You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as bylines are included and article is not changed in any way (grammatical corrections accepted). A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

Increase Business by Squashing Your Fear of Phones

Phone skills are very important when you have your own home business. If you are like me, when I started out, then you may think you are going to work entirely online and not use phone. However, there will come times in your business when you must talk on phone. In fact, you will probably talk on phone a lot when you have an “online” home business.

There are times when you will need to call prospects, talk to business partners, answer questions that someone has, or some other business task that requires phone. You may be saying, “No matter what I guarantee I will never call anyone” but what if someone calls you? You will need phone skills then too!

The problem with this phone fact is that most people are scared to talk business on phone. We have a fear of failure or rejection on phone that causes us to make mistakes in our speech, forget what we want to say, or just totally freeze up. Don’t let this fear stop you or slow you down. You can actually develop great phone skills rather quickly.

If you want to reap all benefits of being your own boss then you will have to overcome your fear sooner or later. In order to complete this task you must develop a strong desire to have good phone skills and let nothing stand in your way.

Think about it, when you are on phone other person can’t see you. They don’t know if you have messed up or said something wrong. They don’t know that you haven’t showered today. They can’t see that you are nervous or scared. Also, if you really get bogged down, and need to get out, all you have to do is hang-up. So, what are you really scared of? If it’s still rejection then get used to it! You will get rejected more times than not. We all do!

Don’t know how to start? Here are five basic techniques to help you in acquiring your new phone skills:

HIPAA. Perhaps one of most significant laws in recent memory; certainly one of most complex. While this short article won't make anyone an expert, it will, hopefully, demystify this wide ranging set of laws and put you on path towards compliance.

First, let's answer question; "What is HIPAA?" HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Protection Act of 1996. Although it purports to regulate health insurance, HIPAA provisions extend far beyond insurance. HIPAA introduced broad disclosure and privacy requirements. It also established civil and criminal penalties for each violation (up to $25,000 per person per year in civil penalties and up to $250,000 in criminal fines - along with imprisonment).

Title I of HIPAA deals with portability and special enrollment rights for health plans. Those conditions must have been incorporated into your plans by now (original compliance date was 1997). Title II of HIPAA governs a wide ranging set of conditions called, "Administrative Simplification". For those charged with compliance, notion that HIPAA simplifies anything qualifies as "dark humor". Administrative simplification attempts to create a uniform system for processing and retention of health information and ensuring security of that information.