By Debbie Gregory.

Starting your own business is often a learn-as-you-go process. But, the more smart decisions you make early on, the better chance your company has for success. As a new small business owner, it is imperative that you establish practices, policies, and good habits early on.

As you begin this journey, know that you will more than likely work harder and longer than you have in the past. There are some important financial practices that you will want to utilize from the very start.

Solid bookkeeping and accounting practices will help you meet your goals and grow your small business.

First and foremost, keep your personal and business expenses separate. Open a business checking and savings account in the legal name of the business with its Tax ID number. The same goes for credit cards, lines of credit, and loans. Unless you’re a sole proprietor, you are legally required to keep your business finances separate from your personal finances.

Start off with a robust bookkeeping system. There are plenty of free or low-cost bookkeeping and accounting products available to help manage your small business’ finances. Another option is contracting a part-time bookkeeper or a CPA. You can also outsource to an accounting firm that can handle your books, payroll, and invoicing.

Keep good records so that you can be up to date on the progress of your business. Your records can help you identify the more profitable areas of your business, so you know where to focus your time and talents.

Keep your finger on the pulse of your tax liabilities, be it sales tax or income tax. Also keep close tabs on the accounting tools you have in place today; they might need to adjusted as your business grows. However, you’ll never outgrow the good accounting habits you’ve put in place from the beginning.

By Debbie Gregory.

There are numerous types of claims that apply to VA disability compensation. They can be based on disabilities that existed when entering military service, but were made worse, disabilities that occurred during service, or disabilities that arose following military service. Additionally, there are claims that are filed for special circumstances.

Secondary claims under VA regulation 3.310 are claims for disabilities that developed as a result of or were worsened by another service-connected condition. In other words, it is recognized that a service-connected disability may cause a second disability. This second disability may not otherwise be considered service-connected.

One example of this type of claim would be a veteran who was diagnosed with hypertension while serving. After discharge, the veteran was subsequently diagnosed with a heart condition. Service-connection for the heart condition may be established as secondary to the hypertension.

Another example would be a veteran with a service-connected knee injury that causes the veteran to walk with a limp. The veteran subsequently develops arthritis in the hip. Although the arthritic condition was not incurred during or aggravated by service, service-connection may still be established due to the knee condition.

Ten conditions account for more than half of all secondary to service-connected disabilities.

The top 10 secondary disabilities, beginning with the highest occurrence are:

1. Sciatic nerve damage

2. Erectile dysfunction

3. Median nerve damage (paralysis)

4. External popliteal nerve damage

5. Arteriosclerotic heart disease

6. Arteriosclerosis obliterans

7. Hypertensive vascular disease

8. Renal involvement in systemic diseases

9. Sciatic nerve (neuritis)
10. Degenerative arthritis of the spine

The process of assigning ratings in secondary claims is the same as in claims involving multiple individually service-connected conditions. Each condition is first evaluated separately and assigned a percentage rating. Starting with the condition with the highest percentage rating, the rater then uses VA’s combined ratings table to calculate an overall percentage rating for the primary condition and all conditions found to be proximately due to the primary condition.

For information how to apply, visit https://www.benefits.va.gov/COMPENSATION/apply.asp

By Debbie Gregory.

It’s been 25 years since female pilots were allowed in combat roles in the Air Force, but it’s taking a little longer for their equipment to catch up. Female aircrew members have been wearing suits that were designed to fit men’s bodies, not women’s.

The Air Force is looking to improve the fit of its flight suits, and to do so, the service branch is getting feedback from those in the know- it’s leaders and service members.There are more than 62,000 women serving in the Air Force, and more than 700 hundred of them are pilots.

“Over the past year, during numerous customer support visits and engagements with airmen, we received feedback from female aircrew members about concerns about the fit, performance, and availability [of] female aircrew flight equipment,” said Col. Brady Hauboldt, program executive officer for Agile Combat Support at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

Also under review is the gear needed to fly for hours on end, including bladder relief system for pilots, also known as “piddle packs,” which were baggies lined with absorbent sponges. Now, flight crews are using an “Aircrew Mission Extender Device”, known as AMXDMax, which is a hand-carried battery-powered pump to flow urine to a reusable collection bag.

“We’ve put together a team; it’s a combination of Air Force Materiel Command and Air Combat Command to look at [this], and it’s beyond uniforms,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein. “It’s uniforms, it’s gear, it’s kit.”

Preliminary recommendations to Goldfein are expected sometime this month.

“Those recommendations will then be prioritized and submitted for funding consideration,” said Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek.

The feedback is based on sample sizes that were previously delivered to all Air Education and Training Command bases for new airmen to try.

“As of August 2018, the Defense Logistics Agency had over 6,000 flight suits on hand (or due in) to properly equip our female aircrew,” said Hauboldt.

It’s about having “all of our equipment for all of our airmen sized for them, that fits them, that works in harsh environments … to include long periods of time of wearing that gear,” Goldfein said. “We’re flying missions over places like Syria and others where it’s nine, 10 or even 11 hours in a cockpit. That doesn’t allow you to move. And if you have ill-fitting gear for that period of time, it’s going to affect how you do the mission.”

By Debbie Gregory.

WhatsApp Messenger is a freeware and cross-platform messaging and Voice over IP service owned by Facebook. The application allows the sending of text messages and voice calls, as well as video calls, images and other media, documents, and user location.

Now the  company is launching a programming kit that makes it easy for businesses to use WhatsApp messaging for info and support.

WhatsApp Business was built with the small business owner in mind. With the app, businesses can interact with customers easily by using tools to automate, sort, and quickly respond to messages. Businesses can provide customers helpful information such as the business address, description, email address, and website. Different chats can be labeled for organization, such as new customers, returning customers or orders completed.

Small business owners are also able to set away messages and create quick replies to frequently asked questions. And just like the normal WhatsApp, conversations are always encrypted, and businesses can be blocked just like individual contacts.

For medium and large businesses, the WhatsApp Business API powers your communication with customers all over the world, so you can connect with them on WhatsApp in a simple, secure, and reliable way.

The company is both charging WhatsApp Business kit users a “fixed rate” for notifications (like those passes and confirmations) and, crucially, charging them if they don’t respond to customers within 24 hours. This ensures that businesses will have a strong motivation to respond quickly to questions.

The platform is primarily suited for businesses with a very familiar or regular customer base. If you are located in a touristy area with few regular customers, for example, the app may not be the best for you. After all, the main goal should be to deepen bonds with your customers and develop brand loyalty, which is extremely difficult to do over a short period of time. However, you can still utilize the app to communicate with customers and give them more information about your business. They may return to the area or recommend you to friends who visit in the future.

WhatsApp has been testing the framework for the business application with over 90 larger companies, including Uber, Singapore Airlines and Wish.

If you’re using WhatsApp for your business, please let us know what you think.

By Debbie Gregory.

Back in 2010, a company called Sonitus Technologies introduced a novel hearing aid called the SoundBite. The system consisted of a behind-the-ear microphone with a custom made clip for inside the mouth that sent tiny vibrations to the inner ear, which were then translated into sounds. Now the latest communication aid from the company has attracted the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense, which has awarded Sonitus a roughly $10 million contract to develop a wireless two-way comms system that clips to a user’s back teeth.

Officially called the ATAC system but dubbed the Molar Mic, the small device clips to the user’s back teeth. The device is both microphone and speaker. Incoming sound is transmitted through the wearer’s bone matter in the jaw and skull to the auditory nerves; outgoing sound is sent to a radio transmitter on the neck, and sent to another radio unit that can be concealed on the operator. From there, the signal can be sent anywhere.

The mic removes the need for headsets and other equipment that could get fouled up, allowing users to continue communicating during dangerous or active situations, such as parachuting out of an airplane, working near noisy helicopters, swimming in open water, or during rescue missions or firefights. Because it is hidden in the mouth, it can also be used discreetly by security personnel or undercover agents.

“Essentially, what you are doing is receiving the same type of auditory information that you receive from your ear, except that you are using a new auditory pathway — through your tooth, through your cranial bones — to that auditory nerve,” said Peter Hadrovic, CEO of Molar Mic creator Sonitus Technologies. “You can hear through your head as if you were hearing through your ear,”

Communicating via the teeth takes a little getting used to, but your ability to understand conversations transmitted through bone improves with practice.

“Over the period of three weeks, your brain adapts and it enhances your ability to process the audio,” said Hadrovic. But even “out of the gate, you can understand it,” he said. (more below)

Sonitus says it will not begin work on commercial versions of the Molar Mic until it finishes it military contract, meaning it will be a few years before we get to listen accept calls directly through our skull bones.