Sometimes budgets are not just about money. I believe all small business owners need to budget more time to study the emerging changes to the health care

Pick up EXCLUSIVE content here!

 system in this country. I put this forward now in light of the Supreme Court decision to uphold key aspects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), often referred to as Obamacare. The impact on business, especially small business, has the potential of being a game-changer.

There are two compelling reasons to budget time to study how this will impact your roofing business. First, many of the changes will take full force and effect in 2014, which is really not that far from now. When the roofing season is on we are so busy that budgeting extra time for nearly anything is tough. When things slow down we tend to focus mainly on bringing in more business, which is a must for many of us to survive. Survival in the next few years, however, may depend heavily on knowledge you do not presently possess.

Which brings us to the second reason to budget time to study how changes to the health care system will impact your small business, and that is the fluid nature of the coming changes. All manners of interests are working feverishly to lobby legislators who have yet to work out every single detail of our nation’s health care system under the PPACA. Health care providers, state governments, insurers, and business groups of all stripes are all lining up to protect their own interests.

These groups have budgeted not only time, but a lot of money to swing things their way. And “their way” may not always be in your best interest.

If you budget sufficient time to study all aspects of the PPACA and take the time to further your study by reaching out to your legal and accounting professionals for advice, you should be in a good position to do a credible job of budgeting the money it will take to run your business in a world with the PPACA in full force. That world will include options, and knowing the best ones for your situation may be key to the health of your roofing business.

Another concern is that implementation of the PPACA if going to be one more thing to put legitimate contractors at a cost disadvantage to contractors who are willing to cheat the system. To stay ahead of this kind of competition, contractors must know what is right and know how to demonstrate the difference to their prospective clients.

For our part, Roofing Contractorwill budget editorial space in coming issues to share whatever we learn that can help roofing contractors prevail in this time of change. We will publish not only here in our print version, but in our online newsletter, Website, and in our discussion groups.

 Socrates said, “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.” I doubt he was making a reference to health care concerns for the roofing industry back in the fifth century BC, but I believe his wisdom still applies.  

More Information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Socrates/