Newbie entrepreneurs generally are occupied with several tasks at hand. They need to bring in customers and clients, promote their business on numerous platforms, and manage their finance.
In between all these tasks, they tend to forget about one crucial facet of their business, i.e., business security.
Needless to say, an unsecured business is an easy target for burglars. It can be monetary, such as the loss of thousands of dollars. Or, it can be nonmonetary such as property damage or data loss.
That’s why it is essential that you implement proper security measures to help protect your business.
However, to implement the measures, you need to understand what assets or items need to be protected. What are these assets?
Let’s find out!
Corporate Data
Did you know that approximately 2200 cyber attacks happen every day? This means one cyber attack every 39 seconds. Not only this, 43% of the attacks happen on small businesses. It is because most of the startups are unprepared to deal with the attacks.
Cyber attacks are just one way in which you can lose confidential corporate information. Besides this, employee breaches and poor management are also significant threats to the organization.
Needless to say, data loss doesn’t only affect the company finances but also leads to trust issues with customers and clients. Losing their trust in the beginning, might cause business failure.
Therefore, you need to protect your company from cyber-attacks and data breaches. Here’s how:
- Install antivirus software in all computer systems.
- Make sure all the systems are up to date.
- Back up all your data regularly.
- Use strong passwords to keep confidential information protected.
- Do a background check before hiring any employee.
- Inform employees about the phishing practices and give them regular training about new updates.
- Get cyber liability insurance to recover from the loss.
All these measures will help you protect crucial corporate information. So, you must apply them without any delay.
Physical Space
The physical space of the company includes its property and the other tangible assets inside the premises. It is the most common type of threat that every business, whether big, small, new, or old, must stay alert of.
Apart from this, physical space threats can also affect customer and employee safety issues. Therefore, it is essential that you elevate the physical security level of the company. It includes lights, locks, cameras, guards, and other monitoring equipment.
- First of all, you need to ensure that the doors, especially the front or entrance, have a good lock system. If you are still using traditional locks, you need to immediately switch to digital locks and access systems. It will provide you with control over human errors. Plus, you’ll also have a digital record of who entered the premises and at what time.
- Secondly, you need to hire armed guards. Having armed security will deter burglars as well as offer a sense of security to the customers and employees. In fact, hiring guards for building property protection becomes even more critical if the staff works till late. Not to forget, the guards are well trained and have great observation and communication skills. That means, if they find anything suspicious, they won’t hesitate to take immediate action.
- Another thing that you need to do is to install surveillance cameras. It will help you keep an eye on the activities of employees as well as an intruder. Plus, you can use the footage as evidence on the occurrence of any bad event. In addition to this, you should consider installing motion detectors near the windows. It will help detect whether the window was broken or open after the company hours.
Tip: If hiring armed security goes out of your budget, you can also consider hiring mobile patrol. It will also provide utmost protection to the premises without affecting your budget.
Intellectual Properties
Intellectual properties are intangible assets that a company legally owns and should protect at any cost. These properties help in creating a unique identity of the company in the market. It generally includes the following:
- Trade Secrets:
As the name suggests, trade secrets are the unique ideas and concepts of the business which are kept secret and aren’t meant to be used for the public domain. It represents the economic value of the business. And also consists of plans, designs, and recipes.
The best example of a trade secret is Google’s search algorithm.
Remember that no matter what, you must not share your trade secret with anyone. And if you do share it, make sure that a Non-Disclosure Agreement binds the other party.
- Patents
Patents are used to protect your invention after it is in the public domain. No other person or party can use the invention without your permission or paying compensation. In case someone does use the invention without the patent holder’s permission, he can get sued.
Nevertheless, patents are for a specific period to recover the amount spent by developers on research and development. Not everything can be patented. Instead, the invention needs to be useful and must meet the legal requirements.
- Trademarks
Trademarks are one of the crucial things that every business should get. It helps in protecting the brand’s identity. You can trademark a company name, logo, tagline/slogan, product name, sound, symbols, and colors. So, make sure you get a trademark for your business and protect your identity from getting stolen.
Note: Do check whether the things you are trademarking are already registered or not. You can check this using USPTO’s TESS (Trademark Electronic Search System).
- Copyright
Last but not least, you need to get a copyright to protect your original content. It can be a written, audio, video product, software, or even a design. Nonetheless, to protect the intangible asset, it must be saved in an electronic format. It is mostly required in the creative industry as the risk of original content getting stolen is very high there. Still, if you do have some original, you must get copyright protection.
The Bottom Line,
All these assets are essential to keep your business running smoothly. Moreover, their utmost protection will also give you peace of mind. Plus, a well-secured company also helps in building customer trust. So, you must take appropriate measures immediately.