All button unless it’s truly necessary, and feel free to write, “No reply necessary,” if you’re sending a message that doesn’t require one.

An email isn’t the place to write your manifesto. Keep it to a paragraph or two, and don’t “bury the lead”—keep the most important information up front, Schawlbe says. If you have to make it longer, keep it to three or four points and use numbered lists or bullets for each point to make them easier to follow and address, Schawlbe says. If you can’t cut it down, perhaps email isn’t the best vehicle for what you need to communicate.

MISTAKE NO. 4: NOT USING A SALUTATION If you’re the type to just dive into your message without the niceties of a “Hi Jim” or a “Good morning Mary,” you could be setting the wrong tone, especially if you’re communicating with someone based outside the U.S., Canavor says. You can drop it after the first exchange, but it sets a more congenial tone, she says.

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MISTAKE NO. 7: NOT GIVING A SPECIFIC ACTION ITEM One of the last items before your sign-off should be the action item or request, Schawlbe says. If you’re assigning responsibilities, do so. If you’re asking for someone to take action, be clear about it. Vagaries may render your email message useless.

MISTAKE NO. 8: NOT HAVING A CUSTOMIZED SIGNATURE LINE Canavor suggests having four or five email signatures crafted so you can just choose the one that’s right

for the situation. Be sure you have comprehensive contact information, including phone numbers, email addresses, Twitter handles, and the like.

If you need to establish credibility with someone, use the version that has a few credentials, awards, or honors. If you’re sending a message to a personal friend, you can be more informal. There aren’t hard and fast rules, but know that if you have eight or 10 lines of copy, it’s likely not going to get read.

MISTAKE NO. 9: ENGAGING IN AN ENDLESS BACK AND FORTH Once an exchange has gone beyond three or four messages and it’s still not going anywhere or if it starts to get heated, pick up the phone or walk down the hall, Schawlbe says.

It can take an average of seven email messages to set up one meeting. If you’re caught in such an exchange, there’s a simple fix, he says.

“Just say, ‘Wow, this is getting complex. I’ll give you a call in 10 minutes’,” he says.

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Marketing Automation

Step Around These Marketing 28 www.greenazine.com

g Automation Pitfalls

Marketing automation should serve as an extension of a marketer’s team, working to streamline manual tasks so marketers can spend more time developing strategic programs, rather than focusing on tactical tasks. www.greenazine.com

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Marketing automation should serve as an extension of a marketer’s team, working to streamline manual tasks so marketers can spend more time developing strategic programs, rather than focusing on tactical tasks.

However, marketing automation platforms don’t always deliver on this promise. Even after adopting marketing automation, companies struggle with inefficiencies. In some cases, the marketing tool exacerbates existing flawed processes.

There’s room to improve marketing automation platforms and how marketers use them to drive results.

To avoid common pitfalls, consider the following tips when searching for and implementing an automation solution.

Shiny Features Don’t Equal Success When evaluating marketing automation solutions, it’s easy for marketers of small- to mid-sized businesses to gravitate toward enterprise-sized platforms that tout cutting-edge functionality.

However, most of the features available within those solutions are too complex for small teams to manage.

In many cases, marketers pay more for a range of capabilities that they’ll never use. At the same time, many of the platforms that place a premium on features don’t offer the customized support marketers need to use the tools most efficiently.

Marketers should select a streamlined solution that’s better aligned with their specific needs. They need a solution with an intuitive interface that doesn’t require a large team to manage, one that can be customized easily. Additionally, consultative support—with a live contact—is critical for marketers who are implementing marketing automation for the first time. Reliable customer support can provide the guidance and education needed to ensure marketers are successful with this technology.

You Can’t Automate An Unsound Strategy Another common marketing automation misstep is automating without a strategy. Automation isn’t a cure-all. In fact, implementing marketing automation with a flawed strategy could accelerate existing issues.

This can create long-term challenges, like disengaged prospects and customers, along with greater misalignment between marketing and sales.

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To avoid this, marketing teams can schedule quarterly process audits, during which the team analyzes and identifies which processes are strong candidates for automation and which need improving. To ensure total alignment, the marketing team should collaborate with sales to develop a cohesive strategy.

They can work together to identify which key audiences to target, which paths leads should take during the buyer’s journey, and what type of content and communication is needed.

Marketing Automation And Lead Generation Are Different While marketing automation platforms automate many marketing functions, it won’t magically generate leads. This is a tool designed to support your lead nurture and generation initiatives. You need a sound strategy to grow your prospect list with new contacts.

With the help of behavioral targeting, marketing automation can assist marketers in creating quality content that engages leads more effectively based on their interests and actions. Additionally, marketers can further coordinate with sales and customer support to identify what resonates with a company’s audiences.

Finally, marketers can ensure automation supports lead generation by leveraging calls to action and landing pages to direct interested leads toward content and other offers. Marketers can gate this content to capture contact information, building the strength of their prospect databases.

A Future Involving Stress-Free Automation Marketing automation was designed to simplify processes and complement strategic programs.

Instead, many marketers purchase a solution, grow frustrated, and return to manual processes. By selecting function over frills in the form of an intuitive interface and convenient customer support, marketers can minimize early-stage headaches. However, marketers also need to remember that automation won’t solve an unsound strategy or replace lead generation efforts.

The goal of automation is simplification. Taking steps to avoid common pitfalls can help ensure the platform is working as a tool to help meet marketing objectives.

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Setra - a brand of Daimler AG

Don’t be fooled by its pretty face

Once again, Setra has raised the benchmark in the North American luxury motorcoach segment, with over 30 innovations in design, passenger and driver comfort, safety and environmental efficiencies. Daimler’s new, unique Front Collision Guard (FCG), for instance, is a passive safety system engineered to protect the driver and tour guide in the case of a frontal impact. Experience the all-new Setra TopClass S 417. From Daimler Buses North America, the worldwide leading manufacturer of buses and motorcoaches.

Motor Coach Industries 1700 East Golf Road, Suite 300 · Schaumburg, Illinois 60173 · Phone 866-624-2622 Distributor of EvoBus GmbH for Setra buses and Setra parts in the United States and Canada

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Irrational Person to Listen to Reason The first thing you need to do to get an irrational person to behave rationally is to calm yourself down so that you don’t escalate the situation with your own irrational and emotional reaction.

If you’re viewing a person as irrational, it means they’ve already succeeded in getting you upset enough to take something they’re doing or saying too personally when you shouldn’t. When that happens, a part of your middle emotional brain called the amygdala will hijack you away from thinking rationally and responding accordingly. It does so by blocking you from accessing your upper rational brain to evaluate the situation.

Thinking of someone as irrational can mean you’re feeling as if they are intentionally acting in some way just to get you upset — and then you react by becoming upset.

Alternatively, if you view them as merely not rational, and don’t take their behavior personally, you will be able to take your emotionality out of the equation.

You’ve probably heard the saying, “When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” To a not-rational person, the world looks like whatever they perceive and then believe it to be, which then in their mind justifies their reaction. If, for instance, they grew up in a highly critical or even abusive home, your merely being direct with them can cause them to think you are attacking them.

Having been defenseless and powerless to protect themselves from the criticism or abuse as a child, it’s not irrational to promise themselves that they won’t put up with it when they’re an adult. But they’re not pausing to see that your directness is not about criticism, it’s about just getting stuff done, especially when time is of the essence.

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Ho

ow to get an irrational person to listen to reason

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After you’ve accepted the possibility that they’re not taking it out on you personally, it’s time to utilize the FUDO approach that I talk about in my new book, “Talking to Crazy: How to Deal with the Irrational and Impossible People in Your Life,” to help that person become rational. FUDO stands for: Frustrated, Upset, Disappointed, Outcome. Here are the steps to using it.

Step 1: Frustrated. After you have told yourself to not take what the other person is saying or doing personally, and not react emotionally, let them vent or complain or whine or even try to bully you verbally (don’t put up with physical bullying, ever). Then say to them, “Wow, you really sound frustrated. What’s that about?” You use the word “frustrated” because most people will not become defensive about it, whereas if you were to say to them, “Wow, you sound really angry, etc.” many people will think you are criticizing and shaming them and will escalate.

Let them answer your question, and then employ conversation-deepeners when they use an emotionally charged word (usually an adjective or adverb spoken with hyperbole) and respond with, “Say more about [that word].” Let them vent or complain some more, and then go even deeper by inviting them to talk more with, “Really?” By doing this, you’re enabling them to get more off their chest and you won’t be defensive because you’re in charge of the conversation and you have a process (FUDO) that you’re following.

Step 2: Upset. After they’ve expressed much of their frustration, say to them, “And you also seem upset.

What’s that about?” Then as in Step 1, employ conversation-deepeners to enable them to get their upset off their chest. Upset is a more palatable place to help them get their anger out where, again, they won’t be defensive about it.

Step 3: Disappointed. Wait until they have calmed down at least 50% after expressing their frustration and upset feeling. Then, pause, and in as empathetic and compassionate a tone of voice as you can use, say to them, “I’m guessing you’re also feeling disappointed either in the situation (or person) you just told me about, or maybe even disappointed in yourself if this is something that seems to happen too often. What might you be disappointed about?”

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Again, apply the conversation-deepeners and you will hopefully watch them become much calmer. They may even tear up as the pain underneath all their frustration, upset and disappointment has a chance to break through.

Step 4: Outcome. This is the tipping point in the conversation where you get them to become more rational. Say to them, “Given everything you just told me about and also given the fact that you can’t change the past, what outcome would you like to happen now?” Let them answer, and when they finish, say, “This is too important for me not to fully understand where you’re coming from. Why that outcome?”

Often, just using the word “important” can have a dramatically calming effect, because they are often frustrated and upset because they view the world treating them as if they’re unimportant. Let them explain whatever it is and respond with, “What do you need to do starting now to have the best chance for that outcome to happen, since doing anything to frustrate or upset other people is unlikely to make them want to help you, just like you didn’t want to do anything positive when you were feeling frustrated and upset?” From there, proceed to brainstorm with them on options and likely outcomes from each.

If you’re the one who tends to act irrationally to others, you can use the FUDO approach on yourself.

If you do, don’t beat up on yourself for needing to do it. That will just get in the way of you becoming the rational person you always wanted to be.

By the way, you’re not alone if this does apply to you.

The good news is that it’s never too late for any of us to grow up. And if we do, the people around us will be so grateful that we finally did it, you and I shouldn’t worry that they’re going to rub our faces in it.

But if they do, we can just FUDO them.

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35

FMCSA Help Train Veterans

FMCSA Awards $2.3 Milli to Help Train Veterans in Commercial Truck and Bu

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ion in Grants Jobs as us Drivers

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) today announced nearly $2.3 million in grants, double the amount provided in 2014, to 13 technical and community colleges across the country to help train veterans and their families for jobs as commercial bus and truck drivers.

The funding is provided through FMCSA’s Commercial Motor Vehicle - Operator Safety Training (CMV-OST) grant program.

“We support job opportunities for Veterans who have served our country, but not only because it is the right thing to do, it also makes good sense,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “One of the most important, fastest growing employment sectors is for qualified commercial vehicle drivers and Veterans bring invaluable experience to the industry and can enter the workforce quickly.”

“We doubled the amount we have previously provided through this grant program because of the important role qualified commercial truck and bus drivers hold in moving our economy forward,” said FMCSA Acting Administrator Scott Darling. “The men and women who complete these commercial driver training programs also serve our country in a vital way by making safety their top priority every mile, every day.”

FMCSA awards CMV-OST grants to a variety of educational institutions that provide truck driving training, including accredited public or private colleges, universities, vocationaltechnical schools, post-secondary educational institutions, truck driver training schools, associations, and state and local governments, including federally-recognized Native American tribal governments.

The 2015 FMCSA grants announced today will provide training for hundreds of new students.

The awards were made to the following organizations: California – West Hills Community College District, Coalinga, $199,460 Georgia – Central Georgia Technical College, Macon, $146,771 Maryland – Cecil College, North East, $101,825 www.greenazine.com

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New York – Erie 2 Chautauqua Cattaraugus BOCES, Angola, $105,201 North Carolina – North Carolina Department of Transportation, Raleigh, $200,000 Ohio – Cuyahoga Community College District, Cleveland, $195,040 Oklahoma – Central Technical Center, Drumright, $200,000 Pennsylvania – Lancaster County Career Technology Center, Willow Street, $194,811 Pennsylvania – Northampton County Community College, Bethlehem, $134,400

&

Area

Pennsylvania – The Sage Corporation, Camp Hill, $198,504 South Carolina – Orangeburg-Callhoun Technical College, Orangeburg, $197,399 Texas – Alamo Colleges/ St. Phillip’s College, San Antonio, $196,680 Virginia – Tidewater Community College, Norfolk, $199,879 The Commercial Motor Vehicle - Operator Safety Training Grant Program was established by Congress in 2005 through the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act – A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), to expand the number of commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders possessing enhanced operator safety training to help reduce the severity and number of crashes on U.S. roads involving large trucks and buses.

In July 2014, FMCSA announced that the Military Skills Test Waiver Program had been expanded to include all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Under this program, state licensing agencies have authority to waive the skills test portion of the CDL application for active duty or recently separated veterans who possess at least two years of safe driving experience operating a military truck or bus. Waiving the skills test expedites the civilian commercial drivers licensing application process and reduces expenses for qualified individuals and operating costs to state licensing agencies.

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In July 2014, FMCSA announced that the Military Skills Test Waiver Program had been expanded to include all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

FMCSA last year also announced that, beginning with Virginia residents, returning military service personnel who possess a state-issued Skill Performance Evaluation (SPE) certificate due to a limb impairment will automatically be recognized as equivalent to an FMCSA-issued SPE certificate and allowed to obtain an interstate commercial driver’s license (CDL).

FMCSA encourages other state licensing agencies to establish comparable equivalency SPE programs.

To learn more about the Commercial Motor Vehicle Operator Safety Training Grant Program, please visit https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/grants/cmv-operatorsafety-training-grant/commercial-motor-vehiclecmv-operator-safety-training For a listing of last year’s CMV – OST grant recipients, please visit https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/newsroom/ fmcsa-awards-1-million-help-train-and-placeveterans-careers-commercial-truck-and-bus To learn more about the Military Skills Test Waiver Program, please visit https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/ registration/commercial-drivers-license/military To learn more about the U.S. Department of Transportation’s dedication to our nation’s veterans, please visit http://www.dot.gov/ veteranstransportationcareers.

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Safety Measurement System

FMCSA Releases Additional Analysis on Alternatives for Safety Measurement System The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) today released a Congressionally directed report confirming that the amount of data used in the agency’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) is clearly sufficient to allow FMCSA to identify high-risk truck and bus companies.

The report found that SMS effectively identifies the truck and bus companies involved in 90 percent of the more than 100,000 crashes that occur each year, and those that are identified as high-risk carriers continue to have crash rates that are twice the national average.

In examining commercial motor vehicle crash rates, FMCSA looked at carriers of various sizes in accordance 40 www.greenazine.com

with the Congressional directive. The analysis revealed no significant difference in actual crash rates between small carriers and those with 20 or more roadside inspections.

FMCSA’s examinations further determined that the category of carriers with 11-20 inspections and patterns of non-compliance has the highest crash rates, presenting a clear and immediate intervention opportunity for the agency to proactively bring these carriers into compliance with important safety regulations, including: hours-ofservice limitations designed to prevent fatigued driving; vehicle maintenance, and; commercial driver’s license (CDL) requirements.

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FMCSA’s current SMS data sufficiency standards allow the agency to effectively identify and proactively intervene with high-risk carriers before a crash involving a large truck or bus occurs.

In March, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the agency increase the minimum number of required roadside safety inspections needed before prioritizing truck and bus companies for interventions. FMCSA disagreed, pointing out that a delay in responding to known non-compliant carriers would needlessly jeopardize the safety of the motoring public.

Under current Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), a carrier’s safety fitness can only be assigned following an on-site investigation; SMS is a tool to prioritize high-risk truck and bus companies for enforcement interventions.

Today’s report underscores the critical importance of considering carriers of all sizes in the agency’s continuing efforts to remove unsafe carriers and commercial drivers from the nation’s roadways and protecting travelers everywhere.

For a copy of today’s report, Click Here.

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41

Disaster Recovery Plan

Hurricane Joaquin Highlights the Imp

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portance of Plans to Keep Operating Hurricane Joaquin’s wild ride up the East Coast over the last week stirred up chilling memories for William Bauer, managing director of Royce Leather in New Jersey. The family business already went through Hurricane Sandy, which flooded the fulfillment center in Secaucus, ruining many fine leather goods like wallets and briefcases. A $100,000 server, which held vital customer records, was also destroyed.

“The ground felt like it was caving in around me,” recalled Mr. Bauer, 24. “I was talking to my psychologist three times a week.”

Concerned about what seemed to be a rising number of violent storms, the family decided it would not be caught unprepared again.

Royce now has a simple, three-page business continuity plan to help it stay operating when disaster strikes. It focuses on basic strategies like quickly restoring power, emailing customers and using a work-from-home policy for its employees.

“We stepped back and surveyed what went wrong,” Mr. Bauer said, “and what we could do right.” The goal, he added, was to be as prompt, personable and transparent as possible.

Today, Royce, which has 29 employees and did $6 million in business last year, is among the few small businesses that have plans in place for managing weather disasters. According to the 2015 Travelers Business Risk Index, 21 percent of small businesses have continuity plans. Yet the effects of lack of planning can be devastating. As many as 40 to 60 percent of small businesses never recover after being hit by natural disasters, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

After a dam broke last weekend and flooded LaBrasca’s Pizza in Columbia, S.C., the restaurant closed indefinitely. Milly Block, a co-

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owner, estimated that repairs alone would cost over $50,000, and thousands of dollars in revenue would be lost each week.

“The restaurant is totally ruined,” said Ms. Block. She said LaBrasca’s has no business continuity plan or flood insurance and will apply for FEMA aid. “I cried a lot when I saw it.”

Even brief, simple plans can help small businesses get back on their feet, no matter what the disaster, experts say.

And continuity planning is increasingly important, said Scott Teel, education director at Agility Recovery Solutions, based in Charlotte, N.C. He has teamed up with the Small Business Administration to create PrepareMyBusiness.org, which has many crisis management tools that can help businesses endure weather disasters, including wildfires and hurricanes.

Ready.gov is another helpful federal government site.

Small businesses, especially, need all the crisis planning they can get.

They typically rely on a single location, which makes them especially vulnerable, Mr. Teel said. And owners wear many hats and are usually more focused on generating revenue than anticipating the next disaster.

“There’s also the belief that these plans are too costly and time-intensive,” Mr. Teel said. “Yet a week without income can cause debt defaults and missed payrolls.”

Even relying on insurance coverage to replace lost income cannot replace clients, he added.

That is why the best protection, Mr. Teel and many other experts say, is developing a continuity plan that plots out responses to different disaster situations. It targets the biggest business risks and critical functions that keep revenue flowing. The plan, he adds, does not have to be a 50-page tome with a binder.

“Any plan will put you light years ahead of other small businesses,” Mr. Teel added. “This is where the rubber meets the road.” Some big companies now even require small businesses to have a continuity plan in place before they will work with them, experts said.

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Continuity plans that are never used can even help improve business profitability, said Donna R. Childs, author of the small-business book “Prepare for the Worst, Plan for the Best.”

“You’ll have better systems in place and have good records that are digitized,” said Ms. Childs, a former Swiss Reinsurance executive. “It takes a good planner.”

Small businesses may even be able to get better insurance rates, she added, since they have created strategies for handling weather disasters.

The process can be easily be broken into five steps.

“Most of them are simple,” said Al Berman, president of the Disaster Recovery Institute. “They include keeping track of resources, inventory, personnel and physical sites.” The plan should be written and stored in the cloud, as in a Google document, for example, so it can be retrieved anywhere.

Step 1 is analyzing a business’s critical functions.

Many businesses just focus on the technology part, experts say, without considering customers, products, suppliers and employees that need to be protected.

“People misjudge their critical resources,” Ms. Childs said. “They may just try to protect physical assets.”

Royce’s continuity plan, for example, is divided into five important departments, including sales, accounting and fulfillment. To pull it together, Mr. Bauer asked each department head one main question: If the business was closed for a week or two, what problems would you be facing? And what must be done first?

“Our plan is a team effort,” he said. “And it means taking into account the many voices of a company.”

Step 2 is focusing on risks that could topple the business. These risks could be damaged inventory, lost data or irate customers. Think about your crucial assets and how they would be affected, Ms. Childs said. What would happen if your office was closed for 24 hours?

For restaurants and other food companies, spoilage is a big expense. Fresh Diet, which delivers healthy meals in 44 metropolitan areas daily, has tweaked its

Step 1 is analyzing a business’s critical functions.

Many businesses just focus on the technology part, experts say, without considering customers, products, suppliers and employees that need to be protected. continuity plan on an ongoing basis. Several years ago, chefs in the Brooklyn, N.Y., kitchen cooked all day, but meals could not be delivered to Boston and elsewhere because of a severe winter storm. So the food was donated to homeless shelters.

Today, Fresh Diet has an eight-step plan that slashes food waste when disasters strike. Managers of the company’s five culinary centers across the United States offered suggestions on each step of the plan, which includes changes in delivery logistics and notifying customers.

Step 3 creates strategies to protect crucial parts of the business. For example, manufacturers might want to think of alternate suppliers. Company inventory can be put in more than one location. Customers can be contacted via text messages, Facebook or email.

Employees can stay connected by using a list compiled in advance. And data can be protected by storing it in the cloud rather than on an office server.

And, in some cases, facilities need to be shored up, too.

Lynmar Estate, a winery in Sonoma County, Calif., that produces chardonnay and pinot noir, has a continuity plan that factors in earthquakes and droughts.

the vineyard’s founder. Water tanks and wells make water available. And to protect the wines, Mr. Fritz stores them in caves that are seismically certified to withstand an earthquake. Barrels are also secured so they can’t get loose. “Earthquakes are the hardest to plan for,” he said. “Other weather disasters are slow onset.”

Other small businesses may need to think about relocating an office, perhaps using temporary conference rooms or even moving into a local church’s empty office, Mr. Teel said.

Businesses might also want to think about interruption insurance, Ms. Childs said. It covers the loss of income after a disaster. The Small Business Administration also offers loans. “But it’s better to be insured than to rely on a loan,” Ms. Childs advised.

Step 4 means testing the plan. This phase is the mostforgotten step, experts say. Small businesses can merely go through checklists, though, or even run a table top test, which is explained at PrepareMyBusiness.org.

Finally, plans should be updated every year, including the contact list, Ms. Childs said.

After the plan is finished, added Ms. Childs, have a lawyer, accountant and especially an insurance company look it over. “They can see if there are any holes left to fill in,” she said.

Royce Leather updated its continuity plan this week.

After the lease runs out, the Secaucus, N.J., fulfillment center will be moved to a building higher above sea level. The building’s data center has already been reinforced with brick, so it is “nearly impossible to flood,” Mr. Bauer says.

“You can’t prevent bad things from happening,” he said. “But you can change how you respond.”

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“Every employee has to read it,” said Lynn Fritz,

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