Important Things You Need To Do To Protect Your Business

It’s easy to get complacent when things are going well for your business, but that is the best time to make some changes to make sure that when things might not be going so well, your business is protected. We’ve got five things you need to do to protect your business, that covers quite a few different angles, both which you can predict and then also you will be covered for things that are out of the blue! 

Complete A Risk Assessment 

The first thing you should do to highlight everything that could go wrong for your business is to complete a full risk assessment, looking at both internal risks and also external risks. Internal business risks include things like human error, safety, cash flow issues or investment required for new equipment that breaks. External risks include disruptions to your supply chain, natural disasters, cyber attacks, viral social media incidents or clients not paying their fees. 

Every business is different, and so are the risks that they face, so make this highly specific to your business and be really thorough when you’re doing it. You want to get this right, so take your time, and if this is in any way unfamiliar to you, then you should seek assistance from a professional. Get this right and the following steps will all be easier. 

Have Good Savings

Now that you’ve got your risk assessment in place, it’s time to start thinking about how you can mitigate those risks. The first and main thing is to have a good amount of savings behind your business, as this literally covers any eventuality that might come your way, from legal fees to maternity cover, and everything in between. In general, it is recommended that you have between 3 and 6 months of full expenses in the bank at all times, including all outgoings and wages. There is no way to fully predict where this money will need to go, but worst case scenario, it could save your business, and best case scenario, you don’t need to use it. This is so important and could be the make or break of your business one day. 

Register Your IP (Intellectual Property)

You also need to make sure that you register your intellectual property. The last thing you want is for someone else to rip off your work and you lose all of the hard work you’ve put in to develop it. So, make sure that you’re protecting your business assets that could be essential to the profitability and the future of your business. You can register a trade mark online, or if you want to make sure you get it 100% right and know exactly what you are protecting, you should work with an expert. Get this right now and your future business will thank you for it! 

Get The Right Insurance

You also need to make sure that you’re investing in the right insurance. Again, it might seem like you don’t need loads of cover right now, but you never know when something could change. With this, every business needs different cover and there could be the smallest thing that you never thought needs to be insured, when actually it’s essential. So, work with a specialist insurance broker in your industry and they will help you to get the right cover at the right price, whether it’s credit insurance, professional indemnity or anything in between. We hope that you never need to rely on your insurance, but have it in place and it could save you one day.

Invest In Cyber Security 

Lastly, you must invest in business cyber security. As technology is getting more advanced, so are the scams that are appearing. Cyber criminals attack businesses of all different sizes, so never assume that your business is safe. Work with professionals to get this sorted, and you want to make sure that there are constant checks being run on the website to identify any issues, along with 24 hour support if any issues do arise that need to be manually addressed, rather than by software. This is an absolutely essential step, as there are many cyber criminals who will blackmail you once they have access to sensitive customer information, which could be detrimental to your business. So, invest in this, along with everything else above, and you are doing the best you can to make sure your business is protected from both the expected and the unexpected!