It still takes 10 years to break even on the additional cost of an electric car even with gas at $4. So why do it? Here are my top reasons.

1. No more dependence on foreign oil. I am tired of other oil producing countries using their product as leverage on U.S. domestic policy. Critical to our future is energy independence. I know that how the electricity gets generated for the car may not always clean energy, but I will pick this type because at least it’s produced domestically.

2. I am a techno-gadget guy. When no one else will talk to me, at least my car will and there is an app for that. Through my iPhone, I can talk to the car and turn the heat or A/C in the car from my iPhone for the morning or when I leave a store. This means that the temperature is always right!

3. Premium parking spaces. More retail outlets are giving premium parking spots to electric and hybrid cars. It’s nice being so close and convenient for shopping.

Last week, preacher Harold Camping predicted the end of the world .
His ministry, Family Radio International had spent millions on more than thousands of billboards and RVs announcing the Judgment Day message.  Like any good marketer, when that prediction did not go as planned, he revised it.  Camping now says that the end of the world is scheduled to take place on October 21, 2011.  He states it was a case of miscalculated interpretation.

I have no idea when the rapture will actually come, but here are the things that every business owner needs to do when they die to ensure the value of their business is preserved:

1. Have a shareholder’s agreement.  It should state what happens to your stock when you die.  If you have a partner, how will it be valued and sold.

2. Succession Plan.  Who will run the company?  Is there a logical #2 to take your place?  How is the company structured to ensure a smooth transition to keep value for your estate? 

3. Are you the business?  Where is the value?  If you are the business, this is a problem.  There is only true value if the business if it can run without you.  Find the leverage points.

Are you ready for the rapture? 

This got me thinking that since the U.S. Special Forces were so good at this, there are a few other problems right here in the U.S. that they could help us with:

1.  Help a small business get a bank loan: This has been a most daunting task post the Great Recession.  Obama and the SBA have tried to make this happen, but they still can't get the banks to make a loan.  Perhaps we can get the special forces to go in and a) find the TARP money that the government lent the banks for this purpose, and b) hold the bank president hostage until they issue more loans (I have seen that in movies and on 24).

2.  Help homeowners get a mortgage: See #1 for same solution.

3.  Keep health premiums for small business low : There has been nothing that has skyrocketed more than health insurance costs this past 5 years.  Perhaps we can get special forces to deliver our insurance claims so health insurance companies can't say they never got them.

What else would you have our special forces do for small business?

1. What wll we be doing the next 3 years that we have not done in the last 8 years?

2. If the Soviet Union couldn’t win a war after 1o years in Afghanistan, what makes us think we can after 11 years?

Whenever our government goes spending money abroad like this (especially in a war), I can’t help but think…is it good for the economy? What about the Great Recession we are dealing with here? Would the $30B be better spent in job  or lending programs? One point that President Obama made last night leads me to give this strategy a chance. He discussed how 9/11 taught us that America’s security in the world is solidly linked to our economy. No homeland security, then not prospering economy. We all saw how 9/11 destroyed the economy and the devastating effect it had particularly on small business.

One of promise that the President made that I want all of us to hold him to…if there is anymore “nation building” to do in the world, let’s start with rebuilding our own economy. Amen!

What do you think of the President’s plan? How do you think it will effect small business?

Well this fall, we may have to deal with our own apocalypse, the H1N1 virus. If you have been washing your hands, covering your mouth or stocked up on Purell, well read on. We focus on what effect can H1N1 have on small biz and what can you do about it.

On the show (the volume is low at first but listen on, I was using new hardware!), we discussed the issue with:

Jon Toigo, Office Depot disaster expert

Jim Walsh, Author of True Odds: How Risk Effects Everyday Life

Shannon McGauley, Co-founder of 4 Survival to Go

Listen Now!

According to our experts, what 4 things can you do to protect your business?

1. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, exercise and do things that will generally keep you healthy.

2. If you are sick, do not go to work or travel.

3. Establish emergency communications and work at home procedures for your employees.

4. Back up sensitive information and cross train employees.

Remember, H1N1 is not the coming of the apocalypse. That happens on December 21, 2012.

I walked around today feeling like a big loser. I think everyone in Chicago did.

Like the Americans we are, we thought we would win.Las Vegas was betting with us. Like the Chicagoans we are, we thought we had “greased enough palms” to win. I mean come on, we had the A team on this one. The Obamas and Oprah! Who can resist that  star power? Well, I guess 80 of the 98 members of the International Olympic Committee did.

I don’t mind losing every once in a while, but to come in dead last? Chicago was eliminated in the first round. Geez! Now that is embarrassing to come in after Tokyo. Chicago got 18 votes in the first round and we spent, what about $70M in putting together our bid? We spent almost $4M a vote? Think of where that money could have gone?

Why did we not get the Olympics? While I was hoping to win, I picked Rio to actually get it. For it to be in South American simply proved to irresistable for the IOC members. (Although I thought we would come in second). Maybe its payback for what the international community feels about how we have behaved militarily abroad the last 8 years. We will never know.

So where does Chicago go from here? After our pity party today feeling real good and sorry for ourselves, we should follow these steps which I detail in my book, Bounce!

1. Humility- Realize that sometimes we lose despite our best efforts. Things like this can right size our ego.

2. In Failure, Give Up the Shame- Okay so we came in 4th, but we raised the money to put together a credible bid and handled ourselves respectively in the process.

3.  Realize that Failure Gives Us Choices- We were able to raise alot of corporate dollars to sponsor the bid. The committee came up with ways to build wonderful venues. Let’s use this as a basis for further economic development and planning in Chicago.

4. Let Go! and move on! After we are done feeling sorry for losing, we have to let go and move on to other things that can give us a chance at success again.

5. Set New Patient Goals. Now without the Olympics as our focus, let’s set new goals to improve the infrastructure of our city or new causes we can rally around.

6. Value Action- Above all, let’s go do something, get on a new path. Only the experience of future successes will build our confidence again.

What do you think Chicago should do to Bounce?

In 2006, we spent $2.1 Trillion in Health Care- more than we spent on food, almost as much as the worldwide petroleum market. We spend more per capita on health care than the Chinese spend on everything! We spend 2.5 times more than the median of the rest of the world.

Contrary to popular belief, we do not have the best health care system in the world. We are not healthier than the rest of the world when you look at infant mortality rates and life expectancy.

Why is this. Who is to blame? The lawyers with huge lawsuits for malpractice? Greedy insurance executives and wasteful bureaucracy? (Multiple health plans that make my head spin). Pharmaceutical companies who charge outrageous amounts for drugs? Doctors who perform unneeded tests just to protect themselves or do un needed procedures because they are more profitable?

It’s a complex debate but we can all agree on one thing- it’s a total mess!  47 million Americans don’t have health insurance. Huge and unpayable medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in this country. Skyrocketing health insurance are hurting not only small biz owners but their ability to hire employees and in turn people’s ability to get jobs. The current health care system is making people like me who have a preexisting condition like  diabetes go broke. This year, my monthly health insurance premium will be larger than my mortgage. The increase in my premium this year was 110%. And as they say, that is not where the pain ends; many times when I file a claim I get a run around  or an argument. I once had to file legal action against Healthnet in the state of California to get paid.

Something must change. My solution:

1. We should not require small business to have insurance for their employees. The burden is too great on small business.

2. We should focus instead on making insurance more competitive and affordable for all through insurance cooperatives or some form of a public option like Medicare.

3. There should not be a penalty for pre-existing condition.

4. We should focus on health care not just health insurance by encouraging prevention treatment and healthy lifestyle. Think Quality.

5. We need to focus on reducing the administrative expenses and bureaucracy to reduce the overall cost.

We had a really big show with guests:

 Terry Hush at ICLOPS whose company focuses on delivering better better quality health care and reduce the administrative costs.

Dr. Marsha Firestone, President of Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) who believes that women owned companies will be more negatively impacted than most from the health care iniatives in Congress.

Sam Gibbs, EHealthInsurance on how individual and small businesses can maxmimize their access to affordable health care now.

Rob Wilson, Employco talks about the burden on small business if mandatory insurance was required.

Phil Lebherz, Foundation For Health Coverage Education, has worked at insurance cooperatives and talks about what works and what does not work.

Stephen Hyde, President of Hyde RX Services Corporation is the author if “Cured! The Insider’s Handbook for Health Care Reform” talks about focusing on Health Care not Just Health Insurance.

Cynthia Drasler, discusses how to help the system is to focus on improving our own health through chemical free living.

Scott Dowling, President, Ramage &  Sheahen, who discusses that it is a state issure and not a federal issue.

Listen to the Show now!

What long term effect has 9/11 had on small business?

Anita Campbell is CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning Small Business Trends. an online community touching over 250,000 small business owners each month.  Today, we talked about:

(1) How did the events of 9/11 affect small businesses?  

(2) What are trends that arose from the aftermath of 9/11?  

(3) How is it different from Great Recession? 

Listen Now!

What others said to my twitter question:

@lizstrauss I was on a plane on the tarmac in Dublin waiting to fly home from a 31 day biz trip around the world. It certainly offered a different perspective and an irony … Dublin airport is fitted out for bombs from the IRA.

@smartstartcoach I was driving to the office in tears as my husband had just told me he was leaving me and the children. Bad day all around..

@shannvanderleek I was working at a television station watching in horror as the second plane hit the WTC.

@davidrflanagan At the MBTA in Boston en route to a State House event

@shadowcoil Working in a kiosk listening to the radio. The radio host had no idea what to say when the news broke, and cut to music.

@entmagazineKym working in an after school program in SoCal, fielding questions from kids about what was going on

Where where you?

(True to 9-11 form, Business Insanity Radio had technical difficulties due to a software upgrade this morning. We will reschedule Anita Campbell and Rieva Lesonsky)

Since this was so success, the government should now boost the growth of small business by instituting a new program called “Cash for Bad Business Plans” for entrepreneurs. It would work something like this:

1. Send the government a business plan that you tried to implement that did not work. In fact, it worked out really badly.

2. Show records that you lost at least $5,000 of your own money or credit card debt.

3. Include a new business plan that shows profits coming in the business at least 6 months before the old plan did.

4. The government would give you a $10,000 interest free loan to jump start your business.

Sound crazy? Do you have better ideas?