By Eileen O’Shanassy
Every business is exposed to one risk or another. It could be risks from accidents, cyber attacks, or from physical burglars. As a business owner, you won’t do yourself any good if you assume everything is going to be okay. Protect your small business by making a serious commitment to educate yourself and your employees about the risks your business is likely to confront and the best ways to deal with them.
1. Carry Out a Detailed Risk Assessment
Risk assessment is needed if you already know your business is open to one form of risk. A proper risk evaluation procedure will usually involve identifying the hazards, deciding who might be harmed, evaluating the risk, deciding on possible control measures, and documenting your findings.
While carrying out a risk assessment, make sure you involve other people in your organization who you believe are necessary for coming up with satisfactory risk assessment conclusions. Assessing your business for risk comes with benefits including encouraging optimal productivity, happier employees, saving you money, and projecting your company image.
2.Educate Your Staff About Security
Your employees are the ones interfacing with all of your data and other gateways that are at risk of security breach. You will save yourself money and stress if you provide them with regular security awareness training. A staff that is well groomed in issues of safety will ensure all passwords and email accounts are safe and secure.
Security awareness training empowers employees to know how to handle email, data, passwords, and physical locks and keys, in preparedness for any possible attacks, both online and off. When you educate your staff about security, you encourage them to perform better, give them the confidence when dealing with company data and online profiles, and offer them the capacity to guide against attacks with little supervision.
3. Protect Your Premises and Equipment
Two of the most common business premises security threats are property vandalism and theft. You need to protect your business premises and equipment to secure the confidence of your employees and customers. Invest in consistent security assessment to know what the risks are and how to deal with them. You also need to hire professional and capable security guards who have been trained in ensuring proper security to any business premises. You should also invest in a home security package or app or update your security system with mobile access that allows you to take advantage of all the benefits of modern technology.
4. Get Insurance
Business insurance is compulsory for every startup. No matter how much you guard against uncertainties, you still need to be insured in case something happens. As a small business, you will need to protect your business by investing in different types of insurance which may include general liability insurance, workers’ compensation, data breach insurance, property insurance, and vehicle insurance.
5. Deal with Internal Theft
Employee theft is a major concern in modern society. While you spend money trying to protect against external attacks, you shouldn’t ignore the possibility of an enemy within. Guard against employee theft by monitoring them closely, installing a CCTV camera where reasonable, and make sure you catalogue everything. Set up a private system for employees to report their co-workers if they notice any suspicious moves. You should also get to know your employees in-person. Pay attention to both physical thefts and data theft.
You need to put up serious measures if you want to protect your business from attacks. Most business owners don’t take security seriously, relying too much on trust and emotions. Invest in security by carrying out a consistent risk assessment, getting the right insurance cover, investing in the modern security gadgets and applications, and educating your staff.
