Discrimination against employees has been an ongoing problem in many businesses nowadays. In Salt Lake City a young employee has accused Park City for pervasive race discrimination and a hostile work environment for Latinos. While in the UK, 3 women has alleged that a culture of gender discrimination was fostered by top managers in Bloomberg. This case could result to $145 million in damages.

Entrepreneurs must learn the dangers of discrimination and its impact to the business. While race and gender issues are very rampant, there are 9 different types of discrimination according to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC):

1. Age
2. Disability
3. Equal Pay
4. National Origin
5. Pregnancy
6. Sex
7. Sexual Harassment
8. Religion
9. Retaliation

Recently, EEOC has released a revised guideline focusing particularly on unlawful discrimination against workers with caregiver responsibilities. These are the people who take care of their children or relatives who are very sick and old. While this is composed mostly by women, the number of male employees with caregiver responsibilities has risen recently. Under this new law, businesses will be penalized if they do the following:

1. Refusal to hire an employee who takes care of disabled relative because this might affect his or her performance.
2. Unwillingness to adjust the workload and schedule of a pregnant employee
3. Not allowing fathers to leave to take care of their babies
4. Not hiring mothers with young children because they might take many leaves to take care of their children.

The ongoing Campbell’s soup recall of more than 72,000 cans is a wake up call for many entrepreneurs to have stricter quality evaluation procedures. More importantly, it prompted us to prepare in case we experience this same problem. Speed is very here because a defective product can trigger serious damages to your customers. Here are some of the important steps you should do when recalling a product:

Step 1. Assign a responsible person in your company to oversee the entire recall activities.

Step 2. Gather info about the product you want to recall such as bar code, description, size, manufacturing date or import date.

Step 3. Track the customers who received your defective product, inform them immediately stop sellingor using it. Depending on the problem, a product can be repaired, disposed, or returned to your company.

Step 4. Inform the public about your recall, no matter how small your business is. Don’t just rely on your customer service and learn to use all your employees to spread the word as soon as possible. Get in touch with the media to help you out.

Step 5. If you have a website, create a “Recall Safety Information” in your homepage and make sure it is very conspicuous to your readers. Maintain this information even after the actual recall. There might be some customers who don’t know about this yet.

Step 6. Assist your customers for any refund, repair or replacement caused by the recall. Prepare your team to deal with angry customers and ask them to be more patient.

Step 7. Be prepared to spend additional money for the recall to be effective. This is the price for being lax on your quality inspection.

Even if you’re managing your small business efficiently, there might be instances wherein you face negative publicity. It might come from an irate customer or from your not-so-friendly competitor. These things can easily damage your business reputation, shatter relationships with your customers, and affect your profitability. Here what you should do in these situations:

Keep it Cool

Although it’s more easily said than done, you should try to keep your cool and analyze the situation objectively. Don’t be compelled to answer right away for it might further damage your business. You may want to check the information reported for any inaccuracy or false claims.

Talk to the Source

Contact the writer or editor if you find any inconsistent information in the report. Most writers are very open to reactions from the other party to complete the picture. If your point is valid, they will issue a correction right away. If they stick to their article, you can go to their direct media competitor and share your story. I’m quite sure this competitor will be very delighted.

Issue Your Official Statement

They say silence means yes, so you should clarify to the public what needs to be clarified. Send your press release to different sites and also email all customers in your list. Aside from stating the facts, try to make it more personal and heartfelt to win your customers back.

Even though there are many single person businesses today, a time will come for some smart and hardworking entrepreneurs to expand the business and delegate work to other people. Is it time to hire your first batch of employees?

Unknown to many, the process of hiring employees is a very stressful activity, prompting some small businesses to outsource it to employment agencies. If you have to do it, make sure you have all the important tasks included:

Job Interview

Be careful with job interviews for there are some guidelines you must follow. AllBusiness.com has identified some of the questions you should not ask in an interview.

Verify References

“Everybody lies.” This is a very relevant quote from the TV series House M.D. It is very important not to rely on resume content alone. About half of the resumes you will read contain exaggerated or even fictitious accomplishments. Do not forget to partner with a third-party company to handle background checks and fish out accurate info about the candidates.

Medical Exams

Aside from business skills, all employees should be physically fit to perform their duties. The only way to do this may be to institute a physical exam, drug tests, and depending on the nature of the job, psychological tests. Keep in mind that you should follow the labor laws of your country/ district. Some of these tests may require candidates agreement. That is, ensure that making a certain test mandatory is allowed in your area.

Ever wonder why an exit strategy is included in your business plan? Because whether you like it or not there may come a time when you have to pull the plug and end your business.

Aside from financial losses, the emotional aspect of losing your business is very excruciating. In spite of everything, you must learn to control your sentiments and think objectively for the last time.

In case you do not have an exit strategy at this time, read Small Business Info’s tips for planning an exit strategy.

One of the common exit strategies for small business is liquidation. This is used when you do not have enough cash to repay your creditors. It involves selling all your assets to pay off all your financial obligations. If there is any money left, you can divide it amongst your business partners.

In this strategy, you do need not worry about transferring ownership control and engaging in further negotiations. However, do not expect to gain much money out of this approach because you will get the current market value of your company assets. There might be some situations wherein you will be forced to sell lower than market value.

Here is a juicy debate presented by Fast Company magazine … freedom of speech in the workplace, as characterized by your employees’ use of company networks to shop online, chat with friends, visit inappropriate websites and so on. It’s not a debate about the Don Imus angle, as in, if you were Imus’s boss, would you have fired him for his inappropriate expression of free speech? So many people mistakenly believe they are “guaranteed freedom of speech.” And that’s simply not so! If you check your Bill of Rights, you’ll note that all you really get is the promise that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.” That’s Congress, not an employer.

As a business owner, you are entitled to make rules abridging the freedoms of your employees on your equipment while you are paying for their time. There is an entire, huge, sloppy arena of places where you can draw your lines. Do you want to surveil your employees to confirm their activities? Is it ethical to do so? Is it truly productive to do so? It’s important for a business to establish its goals and list the specific tactics it will use to enforce those goals. There are legal ramifications to making incorrect choices so proceed with great care. The Fast Company debate is a good place to start pulling your thoughts together on this sensitive subject.

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the costs of piracy, counterfeiting and the theft of intellectual property “range from $250 billion to 750,000 jobs per year.” It is not clear how much of that is yanked out of the pocket of small businesses, but since the government says about three-quarters of all businesses in the country are self-employed individuals, it seems likely that a huge share of these losses are coming off the kitchen tables and lunch money of the kids of small business owners.

A very good start to educate yourself about the business of protecting your business helps you understand the opportunities and the threats that face the small business owner. The sooner you know these things about your business, the better. But, it is never too late to get caught up. Such protections may not be top of mind for those who are just starting out, but after a bit of success, knowing what to do becomes vital.