Although the economy and people’s quality of life is relatively stable at this point in time, crime is still a big problem in society. As a business owner, there’ll be various issues which you need to guard your business against, and crime should always come pretty near the top of the list. If you’ve been putting off thinking about it for too long, then here are a few steps you can take to ensure your business is secure.
Although cyber security breaches are probably the biggest problem which modern business owners need to guard against, physical, “old-fashioned” crime is still very prevalent, especially with industrial businesses. I’m sure you don’t want to open up one day to find half your stock missing, so securing your home or commercial premises needs to be one of your primary concerns. Take a quick look around your premises, and try to get into the mindset of a burglar. If you were considering robbing the place, what are the items you’d want most and how would you go about getting to them? Thinking like this should show you where the biggest weak spots of your premises are, and what needs to be done to make sure they’re secure. From there, you can start budgeting for things like CCTV, security lighting, burglar alarms and so on. Making your business totally secure can take a lot of money, but your insurance premiums will drop significantly.
Once you’ve made certain changes to the physical security of your premises, you can rest easy knowing that most would-be burglars will be scared off. However, exterior security measures won’t do much to prevent another kind of crime: employee theft. Although it may be unthinkable right now, countless businesses experience employee theft every year, and it’s not impossible that yours could be among them! You need to be guarding against this to ensure your business is as secure as possible. When you’re carrying out a recruitment drive, always make sure that you’re looking into employment histories and checking references. Keep strict policies about employee theft, and make sure all your staff are aware about the consequences. Be very careful about who you give keys and security codes to as well. These decisions can really come back to bite you!
Finally, make sure you’re covering all the cyber security risks you might be facing. Like most businesses in 2016, yours is probably holding a large amount of valuable data which could be tempting to hackers and cyber criminals. Like physical crime threats, you need to be taking steps to protect yourself against these risks! Read up on good cyber security practices, and make this a part of your working culture. Make sure everyone understands the importance of cybersecurity and the consequences of carelessness. Make sure you’re keeping organised about managing and protecting your assets, and be sure to have plans in place for the various scenarios that come under “cyber-attack”. This way, you won’t be caught with your pants down, and will know how to minimise downtime.
Take this advice, and you’ll be able to go to relax knowing that your business is as secure as it can be!
