What can I recover in a workers’ compensation claim in Pennsylvania?

Posted by Zachary Zawarski in Workers' Compensation on October 28, 2010 | Comment »

Pennsylvania workers’ compensation laws are very complex. If you have been injured during the scope of your employment, you’re likely wondering, “what are my rights” and “what am I able to recover?” Here is a basic guideline to what you are entitled to be compensated for if you are injured during the scope of your employment.

Please keep in mind that opting for workers’ compensation surrenders your right to sue your employer. Therefore, we advise you to speak with a workers’ compensation attorney before choosing to exercise your right to workers’ comp. Additionally, everyone’s case is different and an attorney should be obtained to inform you about what your specific rights are according to your personal circumstances.

Pennsylvania workers’ compensation laws allow for the recovery of the following:

  1. Medical Benefits — If you are injured during the scope of your employment, you are entitled to have your medical expenses covered by your employer. This will cover the medical costs for seeing a doctor, as well as any medical procedures such as necessary and reasonable surgeries. If your employer has posted a list of of six or more medical providers that you must see, you must choose one of the doctors that the employer provides you with during the first 90 days. If your employer has fulfilled this requirement and you see your own doctor, you may not be entitled to be reimbursed for these expenses.
  2. Lost Wages — If you are unable to work because of a work-related injury, you can be compensated for two-thirds of the wages you lost due to being out of work up to a weekly maximum. In some cases, offsets for Social Security, severance pay, or unemployment compensation benefits may be applied. Additionally, if you are able to return to work, but only on light duty, you are entitled to receive two-thirds of the difference between your current weekly wage and your average weekly wage from the prior year.
  3. Specific Loss — If your injury is severe and has caused disfigurement of the face or neck or has caused the loss of an arm, finger, hand, leg, foot, toe, hearing, or sight, you are entitled to an additional monetary award. Another thing you must know is that the injury doesn’t require a total loss. If you have an injured a body part and that body part is deemed “a loss for all practical intents and purposes,” you can still seek compensation for a specific loss. In other words, if a body part is severely harmed to the point where a full recovery cannot be made and the impairment is permanent, you can still recover for a special loss.

If you have any questions of concerns, please contact me in order to discuss your workers’ compensation claim.

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What damages are available for a wrongful termination claim?

Posted by Zachary Zawarski in Wrongful Termination on October 15, 2010 | Comment »

Most employees are considered at-will employees. Therefore, the employee may be terminated for any reason or no reason at all and the employer does not need to establish that the employee was fired “for cause.” There may still be circumstances when an at-will employee’s termination is wrongful.

Generally, wrongful termination occurs when an employee is terminated and the termination violates an employment contract, was discriminatory, or against public policy. For more information on whether your termination was wrongful visit our employment law page.

If you have been wrongfully terminated, you may be interested in understanding what your remedies are. In other words, what you will be able to recover.

Depending upon the situation, damages available to wrongfully discharged employees can include back pay, front pay, compensatory damages, injunctive relief, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees.

Back pay is the wages you lost from the time you filed your claim until the time the suit was resolved. Front pay is money awarded for lost compensation during the period between judgment and reinstatement.

For more information on a wrongful termination claim, please contact Zachary Zawarski by calling (484) 362-9286.

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Simple Tips For Writing Your Elevator Pitch

Posted by Zachary Zawarski in Business Tips on October 2, 2010 | 1 Comment

How To Craft Your Elevator PitchWhether you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, or professional such as an attorney, you’ll want to develop an elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is a 30-60 second overview of a product, service, or person. Sometimes elevator pitches are used in the literal sense — to quickly pitch a business idea to a venture capitalist or angel investor, but they are also used in other ways such as including it in marketing materials, making sales, or as a way to get a job or promotion.

In Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Jacob Moore’s pitch is simple: “Mr. Gecko, my name is Jacob Moore. I’m going to marry your daughter.” Concise. Effective.

How To Write An Elevator Pitch

Brevity is key. It must be concise. The average person’s attention span is a mere 30 seconds. Anything after that point and you will begin to lose their attention. You must grab their attention immediately.

I like using the method of asking a question. “What if I told you that if you used our product, you could reduce your IT costs by 30% while seeing seeing a 10% increase to your bottom line because our product has been proven to substantially increase worker productivity.”

Creating a visual is very effective. Telling a story is another great method if it is brief. Once you’ve written your elevator pitch, practice it and make sure it’s 30 seconds.

What You Should Include In Your Elevator Pitch

Features and Benefits

The key to the elevator pitch is describing the features and benefits of your product or service, especially the benefits. Some additional things that you may want to cover is your target market, your competitive advantage, or the strengths of your team.

The Hook

Describing the features and benefits is great, but it’s missing one key thing: the hook. The hook should be the bottom line, which market validation. The product or service must be something that the market already wants and in fact needs, especially in the scenario of pitching a business to a venture capital firm or angel investor. They’re not interested in courting products and services that are still in development. They want to be involved with a product or service that is ready to take the market by storm. Additionally, they’re looking for products and services that solve problems.

The Close

Lastly, you will need to close them. The close is simple. What do you want to get out of the pitch. Are you looking for funding? Do you want somebody to buy your product or service? Do you want somebody to hire you or promote you? Always close with a call to action and never forget to give them your business card.

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How does someone crowdsource their career?

Posted by Zachary Zawarski in Business Tips on September 23, 2010 | Comment »

How to Crowdsource Your CareerI recently attended a great networking event held by the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation. I was able to discover this great opportunity by joining the LVED’s Linked In group, which I urge you to join.

A quick tip for everyone out there looking to increase their client base and make great connections is to sign up with Linked In and begin joining groups in your industry and location. I have been able to develop a lot of great relationships with people after connecting with them through Linked In.

This particular networking event was held at the Firehouse in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and was part of a national event being promoted by Brazen Careerist. It was known as the Brazen Careerist Crowdsource Your Career Meetup.

Brazen Careerist is a networking group for young professionals that help each other build a network of their peers to share ideas and find job opportunities. Brazen believes that in order for young professionals to be successful, they must challenge the status quo and create their own path for career success.

One of the main tenets of their organization is crowdsourcing. What exactly is crowdsouring? Everyone has heard the term outsourcing, so you’re probably wondering if it’s the same idea or how it is different? Brazen is using the term “crowdsource your career.”

By definition, according to Wikipedia, crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call. Wikipedia by its own definition is an example of crowdsourcing, so how does someone crowdsource their career?

The whole point of crowdsourcing is to tap into the collective intelligence of the public at large to complete business-related tasks. However, Brazen uses the term to mean networking with your peers in order to establish relationships that benefit your career. Whether you want to gain clients, start a new career, or just land a job, building relationships is the key.

One of best ways to build relationships is to attend networking events such as Brazen’s in order to network with your peers. That is how someone can crowdsource their career. By networking with those around you, you’ll be able to increase your client base, share new ideas, and ultimately take control of your career’s success. That is the power of crowdsourcing and that is what Brazen is promoting. As a business attorney, I’ve found that I’ve crowdsourced my career and its been very beneficial.

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10 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

Posted by Zachary Zawarski in Business Tips, Entrepreneurship on September 17, 2010 | Comment »

Top 10 Mistakes Entrepreneurs MakeIf you are an entrepreneur or thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, here is a great checklist of 10 common mistakes that you’ll want to avoid before you decide to start your own business.

  1. Thinking You Can Do It On Your Own — It’s very difficult to build a scalable business with just one person. Although some businesses such as website design, public relations, and other service-based businesses can survive individually, most businesses will need to ensure that they’re profitable enough to acquire hired help. To ensure that your business will be profitable, be sure to determine that your business has sufficient profit margins to bring in hired help.
  2. Asking For Too Many Opinions — Everyone has an opinion when it comes to a business and it’s easy to become confused or misled by so many differing opinions. To resolve that issue, build an “advisory board,” two or three people who you admire and trust that can help you build and establish your business.
  3. Targeting a Market That’s Too Small — It’s definitely a great idea to focus on a niche mark to sell your product or service to. However, if your niche market is too small, it will become difficult for your company to continue to grow.
  4. Spending Too Much Time On Product Development — You can have the greatest product in the world, but if you’re not making sales, the company is not going to last. Make sure you’re devoting enough time to your sales efforts before focusing on product development.
  5. Not Raising Enough Capital — Before you open up your doors for business, you need to know your costs inside and out. Calculate all of your expenses: rent, utilities, inventory, salaries, insurance, equipment, and overhead.
  6. Raising Too Much Capital — Too much capital leads to wasteful spending. Sometimes some old-fashioned boot-strapping is what works best for companies since it forces them to scrutinize every single cost that’s involved in starting a business and prevents them from over-hiring.
  7. Not Having a Business Plan — If a company requires a lot of capital to start, a business plan is essential. Although businesses that don’t require much capital can get away with not having a business plan, creating one is always recommended. Following a financial analysis of the business, the second-most important aspect of the business plan is a competitor analysis. You don’t want to be in a position where you ignore a competitor only to find out months after you opened your business that they have a significant advantage over your business.
  8. Overpaying for Customers — Any start-up business must watch their marketing expenses very closely. Customer acquisition is important, but you need to monitor customer behavior to ensure that they’re repeat customers and that your marketing dollars are being spent wisely.
  9. Not Building a Referral Network — Building a referral network is a great way to attract new customers without having to spend money. Think of complimenting business who are related to your business but not directly competing with you and form a business referral relationship with them. It’s a cost-free mutually beneficial arrangement that is easy to form and will greatly benefit your business.
  10. Not Taking the Plunge — Many times, people are just too hesitant to give up on their dream of starting their own business due to the uncertainty of having to leave a steady paycheck. Starting a business involves risk but if you’ve done your due diligence, you have to be confident that you will be able to succeed in your new venture.

We hope that you enjoyed those tips. Please follow us on Twitter or add us to your RSS reader for more great tips. If you’re a business owner or looking to become one, we would also like to offer you a consultation.

Productivity Tip That Boosts Your Bottom Line

Posted by Zachary Zawarski in Business Tips on September 16, 2010 | Comment »

Productivity TipI recently received an email from Mike Michalowicz with a great tip to be more productive and boost in your bottom line. It simply deals with creating effective to-do lists. I’m sure everyone has a to-do list, but a simple twist on how it’s organized can really help you focus on items that help you earn more money and satisfy your clients.

First, write a list of all of the things that you would like to accomplish. This doesn’t have to be arranged by priority — just a list of everything. Add tasks as they come along.

Next, for all of the tasks that will help you generate revenue in the next month, put a dollar sign next to it. For all of the tasks that help serve your client base, put a smiley face next to it. Start off each day with the items that boost your bottom line.

I hope that simple twist to your to-do lists really helps you focus on making more money. Thanks for the great tip Mike.  Mike has a great book that you can purchase on Amazon.com titled The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.