Independent / Small Business Owners

Quote of the Month:
“If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.”
—B.C. Forbes, Scottish financial journalist (1880-1954)

Marcus Simpson is co-owner of TCG America, a company providing IT services and consulting for small and medium businesses. We all depend on the Internet daily, so companies with employees need to have an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and be ready to enforce it. The advice is good for households with children, also.

There are 113 million domains registered, with 100,000 new ones each day. “It’s hard to keep track of which sites are good and which ones are bad,” said Marcus.

Quote of the Month:
“If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?”
— Will Rogers, American cowboy and author (1879-1935)

Dustyn Bowman, a sales representative with Liberty Mutual, and her boss, Byron Roberts, spoke to us about identity fraud, the fastest-growing crime in America. It affects around 900,000 people a year. Statistics show that the average cost of recovering one’s identity is $1,000 and 175 hours of time.

Quote for the month:
“Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found.”
— Anne Morrow Lindbergh, aviator & author (1906-2001)

Amy Smith is a certified financial planner and a partner with Dermann & Smith Personal Wealth Management. The fastest-growing crime in America is identity theft. If the bad guy gets hold of your credit card number, checking account number, social security number, etc., you’re a victim of identity theft. You might not even know it right away; it can take months or years to show up.