On average, twice as many children are killed while walking on Halloween compared to the rest of the year. And with drugged driving on the rise, hazards are even greater.  Here's what to know and share.

Why is drugged driving so dangerous?

• It's a growing problem. The Governors Highway Safety Association found that 44% of fatally-injured drivers tested positive for drugs, up from 28% just 10 years ago.
   
• It's deadly. Almost half of drivers who were killed in crashes and were tested for drugs, tested positive.
   
• It's widespread. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tracks over 400 drugs that cause impairment and almost 50% of Americans have used at least one prescription drug in the past month.

How could an umbrella with excess UM/UIM help protect your insured?

• An umbrella can protect assets and pay for medical and legal expenses beyond the homeowners/renters and auto policies if they’re at fault.
   
• Excess UM/UIM helps with accidents when the other driver is at fault and doesn't have any — or enough — coverage.
   
• It can take care of things like medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering and emotional distress — for the insured and any passengers.

Thank you to our Partner PersonalUmbrella.com for providing this valuable information.

Jeanna Bumpas             

832-527-8402       

JBumpas@HelixInsuranceGroup.com

How can you build muscle naturally?

Fitness and nutrition go hand in hand. If you incorporate exercise and a balanced diet in your daily routine, you will enjoy increased energy levels, a stronger immune system, be in control of your weight, prevent chronic lifestyle diseases, and improve your overall well-being.

Now, attempting to gain muscle mass is why some people go back to the gym. For men, it makes them feel stronger and attractive to women. But building muscle is not a walk in the park. It takes time and effort.

But how do we build muscle effectively?

Gaining muscle requires a combination of diet and exercise. And if one of them is not efficient, the results won't be as expected. Therefore, some folks who are under the impression of doing the right thing don't progress as fast as they would like.

1. Craft Your Workout Plan- Consult a fitness trainer if need be.

Incorporate both strength training exercises and aerobics. For example, yoga is great, but you should not count it as part of your strength training exercise. You need to add more challenging exercises to your routine if you want to see results. Here, no pain no gain makes more sense than ever.

Also, target for those exercises that work multiple joints and muscles at once because they help you lift more weight. Make sure to engage all major muscles in the body each week. Some of the exercises that must be in your routine are squats, bench presses, push-ups, lunges, chin-ups, pull-ups, dips, reverse crunches, and planks.

Your workout routine needs to be carefully planned because exercising too much might lead to muscle injury. Take it slowly at the beginning. The goal is to build up your fitness level and let your body rest from time to time to prevent injuries. Keeping track of your progress and it is essential not to let your body get accustomed to a certain routine and not to over-exercise because such a mistake can prevent you from gaining muscles fast.

2. Diet

A balanced diet is important too. It can help your body perform better and recover faster after each workout. Optimal nutrient intake before exercise will not only help you maximize your performance but also minimize muscle damage.

A diet for a bodybuilder must include plenty of proteins because they are the ones that build muscle mass. Good fats and good carbohydrates are also important. To gain muscles, you need around 3000 calories a day split into more than three meals to ensure an appropriate level of energy during the entire day. A larger portion of it though should be proteins.

3. Hydrate

Drinking plenty of water also is a hack to increase muscle faster. Water flushes away toxins and keeps the muscles properly hydrated.

4. Get enough rest

Sleep is also important because it offers your body the recovery time it needs.

5. Join a Fitness Community online or locally

Joining a supportive fitness group can help you stay motivated and achieve your goals because you don’t want to be the first one to quit. You’ll also see what is working for others. If you have posted on Facebook about your fitness journey for example, you have so many people watching and you can’t afford to quit and disappoint everyone including yourself. This will force you to work towards your goal.

6. Work with a Fitness Coach.

If you have the budget for it, this is the best route to take. You want to work with someone with vast experience. They will help you reach your goal faster because they know what works, what doesn’t and can help personalize your program.

Follow these guidelines and soon you’ll start smiling every time you’re near a mirror.

Have you Heard of the PPC (Patient Physician Cooperative ).

This Cooperative has been in Business since 2005.  It is owned by a group of Physicians in Houston, Texas and Portland Oregon. 

If you use the cooperative Primary Care Doctors, your Office Visit, Lab, Xrays and Imaging (MRI, PetScans, Cat Scans) are covered at 100%. You also have a Prescription Drug Plan, and a Dental & Vision program is included also.  They also have a Group Insurance program with an A + rated Carrier to cover hospital and surgery up to 5 million.  Affordable Coverage for Individuals & Companies.  Rates from $109 Per Person to $296, depending upon coverage Selections.   This is NOT Obamacare, and the Plan Has No Deductible, and Out of Pocket Cost are capped at $7330 or Less per year.   All Pre Existing Conditions. are covered and a Full Time Patient Advocate is provided to assist individuals to get the Best Care Possible and a Health Care Debit Card is provided Allowing you to See any Specialist.  (the Health Debit Card Contributions, can be as Low as $30 per month, and are Tax free contributions, that Can be used Tax Free,   A good Way to Shelter money from Taxes.  As You Know Taxes are Going UP for everyone, so the HRA, account can help you or your Business save $$$$ .

For more Information about the Co Op Contact Mike Alexander at ABM Insurance and Benefit Services Inc at 800 362 2809 

Digital Marketing takes many forms, however, one of the most used formats has been retargeting online. When someone visits your website tagging them with a cookie is common so when they go back out on the web you can show them a nice image ad. Cookies are going away as privacy concerns and abuses have increased. Consumers shy away from sites that may compromise their personal information and need assurance their private information stays private.

Enter FLOC or Federated Learning of Cohorts which is a secure aggregated method for marketers to use first-party data from their customers to help fill in the gaps as well as take advantage of the latest Google technologies. Later this year when many browsers and operating systems on phones and computers begin to block cookies you will need to be ready.

Google made a cartoon strip to help explain this new technology. When you have about 15 minutes take a look and if you have questions, please contact US Marketing, Inc. We'll be happy to help.

Schedule a Meeting with me

Top 4 Print Marketing Strategies for Small and Midsize Business'

Planning for a successful future without your business is a smart strategy. One of the traps that business owners commonly fall into as they begin planning for their successful future without the business is seeing what they need to do and trying to do everything all at once. However, much like your business didn’t spring into success overnight all those years ago, future-oriented planning doesn’t need to be a one-and-done proposition.

Let’s look at how a phased approach to planning can help you get the most out of your efforts and make the process more manageable.

You Can’t Catch the Fish Without Throwing in a Line

Bill Burns was ready to go fishing. Over 40 years, he grew what was originally a one-man logistics consulting agency into a mid-sized inventory management services business with 15 offices. His daughter Katie and longtime employee Lester Clay played big roles in the company’s growth through a proprietary software they’d created in the early years. Bill knew exactly how much he needed to retire with financial security. But he didn’t know how to go about getting it. He originally wanted to sell the business to Katie and Lester, but he knew they didn’t have the kind of people skills he had to attract new clients. He worried that if he sold to an outsider, they’d just buy for the proprietary software and lay his employees off. Plus, he wasn’t even sure what he’d do in retirement other than fish, and he was afraid he’d get bored.

Bill felt overwhelmed with how much he had to figure out. He shared these thoughts with Glen, his most trusted business advisor. “I think the most important area to focus on is making you inconsequential to the business,” Glen said. “You’re the rainmaker now, and to get the money you need, you’ll need to replace yourself.”

After reconfirming that Bill’s financial security target was accurate, Glen told Bill something that took much of the weight off his shoulders.

“Since Katie and Lester are comfortable sticking on the operations side, we can bring in a professional management team to help develop skills on the sales side. That’ll open up a lot of different paths for you to reach your personal and financial goals. It may also give you some leverage when you decide to sell.”

Bill was tentative at first. No one had ever outsold him at his company. But after seeing the professional management team that Glen and a new recruiting firm helped put together, he felt more confident, and for good reason.

The management team formalized his company’s sales process. Profits began to increase year over year because Bill wasn’t the only one capable of making big sales anymore. The management team used the additional profits to attract strong managers and operations people, which led to even more increases.

With more people helping to grow the company, Bill had more free time. He found hobbies he liked in addition to fishing and found himself spending more time away from the office doing them because of the strength of his sales team. He built a new plan for the future based on his new interests and goals.

Best of all, the expanded advisor team that Glen helped assemble had the expertise to negotiate with potential third-party buyers. Sales performance had finally caught up to the cutting-edge developments in operations, making his new team, including Katie, Lester, and new managers, just as valuable as the software.

With a strong management team and encouragement from Katie and Lester, Bill sold the company to a large international buyer, achieved financial security, and protected his employees.

Phased Planning Can Make the Process More Manageable

Like many business owners, Bill saw how much work he had to do and felt overwhelmed. When you’re responsible for your business’ success, it’s not uncommon to feel this way. Fortunately, with advice from a planning-oriented advisor and his new advisor team, Bill learned that he could do his planning in phases and didn’t have to be everything to everyone.

Phased planning allowed him to focus on the most important actions he could take and work through the initial challenges in a more limited area. His success in one portion of planning led to success in other areas over time, which also allowed Bill to move forward with planning for his personal future once the business future was clear. By committing to phased planning, Bill reaped the benefits, proving to himself that he didn’t have to tackle everything all at once.

We strive to help business owners identify and prioritize their objectives with respect to their business, their employees, and their family. If you are ready to talk about your goals for the future and get insights into how you might achieve those goals, we’d be happy to sit down and talk with you. Please feel free to contact us at your convenience.

https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/IndependencePlanningGroup1@glic.microsoftonline.com/bookings/

The information contained in this article is general in nature and is not legal, tax or financial advice. For information regarding your particular situation, contact an attorney or a tax or financial professional. The information in this newsletter is provided with the understanding that it does not render legal, accounting, tax or financial advice. In specific cases, clients should consult their legal, accounting, tax or financial professional. This article is not intended to give advice or to represent our firm as being qualified to give advice in all areas of professional services. Exit Planning is a discipline that typically requires the collaboration of multiple professional advisors. To the extent that our firm does not have the expertise required on a particular matter, we will always work closely with you to help you gain access to the resources and professional advice that you need.

Any examples provided are hypothetical and for illustrative purposes only. Examples include fictitious names and do not represent any particular person or entity.

Registered Representative and Financial Advisor of Park Avenue Securities LLC (PAS). Securities products and advisory services offered through PAS, member FINRA, SIPC. Financial Representative of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian), New York, NY. PAS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian. Independence Planning Group is not an affiliate or subsidiary of PAS or Guardian. The Guardian Network® is a network of preferred providers authorized to offer products of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian), New York, NY and its subsidiaries. Independence Planning Group is an independent agency and not an affiliate or subsidiary of Guardian. ©2021 Business Enterprise Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

"All those years of work are thrown away. To ease your mind is that all you can say? But what about that grandson on your knee? Them railroad songs, Tom would sing to me." –Robert Plant

Many business owners dedicate decades to making their businesses successful. Far fewer owners plan for how they and their businesses will maintain success once they leave them (by choice, death, or otherwise). Without a complete, robust plan, you may not get the outcomes you want or deserve once you inevitably exit your business. Consider the example of Tom Poor, a fictional but representative business owner whose failure to plan led to poor consequences.

THE WOODLANDS, TX - Podcasting is a trend moving upward with alternative platforms and enlarged audiences. Individuals listen to podcasts to learn techniques to grow their business, improve their marketing skills, or hear their favorite authors and motivators. It is so easy to start up your own podcast with the right equipment and platforms for listeners.