How Safe Is Your Business?

When running your own business there are few things that you’re going to find more important than keeping it as safe and secure as possible. After all, no matter how successful your business is, the risk that the whole thing could be brought crashing down on your head is always going to be there. And yet, despite this, far too many business owners tend to treat security in their business as little more than an afterthought. This is a whole lot more common than you might expect and often it is because it’s a lot more pleasant to just focus on when everything is going well in your business than to worry about the potential for everything to go wrong. However, as the old saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. If you’re not making plans for all of the eventualities in your business then you’re setting yourself up for a whole world of trouble. With that in mind, here are some things to think about when it comes to the security of your business.

Physical security

We live in a pretty heavily digital world these days but there’s no doubt that there are still plenty of risks right here in the physical world that need to be acknowledged if you really want to keep your business as safe as possible. Here are some of the ways you can keep the physical premises of your business safe.

Sturdy locks

This might sound like the most obvious thing in the world but a strong lock is just about the best thing you can possibly use to keep intruders out of your business premises. Of course, locks are a whole lot more advanced these days than simple padlocks. There is a huge amount of technology in a lot of locks that you can for your business. The simplest are code based locks which are especially secure if you make sure that the code is changed regularly. Of course, that raises the issue of having to make sure that everyone in your business knows what the code is. Then there are more advanced locks like ones based on thumbprints. These are fantastic because they make it impossible for anyone other than yourself and your employees to get into the building.

Alarms

Of course, even the very best locks can potentially fail, which means that you’re going to want an alarm system for your building as well. Again, there are a whole lot of different options available to you and which one you choose is likely to depend on everything from the size of your office to your overall budget. One very important thing to remember is not just to have your business alarm systems connected to the most obvious point of entry. Think about the kinds of places in your business that someone could use to get in and make sure that they are all covered by your alarm system. The last thing you want is to leave a hole in your security that can be easily exploited.

Surveillance

Of course, there’s always a chance that, even with an alarm system that alerts both you and the authorities that someone has broken into your office, they could still get away without being caught. That’s why you need to make sure that, on top of all of your other physical security measures, you also need a surveillance system. A surveillance system not only means that you’re going to be able to record whoever it was who broke in or even tried to break in, but it also acts as a pretty significant deterrent. A lot of criminals are not going to be willing to take the risk of being recorded and would rather just not go near your business at all. Not only that but it means that you are going to be able to catch any criminal behavior among your employees which, while rare, is something that can still happen.

Digital security

There was once a time when you could rely entirely on physical security in order to keep your business safe but that has all changed now thanks to the rise of the internet. There are very few businesses that can function online and while the internet has been incredibly beneficial, it also brings its own set of risks. Here are some ways to make sure that your cyber security is up to scratch.

Up to date software

One of the first things that you need to make sure of is that your firewall and anti-virus software are fully up to date. Cyber criminals spend their time trying to break through most digital security measures and making sure that yours are up to date is the only way to keep out vicious malware and spyware. This may end up costing you more than you would like to keep it all up to date but it’s going to be far cheaper than if you end up leaving your business vulnerable to cyber criminals.

Secure passwords

This might seem like one of the absolute simplest things there is when it comes to digital security but making sure that every single person in your business has the strongest possible password protection on their computers. There are plenty of resources online that you can use to create secure passwords and it’s a good idea to make sure that they are changed as regularly as possible. After all, no matter how secure a password might be, there are always ways that can be cracked and the only way to avoid this is to make sure that your employees aren’t just using the same ones all of the time.

Backing up data

Truly, one of the worst things that can happen if somehow a piece of malware gets into your system or a cyber criminal manages to gain access to it is that you could end up losing a great deal of incredibly important data. Considering just how much of modern business is based entirely in the digital world losing a lot of data can be like someone taking a bulldozer to your entire office. That’s why backing up your data is so important. There are a few ways to do this, each with their own benefits and drawbacks. One method is to store it on a remote server which, while extremely secure is going to require physical space as well as server hosting on your part. The other option is cloud storage which, while being a little less secure, is a whole lot more accessible to you and your employees as well as freeing up a great deal of dedicated server space that can help your business run a whole lot faster.

Your employees

At the end of the day, the reality of your business is that no matter how well secured it is on both a physical and digital level, none of that is going to matter unless you can be sure about the security of one other thing: the human element. You need to make sure that you can trust your employees to keep your business secure.

Offer training

One of the very best ways that you can make sure that your employees can be trusted to keep your business safe is to provide them with the tools to do so. Giving them the right training through things like cyber security briefings/events is going to make everyone’s lives a whole lot easier. If your employees don’t know how to keep your business safe, mistakes are inevitably going to get made.    

Lead by example

However, that’s not going to matter if you can’t create a culture of security in your business and the best way to do that is to lead by example. If you’re not following your own advice when it comes to security at work then how can you expect your employees to do the same? Make sure that you’re always doing everything you can to keep your business safe so that your employee can follow your lead.

It might seem like this is a whole lot to be focusing on for a single aspect of your business but the truth is that you need to be able to pay this kind of attention to every single aspect of your business if you truly want it to succeed. The reality is that running a business is every bit as hard as everyone says it is and then some. If you’re looking at the sheer amount of work that goes into just this one part of any business and you feeling like it’s so much that you’re feeling overwhelmed, it might be worth taking a moment to figure out if you’re really cut out to be a solo business owner in the first place. Of course, there are always things that you can do in order to lighten the load. Going into business with other people is always a great option and you always have the choice to outsource certain aspects of your business to other people and companies so that you can be sure that they’re in the best possible hands without completely exhausting yourself.

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