Eight Workplace Injuries That May Require a Worker’s Compensation Attorney

Any employee in any industry can be and will be exposed to workplace hazards that can lead to minor and even major injuries. If you are an employee and you are worried about such workplace injuries, a workers compensation attorney can help you with a present case and get you the financial and medical benefits that you need. Here is a list of eight workplace injuries that may require you to see a workers compensation attorney on a regular basis. 

1. Burns

Many employees have experienced getting burned from their job. There are many types of burns which include electrical exposure, chemicals and flames. Employees that are at highest risk in getting burns from their occupation are those who work in the food service industry, electricians and nurses. 

2. Falls

This is also one other most common issues that might occur for those who work in the office. Although many companies might consider this a personal injury, if it happens in the workplace due to the environment or furniture around the office or workplace, it is still a workplace injury. The number of annual occurrence of office falls and slips are around 25,000 cases per year.

3. Foot pain

For those employees who spend most of their work hours standing such as nurses and other professionals in the medical field, foot pain can be a frequent complaint because of those long hours standing. For those individuals who work many hours and are not getting enough breaks and time off may start experiencing unbearable foot pain thus causing them to be ineffective to work. 

4. Crushing injuries

This is another quite common office concern that may be cause from tall bookshelves being over-burdened and falling over. Office employees are also eligible for the same benefits as those in other professions that may be considered a higher risk, such as law enforcement and construction. 

5. Motor vehicle accidents

Those individuals who work in a construction field are frequently at risk of being struck by some type of motor vehicle. Some incidents may unfortunately lead to serious injuries or even death. A workers compensation lawyer can represent the injured party and his or her dependants to make sure that they get financial support from their employers. 

6. Back and spine injuries

In almost any field, back and spine injuries can be an issue. Those who are physical laborers who tend to carry very heavy objects, healthcare professionals who stand on their feet for many hours every day and other workplaces that may be strenuous to the body may cause these types of injuries. A workers compensation lawyer can work with those who experience these types of injuries to gather information about the working conditions in preparing a case. 

7. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

This medical condition can actually cause a person to stop working on the computer or doing other tasks related to their job. Cases of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome are often linked to poor ergonomics at the work desk. This could mean that they are typing at an awkward angle, poor posture at the desk and repetitive and constant use of a computer mouse. 

8. Heart attacks

Those employees who work in hard labor positions may be pushed so hard in extreme conditions and high temperatures. This could lead to sudden heart attacks and other serious medical problems such as high blood pressure or a spike in blood sugar levels which could be very dangerous.

Been Involved in an Accident Through No Fault of your Own?

Accidents happen all the time, on the roads, at work, in schools, at the shops… the list goes on and on. As the number 1 accident claims company, we have seen it all. We all hope we will not be a victim of an unfortunate accident, but they are always sudden and unexpected, so who knows which one of us will be next? If you have an accident, and it is not your fault, you may be able to make a personal injury compensation claim, but there are things that need to be done to make sure your claim is successful. For the purpose of our 10 step guide we are going to assume, firstly that you have survived the accident and secondly that your injuries are such that you are conscious and mobile. As it is the most common type of accident, we shall use a road traffic accident as our example.

Our scenario is that you are on a B road; another car doesn’t stop at a junction and crashes into the passenger side of your car. He wasn’t going slow, so has spun your car and his own hit a tree.

10 Steps to Take if you Have Been Involved in an Accident That Was not your Fault

Step 1 – Turn off your engine, get out and see if there looks to be any further immediate danger to anyone. If possible, it is best to get everyone out of the vehicles, but do not move anyone that is in pain, you could do more harm than good.

Step 2 – Hopefully, you or someone else has a mobile phone. Telephone the emergency services so that driver and passengers can be checked out to see if anyone needs to go to hospital. When emergency services are summoned to a road traffic accident, the police attend automatically.

Step 3 – If anyone involved is up to it, have them stand in a safe position guiding other cars round the accident. The last thing you need is another car ploughing into the mess, which could just cause far more serious injuries on top of the ones you already have.
Step 4 – Swap personal and insurance details with the other driver. This would be an important step to take even if no injuries were involved, but as we think you have a broken arm, broken collarbone and probably whiplash, their details will make everything easier.

Step 5 – If there were anyone around when the accident happened, ask them if they would mind acting as a witness in the future if you need them to. If they are OK with that, take their name, address and telephone number.

Step 6 – By now, the police should have made the area safe and traffic should be flowing again. They will talk to every one involved as well as any witnesses, and from all this information, have to compile an accident report. Make sure that you get your view across to them as calmly and clearly as you can, they are far more likely to believe someone with this demeanor than a raving nutcase.

Step 7 – Make notes about the scene and how the accident happened while it is still fresh in your mind, although with that broken arm you may have to wait till you are at home and dictate it to someone. If the other driver does not admit he was at fault and the case goes to court, those notes might prove very useful to you.

Step 8 – You are probably on you way to hospital by now, that arm will need putting in plaster and they may well want to Xray your neck to make sure the injury is soft tissue and no broken bones. You will possibly be there quite some time, so for now sit back in the waiting room and take it easy. When they release you, take care to follow whatever instructions they give you.

Step 9 – Once you are home, and probably after a couple of days rest to relax you a bit more, you need to consider making a personal injury compensation claim against the driver of the other vehicle. There is actually a UK law that says if you have been injured in an accident that was not your fault, the guilty party should give you recompense. In reality, it wont be the young lad driving the other car that will have to stump up, his insurance company will settle any claim you make.

Step 10 – Find a good law firm to act on your behalf for your personal injury compensation claim. You could try and do it yourself, but we would not recommend that. Insurance companies are notoriously difficult to deal with. Their legal team will do their best to pay you as little as possible, quite rightly so. That’s what their job is. Just like the job of a specialist injury claim lawyer, is to make sure they get you as much as possible. Insurance companies would rather deal with the experts; they understand one another and speak the same language, legal jargon. It just makes every ones job easier, and will without a doubt, be a lot easier for you. Use a firm that is reputable, that you can find recommendations from previous claimants, and look to see if there are any other people that recommend them. Gather all your evidence, notes details of the other driver and witnesses and give them a call. If they are worth their salt, they will give you free advice about your claim and will ensure that every aspect of the effect of the injuries is accounted for.

So now we are at the end of our 10 Steps to take if you have been involved in an accident that was not your fault, you can hopefully go out in your car without worrying about what you need to do, and avoid that junction on the B road just in case someone shoots out of there without stopping. All part of the service from the Accident Advice Helpline, the no. 1 accident claims helpline.

Business Economics 101 - How To Balance A Business Budget

Business economics deals with the strategies, organization, and management of a business. Budgets are extremely important to any business and are difficult to manage even at the best of times. It’s best to expect the unexpected; as the business is most likely never static, neither will the budget be.

Budgeting Benefits

Simply put, budgeting helps establishments manage their costs. It can aid with knowing whether or not the profit goals can be met, and if applicable, what they should even be. They help set a certain kind of control for a business to run with. Planning during business peaks can help determine the best times to add additional inventory or labor, or when to decrease labor and plan vacations for employees, plan meetings, etc. It’s always important to keep the budget updated as well, on a monthly basis. Make cuts in labor or inventory where necessary, or add. One of any business’ priorities should be to try to manage the budget well.

Adjusting And Stabilizing Budgets

It is recommended to adjust the budget of any business to see if there is any room for improvement. Adjusting budgets can be quite the risk, but they can end up being well worth it. Wait to see what the results of the income will be, and if it’s positive, then it may be plausible to keep going with the new set budget. It’s also critical to be able to effectively respond to unexpected budget cuts. If an important customer decides that their own budget cannot support purchasing the business’s goods or services, notice how long it affects the amount of money lost. Within that range of time, a business could look for a new, reliable client to at least have some sort of stability with budget.

Strategies For Businesses

An effective strategy to maintain a balanced budget and to keep the profits sort of ‘locked’ is to introduce employee performance bonuses. Employees will have an incentive to work extra hard to sell the brand product or service in order to meet the company’s ideal quota, and to receive the bonus. A business must know how to trim their expenses when needed, and know how long a set amount of money (from profit) can last them, and what it can be used for in benefit for the company. Lowering expectations for revenue and upping the cost of everything (while planning out the budget for the month) can aid in maintaining it. That however requires becoming more conservative as an owner or employee in charge. Less expensive equipment may be purchased or borrowed—not all offices need the top of the line computer brand.

Being conservative about everything in a business however could be a downfall. It’s important to know when it would be okay to reach for certain investments. And although adjusting a budget is okay in order to see how it plays out, it is wise to stick to the most efficient budget in any month throughout the year. Of course, revenues for businesses always depend given the time of the year. Everything should be taken account for when financing is involved.

Author Bio
Loren is a financial consultant working with a Mortgage Firm. She is a frequent Pinterest user. Recently she found about rapid advance reviews on Pinterest and how they help business grow when they are stuck financially.

How to Successfully Retire at 51

retirement (Photo credit: 401(K) 2013)

Retiring by age 51 will take some significant planning and if you have the inclination when you are in your twenties, it won’t be that hard. Depending on your income at your early age, if you put away $10,000 to $12,000 year, you can have the amount you want to for retirement. http://on-msn.com/xFNNDE 

With age 51 being your goal, you can enjoy your retirement and still have enough body left to boogie on with the best of them. If an illness has hit you or your household, it may take away from the retirement, but at least you have it to lean on when times get hard.

So let’s break that down

If you have the forethought to take care of saving this money, then break it down even more so that your bite sized pieces are more attainable. $12,000 divided by 12 months equals $1,000 a month. That can be a sizeable amount for a coffee barista. So, let’s break it down even more and divide that amount by the days of the month. That is $33 a day. A lot of twenty something’s don’t make that much a day, so we should make this more user friendly for anyone.

Let’s do $50 a week. That calculates to $200 a month and $2400 a year. Multiply that by 20 years for the sake of this example and you get: $48,000. Not a bad haul at all, and if you have the inclination to invest, do it wisely. Meaning, have some help to get started, not just by diving into the market unknowingly.

It won’t

Forty eight thousand dollars certainly will not be enough to retire on, but it’s better than a kick in the patooty and you have the opportunity to help it grow with some aggressive investments; so do it. Be aware in the back of your mind, that you could potentially lose all that money as well. Are you prepared to start over?

If you

If you can grow into a six figure income, the $12,000 a year goal is a lot more attainable. Between what you have and what your spouse has, the growth can be enormous. Plug in your social security; if it still exists in twenty years, then you can retire very comfortably.

Keep in mind

Life happens and along the way you are going to lose a few and win a few. You may have a divorce and lose everything. Likely only half, as most states only allow the spouse to take half. You might also have a death to contend with or even an illness. Life throws an amazing amount of things our way. No matter what the lesson is that we are supposed to learn, figure out how to continue putting money away.

If you stop and don’t have an amount put in every week, you are only sacrificing one thing: Your retirement. Remember, your goal is 51. Are you willing to go beyond that? Will you be well enough to do anything when you reach that age? Will you want to travel like you have dreamed all your life? It’s totally up to you and how you do things. 

No matter

No matter what you do with this journey we call ‘Life’. It is up to you to finish the final chapter. You don’t have any more information how long you will be on this planet, than the neighbor or the dog next door. One thing is for sure; whatever you decide make it work for you, remember to do it with a smile on your face and a whistle in your heart. Go enjoy whatever it may be.

About The Author:

Blair Thomas is the co-founder of eMerchantBroker.com the #1 high risk Credit Card processing company in the US. He has been in the electronic payments industry for over 10+ years. When he is not running his business he spends his time writing and producing music, which has been featured in a variety of films. 

How to Manage Your Money Effectively With the Right Financial Planner?

Financial planners do help their clients in saving their money, making smart investments, and ultimately growing their money tree. They help in reaching a specific goal and assist in purchasing assets like a house, stocks, and ETFs.

Few financial planners are specialized in giving smart estate or retirement planning advice, while others consult for a wide range of economic and financial matters. It is always recommended to seek advice of the expertise financial planners, if you are planning your future at a young age.

How to Make Use of Planners in Reaching Your Goals?

The initial step you need to take is to note all your realistic goals. You need to list the short term, long term, and mid-term goals. You need to map up the objectives and the duration required for accomplishing them.

Short term goals include saving for buying expensive furniture, gadgets, honeymoon, car, and things that you can buy within 1 to 3 years of time. If you have children, tuition fee would be considered as mid-term goal and travel and retirement plans fall under the long-term goals.

You need to understand how to handle all the expenses as early as possible. Make sure that you do not spend almost all your earnings. Keep in mind that it is discipline, and you should practice this daily in order to reach your goals. 

Avoiding Debts

Avoiding debts is a part of budgeting. Avoid using more credit cards, which can increase the debts steeply. It could be pretty simple to swipe the card, and shortly we lose the hard earned money in the whole process. If we do not pay them on time, the debt could increase and you may finally end up clearing more debts.

However, you wouldn’t want to spend your hard-earned money unnecessarily right? So, financial planners will help you with great ideas when it comes to things like spending money via credit cards.

Financial planners help you in making decisions, which can benefit you more when it comes to the economic status. Hiring someone who’s expert in this arena will help you in avoiding killing what you saved. In this case, you need to choose the best planner to save yourself from unnecessary expenses. 

Hiring Honest Financial Planners

The person that you hire should be honest and trustworthy; since the planner deals with your money, make sure that you can trust him well. It does cause troubles if you have any concerns or doubts about the person you hire.

Finding someone who is proficient in this particular arena is pretty important. You need to browse through their portfolio and make sure that the concerned person has extensive experience the profession. Finally, make sure that you can afford their personal finance planning services, and that you’re not overpaying and putting a big dent on your budget as such, otherwise the whole point of hiring a financial planner would be defeated!

Negotiate

Learn how to negotiate before hiring him and don’t blurt out everything before finalizing things. If the planner has a personal website, you can always read though the information posted on the website, and get a pulse of his/her experience.

You can also read user comments in blog and then come to a conclusion whether to hire him/her or not. Taking a deeper look into the background of the planner will certainly help you in understanding more about the person, and making a smart decision.

Author Bio:Steve Martin is a personal finance planner who has been working at a reputed bank for past 8 years. Follow him on Twitter, or connect with Steve by dropping him a message through the comment box here.

4 Savvy Ways to Get Customers to Buy Your Marketing Materials

Free publicity is often the best publicity – but what about publicity the customer pays to spread around for you? Many businesses have had their logo printed on “swag,” items such as pens, tote bags, T-shirts and mugs, and give them away to customers (and potential customers) at trade fairs and festivals. Free swag is a great way to remind potential clients of your business every time they use the items. However, savvy businesses can get customers to actually buy swag and use it. Start with these four simple tips and your marketing material could be as sought-after as the products and services you sell.

Target the Audience

Before you begin, consider your target audience – which should be the same as the target audience of your products or services. Focus on how to make your brand appealing to your target audience and how to best get the word out about the products you intend to offer. Social media will prove an excellent way to make your marketing campaign more interactive. The more you ask your customers to participate in the campaign, the more likely they are to pay attention when you sell swag.

Use social media not only to spread the word about your swag, but in the swag design itself. For example, come up with a hashtag related to your brand, products or services. If the hashtag takes off in popularity, incorporate it into your design. When someone new sees the hashtag on a customer’s swag, she’ll be inspired to discover the buzz behind the word or phrase.

Design Something Marketable

Once you know who you’re targeting and how you’re going to get their attention, focus on your design. You probably already have a business logo; if you can’t or don’t want to change that, that’s fine. If you are open to a redesign, getting ready to sell swag might be the ideal excuse.

In addition to your logo, come up with a fun, cute or attractive addition to your logo that appears on your swag and the marketing material for your swag. This should be something your customers will want to wear or show off for aesthetic reasons in addition to a love of your brand. For example, if your target audience is elementary school kids and their parents, a cute mascot animal could prove popular on T-shirts, pencils and notebooks.

Support a Charity

Donate a portion of the swag proceeds to a charity related to your industry or the community. For example, if you’re primarily a local business selling products for seniors, offer to support local senior centers and programs such as Meals on Wheels. If your business is aimed primarily at women, choose causes especially important to women, such as breast cancer research and support for abused women and children. Your customers and supporters of the charitable cause will spread the word about the promotion, which will lead to more sales. 

Start Small

Don’t look at the swag sales as a huge untapped revenue stream. Inc. 5000 cautions against thinking of marketing material as a substantial part of your profits, but stresses that real profit can be made with careful planning. Start with small vendors and see how sales of the items go before broadening sales.

Sell the swag exclusively out of your storefront or online store, or partner with a local store related to your industry to sell the goods. Focus entirely on the local market. If sales prove successful, branch out to more national avenues and broaden your online marketing strategy to include other regions. If you find you’ve ordered too much swag and it’s not selling, dial back on the campaign and re-strategize.

When you sell swag rather than give it away, loyal customers are getting the word out about your company by financially supporting your business. However, if you’re going to ask customers to pay to promote your business, you have to offer something that is worth paying for. Having a compelling logo and design that people want to buy gets people talking about your business.

About the Author: Gary Austin can provide your company or organization with the best promotional pens in the industry. Visit http://www.thepenguy.com/promotional/ to find out more.