You have a lot of tasks to complete as a small business owner. The pressure is on you to succeed, and it’s up to you to lead your employees in the workplace. One aspect you shouldn’t overlook is how to protect your small business.
“Risk” is a word most associated with businesses, and as a business owner, you want to ensure that you’re not affected negatively by it. Statistics have shown that about 20% of businesses in the US fail in their first year.
This troubling statistic is why small business owners must ensure their businesses are well protected to lower their chances of failure.
Regardless of whether you’re a budding entrepreneur or have been in business for a long time, there are some proactive steps you should take to give your business adequate protection and keep it running smoothly. Below are five ways to do just that.
Table of Contents
Protect Your Small Business
There are five actions, in particular, that you can take and put in place to help you do so. Otherwise, you may be setting yourself up for some unwanted and sticky situations.
Be proactive now to ensure that if someone tries to come after you or you make mistakes, you have safeguards in place to help you avoid any negative or damaging certain circumstances.
These tips apply to online and offline businesses too as well as bloggers who monetize their blogs.
1. Establish Effective Security Measures
Information is a valuable asset, especially in today’s digitalized world. This is evident in the continuous increase in data breaches of several businesses. Therefore, ensuring that your files and other business data are well protected is vital.
This includes educating staff on proper cybersecurity measures, carefully monitoring access to sensitive files, and ensuring effective cloud-based solutions and security measures.
Implement online security measures to protect your small business and your files.
You must do so for clients, especially because you don’t want their information getting into the wrong hands.
Run antivirus software and use challenging passwords so hackers can’t easily access your online accounts and files.
Additionally, you should also ensure that your business is adequately secured physically. Consider installing security devices such as alarms, fingerprint scanners, and security cameras to ward off thieves.
2. Insure Yourself To Protect Your Small Business
There are several unexpected factors your business can be exposed to, which may cause damage to property, employees, and customers. When this occurs, your business may have to make out-of-pocket payments which could drastically affect its financial future.
This is where insurance comes in. Business insurance helps you handle the cost of property damage and offers liability to coverage should an employee or customer sue you.
When selecting an insurance policy, you must consider the nature of risks associated with your business and its industry. You should also consider other insurance policies, such as your employees’ life insurance and insurance coverage.
However, before purchasing your insurance policy, conduct adequate research to find the right coverage for your business. A good place to start is with reviews. For instance, if you want to purchase insurance from Primerica, you can read through Primerica reviews to learn more about the company and its services.
For instance, e & o insurance will cover the costs of legal claims or alleged damage caused to a customer by errors or unintentional omissions from your work.
It’s wise to have this service and protection because mistakes happen, and you want to ensure any damages people are seeking don’t put your business under for good.
Here at Inspire To Thrive I have business insurance as I sometimes work on clients’ computers and manage their social media.
3. Hire A Reputable Attorney For Protecting Your Small Business
Many legal requirements surround your business, and keeping up with them all can be difficult. This is why having an attorney on standby to offer legal advice is never bad.
An attorney would not only keep you in the loop of legal updates, but they can also assist in ensuring aspects of your business are void of legal trouble that may be catastrophic for your business.
For additional legal support, online legal forms can simplify contract management and compliance, ensuring your business stays protected with up-to-date and legally sound documents.
Therefore, consider hiring legal services to review contracts and agreements, offer legal advice, assist in taxation, and so on.
It is advisable to ask trusted sources, such as your network, for recommendations when selecting an attorney. You should also consider comparing various attorneys before making a choice. Lastly, consult your budget to know how much you can afford on fees.
4. Watch What You Say, Do & Post
As a small business owner, people are always watching and following what you do. Therefore, it’s essential that you monitor what you say, do, and post on social media.
Remember that you can’t take back words or erase what you write down and publicize it to the world. Protect your business and your reputation by thinking before you speak or post and having a filter so that you don’t take actions or say words you later regret.
This action is very hard in 2024 I know. I’ve had clients post things on their business profiles that I’ve had to remind them to only do on their personal pages if they must. It’s a very fine line to walk during election cycles.
You want to preserve your relationships with others and not risk tarnishing them.
5. Understand Your Finances
Another way to protect your small business is to understand your finances. Being in financial trouble or not being ethical will put you and your business at risk. Understand your financial situation in detail and only put the people you trust in charge of your books.
Address any issues head-on and do your best to minimize the chance of any surprises. Keep your business and personal finances separate to avoid any confusion.
Get help with your taxes if you need it and know precisely what money you have gone out and coming in each month.
Pay your bills on time and never make assumptions or play guessing games when it comes to your company’s finances.
Your Turn: How To Protect Your Small Business
What are you doing to protect your small business today? In today’s business environment, it’s really important that you take measures to protect yourself and your business.
I’d love to know more from you in the comments below!
She has 30+ years of experience in marketing/advertising with 12 years of experience in content marketing, social media, blogging, and SEO.
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Hi Lisa,
I really enjoyed reading this article. It’s always very informative and helpful.
But don’t you think that another point should be added and that is employee retention.
The employees of the company are their biggest asset. In the end, they will work for the business.
Hiring the right staff and keeping good relations with them should also be an essential point to protect a small or large business.
What is your opinion about this Lisa?
Thanks
Dipanjan
Hi Dipanjan, excellent point about retention, thank you. I’ve had to retrain freelancers here and it takes a lot of time! So that’s another way to protect your business by keeping your employees or freelancers. Of course, if they are not doing the job then they must be let go too. Thanks for your input, make it a great day!
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for sharing the informative article about protecting our small business.
Understanding Your finances is very important, I am glad that you have mentioned in your article.
Thanks again for sharing great Content, keep up the good work.
Regards,
Jenna Ronan
Hi Jenna, You are most welcome. Yes, I wish they taught finances 101 in grade school. It would help so many do better in life with their finances. Thanks for coming by and have a great day.
Hi Lisa,
I really enjoyed reading your blog. It is highly informative and builds great interest for the readers. For people who think to start their own business in the future, this post is really relatable as it is most important for small business owners to protect their businesses.
Thanks for providing such an informative & knowledgeable article.
Regards
Priyanka Singh
Hi Priyanka, Welcome to Inspire To Thrive. Thank you. Yes, it is important to protect your small business because you put everything into it, from time and money. As they say, “blood, sweat, and tears” go into your small business. Thanks for coming by and have a wonderful rest of the day!
Hey Lisa mam ,
Excellent post with fabulous work. Glad to say that you have provided helpful tips & effective ways to protect the small business. You have presented each ways in an impressive way along with all the crucial information that are really providing good
understanding and making the concept very clear.
Yes i completely agree with your each listed tips. It takes a lot of time to build a reputation and only one move & step is enough to destroy it, hence it is really essential for everyone to monitor what they said, did and posted on social media. Insure ourself is also a good tip. Implementing an online security measures will helps a lot and work effectively to secure the online business. Understanding the financial situation deeply will be a great helping hand and will also improves the financial conditions. Adopting & implementing your tips will be a great helping hand and will undoubtedly secure the small business.
After going through this complete guide i really gain ideas and learned about various ways to secure the small business.
Eventually thanks for sharing your knowledge, ideas and such an informative post.
Regards
-Aadarsh
Hi Aadarsh, Thank you. I’ve been running a small business for years now and am finally getting the groove for knowing what is working and what does not work. I’ve also worked with hundreds of them over the years when I was in advertising and marketing and have seen a lot! You are most welcome and thanks for your input on this piece on Inspire To Thrive. Have a great day!