OSHA contains a general requirement, applicable to every employer, that imposes an obligation on you to maintain a safe workplace. The general duty clause requires every employer to provide every employee with a place of employment that is free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm. This obligation is an open-ended one because it is designed to protect employees in situations where there are no established standards. Thus, your potential liability under the Act is also open-ended.

Every employer wants to have a safe workplace. The risk of injury to an employee or customer is frequently enough to convince an employer to take appropriate steps to maintain a safe place of business.

In general, OSHA imposes responsibility on employers with respect to the safety of their employees. But what about workers who aren't technically your employees? Different employment relationships bring different responsibilities.

If you have employees, you are probably covered by OSHA. If you have none, you generally aren't covered, although in some cases businesses who use nonemployee workers such as independent contractors are still subject to OSHA.

Think of your contingency plan as a fire drill. While you may never have a fire, it's good to know what to do if there is one. Approach general contingency planning the same way. Use these steps to get started:

Why worry about safety? Simply because workplace accidents can destroy your business.

If you have any employees, post instructions in the work areas concerning what to do in case of a fire, earthquake, or other disaster and make sure that your employees are familiar with those instructions.

Even if you have an internal auditing system that makes embezzlement difficult, the danger of collusion still exists. Consequently, some companies protect themselves from employee dishonesty by bonding their employees.

It seems lately that natural disasters are occurring with more frequency and intensity. In the past few years, in particular, floods, earthquakes, fires, mudslides, tornadoes, and hurricanes have caused millions of dollars in damages to the homes and businesses they strike. While you can't prevent a natural disaster from occurring, you can help minimize its impact on your business by being prepared if disaster strikes.

As part of your security program, you should write security rules and give them to your employees. You may want to include your security rules in your employee handbook, if you have one.

There are four basic things that you can do in implementing an internal system of controls:

Here are some warning signs that embezzlement is taking place:

Protect your business from employee theft!

Protecting your office and equipment as well as your employees' property from vandals and thieves should be an important part of your safety program. There are a many ways to safeguard your business, including the use of locks, key control, lighting, and alarm systems.

These days, when everyone seems to be suing everyone else, insurance premiums continue to soar. Yet some insurance companies, fearing that the possibility of such lawsuits is too great, actually refuse to make certain types of insurance available to businesses. So in most cases you have insurance you can barely afford, and in some cases you can't even get insurance. What's a small business owner to do?

Once you have determined the types of insurance you may need, you must accurately assess how much insurance you need.

The security of your workplace, your property, and, to a lesser degree, the security of your employees' property are responsibilities you cannot afford to overlook. The costs, both in dollars and peace of mind, can be staggering when you find that you've been "ripped off." Concern yourself with:

There are some types of insurance that are not directly related to protecting your office and equipment. However, given that we are already discussing the subject of insurance, it is probably a good idea to mention them so that you can consider them as part of your overall insurance strategy. You may even be able to save money by purchasing one, or more, of the following as part of a package with rest of your insurance:

Like a comprehensive homeowner's policy, a business owner's policy protects against economic losses caused by damage to the owner's property and by legal liability to others for bodily injury and property damage involving the business.

Among the types of insurance available to small businesses, you may have overlooked this one. Perhaps you associate the term "malpractice" only with doctors or lawyers. The fact is, however, that malpractice insurance isn't just for doctors and lawyers anymore.

It's amazing, but some insurance salespeople would try to get a business located in an Arizona desert to buy flood insurance!

If an uninsured loss hits a business itself (such as the accidental destruction of the business's computer system, or a lawsuit based on a "slip-and-fall" that happened on the business premises), the business's owner could be affected in two ways.

Unlike a business owner's policy, a homeowner's policy protects you from the economic harm associated with home ownership, as well as other covered risks listed in the policy. Even if you have incorporated your business or formed an LLC, you and your business are joined economically. Any economic disaster that hits you will make it hard for you to give your business the time and monetary support that it needs. A homeowner's policy can help insure that a non-business loss will not drag down your business.

Even if it is totally unrelated to your business, an auto accident that leads to a large legal judgment against you can be hazardous to your personal economic health and to that of your home business. Because of this, it's important that you have an adequate amount of coverage on your car to cover both business- and nonbusiness-related accidents and damage to your auto.

A solely owned, unincorporated business has no legal existence apart from its owner. Consequently, a large uninsured loss suffered by the owner can devastate the business. A business owner may be forced to sell business assets — or the business itself — to extinguish his or her debt.