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Ensure That You’re Covered Before Things Go Wrong

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We’re sure that you have heard of the phrase ‘expect the unexpected’, and that’s the kind of idea that we’re going for in this article. It’s important when you own a business that you ensure you are covered before things start going wrong so that if they do, you don’t have to panic. Obviously, it’s never good to see things go wrong for your company, but at least you’re in a position where you are covered and not left to hang out to dry. So, in this article, we’re going to give you some ideas on how you can ensure you’re covered. If you want to know more, keep reading down below.

IT Services

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | Ensure That You're Covered Before Things Go Wrong

The first thing that we are going to look at is IT services. Now, if you don’t currently have strong IT services for your business, this is something that you need to change fast. Unfortunately, even though tech has made the business world easier and more efficient in many ways, it is also one of the ways that people can get to your business. Hacking and cybercrime is a real problem, and don’t make the mistake of thinking that it can’t or won’t happen to you. Take the necessary precautions and keep yourself one step ahead by hiring experts to set up and monitor your systems. This way, you know that a professional has handled everything, and will be keeping an eye out for any kind of suspicious activity. This is the best thing you can do to keep your business safe in terms of the online world, so don’t forget to do it.

Insurance

Something else that’s going to be helpful to keep your business covered is having all the necessary insurance. If you go to a broker, they are going to be able to help you figure out what insurance your business needs, and which policies aren’t going to be relevant to you. This way, if something does happen to your business, such as a halt in operations due to the Coronavirus, which is a big issue right now, or if there are any problems with an employee, then you should be covered. Take precautions, and listen to the expert when they advise you about what policies you need, you never know when you’re going to need to be protected. It could be the case that you think you’ll never need the policy, but it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

Have A Lawyer On Retainer

Finally, we highly recommend that you have a lawyer on retainer in case of any legal issues that you might get involved in. Like we mentioned above, some businesses have issues with employees, such as if they think they have been terminated unfairly and so on, which means you need legal advice. Having a lawyer on retainer means that you can get this advice quickly, without having to try and find a reputable law firm to take you on at the last minute.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see that you need to be covered before things go wrong to protect your business.

In the Time of COVID-19, Take Resilience-Building Tips from an Open Ocean Sailor

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | In the Time of COVID-19, Take Resilience-Building Tips from an Open Ocean SailorAdventurers immerse themselves in the most testing environments on the planet and acquire unique insights into how to be their best. They implicitly understand what it means to perform under pressure, because their very lives often depend on it. An adventurer’s mindset can help instruct us during this pandemic.

The COVID-19 crisis has turned us all into adventurers, as we push our limits and test our resolve during this journey into the unknown. It’s a strange situation, but the current pandemic is forcing us to don the adventurer’s mantle. Adventurers thrive on uncertainty and become motivated and empowered when they face the unknown. They intuitively understand that resilience is a skill that requires challenge to build and grow. The COVID-19 pandemic has developed into a once-in-a-lifetime challenge for us all and will take resilience to get through.

As this crisis unfolds, the story of one adventurer in particular, an open ocean sailor named Lisa Blair, exemplifies the resilience from which we can all benefit. An extremely accomplished solo open ocean sailor, Lisa has been thrown into a cauldron of uncertainty many times in her career and has always managed to navigate through. Her attempt to break the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of Antarctica is one of the most perilous journeys a sailor could undertake, and if it wasn’t for her immense capacity for resilience, she would never have survived it.

Everything had been going exactly to plan for the first 72 days of Lisa’s endeavor, and she was one month away from reaching her goal. But in the midst of a treacherous storm, everything changed. “The mast snapped at deck level so there was nothing standing up outside my boat, it was totally gone,” she recalls. The mast had fallen to the leeward side of the boat and immediately became an immovable object in the water. Her boat, Climate Action Now, was left hanging off its new anchor, pounded by 25-foot waves.

In the grips of a massive storm about 1,000 nautical miles from land, with no ship traffic near, Lisa was completely alone in the face of grave danger. “If I lost the boat that far south, there was no second chance. Even if I jumped in a life raft with my survival suit, the chances of recovery were slim for any ship to even find me, let alone find me alive if I hadn’t succumbed to exposure. So I had to free the mast at all costs.”

Through the darkness of an angry night, Lisa set about trying to save her boat. She had to free the destroyed mast — a delicate procedure in calm conditions, but in the frenzy of a storm, as her boat pitched and rolled with waves washing across its deck, it became a life-threatening task.

To release the mast Lisa needed to uncouple the rigging. To do this she needed to disengage a split-pin at the connection point at several locations. “I tried to hammer them out with my screwdriver and hammer and it just wasn’t working,” she recalls. “I was shaking so badly, I couldn’t aim right and I kept smashing my left hand. My whole hand ballooned up as I’d likely broken a few bones.”

To separate the forestay, Lisa had to crawl out on the end of the bowsprit where she was pummeled with huge crashing waves. “My legs were clamped so hard and I was gripping the remaining bit of railing with a death grip as I held on.” She needed to time her work with the gaps in the waves, hammering for all she’s worth in the trough of a wave and hanging on when the next one approached. Lisa cycled through her hands-on hands-off rodeo ride until the split-pin finally popped loose. She scrambled back on deck and made quick work of the side stays, then watched her mast slip beneath the ocean surface. She had saved the boat and herself.

Lisa Blair had to abort her record attempt and use her motor (and a perilous rescue by a Chinese container ship) to retreat to Cape Town, South Africa. Two months later with her boat repaired, she was ready to head back to sea. But instead of applause and encouragement, she was met with a chorus of naysayers telling her she had no business heading back out. Winter had descended on the Southern Ocean, and with it came colder weather, bigger waves and hurricane-sized storms.

After the monumental challenges and disappointments of the previous months, most people would have called it quits, but not Lisa. In her mind she had started something, and she was going to finish it.

What special something kept her going? What made Lisa so resilient? Here are some of her secrets:

1. Plan for worst-case scenarios.By using all of her knowledge and experience, Lisa knew both practically and emotionally what she needed to do. Her background in undertaking difficult adventures helped her prepare for her journey. She anticipated worst-case scenarios and planned how she would deal with them. She was as prepared as she could be.

Scenario planning can be an incredibly effective tool to anticipate the unknown. Mapping “if-then” responses and visualizing a myriad of scenarios can help us respond to any challenge that presents itself. Worst-case scenario planning allows us to make any decisions we face with a clear head.

2. Maintain strong personal relationships.Lisa’s strong personal relationships helped her to maintain her resilience. During difficult times, she effectively processes her feelings by sharing them openly with her support network of family and friends.

For all of us, utilizing our trusted relationships can keep our spirits up. Reaching out to those closest to us to process strong feelings is a key way to boost resilience and move through these challenging times.

3. Remain realistically optimistic.Lisa’s resilience also stemmed from a powerful sense of realistic optimism. Her ability to accurately assess the gravity of her challenges while maintaining a deep belief in the possibility of a positive outcome was critical.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can follow Lisa’s lead of accepting the current reality with a belief that we’ll eventually resume our disrupted quests. Success is still within our reach.

By adopting the adventurer’s approach to setbacks and challenges, we will build resilience in the face of these challenging times.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Amy PoseyAmy Posey is a Silicon Valley-based leadership consultant focused on neuroscience and high performance. She is the founder and CEO of SUPER*MEGA*BOSS, a manager training company.

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Kevin VallelyKevin Vallely juggles his life as a registered architect, leadership mentor, author, keynote speaker and father, while also becoming an internationally recognized explorer. Their new book is Wild Success: 7 Key Lessons Business Leaders Can Learn from Extreme Adventures (McGraw Hill, March 10, 2020). Learn more at www.morewildsuccess.com.

Risk Management Tips for Business

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | Risk Management Tips for BusinessA certain amount of risk comes with the territory when you own a business. It is unavoidable, but that does not mean that the risk cannot be managed or effectively minimized. Here are some great risk management tips for business owners that will remain relevant regardless of how big or small your business may become.

Figure Out How to Weigh Business Risk

The mark of a successful entrepreneur is the ability to weigh risk and make tough decisions relating to that analysis. This is especially true when it comes to weighing risk in relation to potentially profitable opportunities. If a business owner is too cautious or fearful, there is a good chance that their company will stagnate and the level of growth that can be achieved over time will be drastically limited.

The reality is that learning how to weigh business risk is a skill. First, you need to create a frame of reference. The best way to do this is to categorize risks based on how severe you believe them to be. Once a decision is put into practice, weigh up the consequences based on your initial assessments and you will slowly start to develop a knack for calculating risk from there.

Embrace Powerful Technology

There is no reason why you should approach the process of managing and mitigating business risk on your own. There are so many options available to you in terms of technology that can assist in making better decisions and preventing risk from increasing.

A great example of this type of technology is KYC, or ‘Know Your Customer’. If you have yet to do so, it is important to start learning what KYC means now. Essentially, it refers to the process used by some organizations to verify the identity of an individual who wishes to make use of their services or purchase their products online. By accurately confirming identity, there is a much lower chance that anything untoward will take place in relation to your company’s dealings with a customer, such as credit card fraud or money laundering.

While predominantly used by banks and insurance agencies, KYC is a possible solution for risk mitigation for any type of business.

Formulate an Approach to Making Decisions

By approaching those difficult business decisions in the same way each time, you are likely to learn how to make better choices. Many business experts recommend formulating a list of important questions that enable you to adequately assess risk. Ask yourself the following:

  • What is likely to be the costliest consequence – the income loss associated with failure or the profit loss associated with neglecting to embrace the opportunity?
  • What is the worst possible outcome and am I adequately equipped to deal with it?
  • What is the most likely outcome?
  • What are my biggest concerns?
  • Is now the right time to proceed with this opportunity despite the risk? Or should I wait until a later time?
  • What does my gut tell me?

Keep the aforementioned tips in mind and you are sure to navigate your way around risk mitigation more successfully than in the past. Rest assured that it gets endlessly better and easier with practice!

How to Protect Your Organization From the Amazon of Your Industry

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | How to Protect Your Organization From the Amazon of Your IndustryThe trend towards consolidation in industry has become a threat to any business whose leadership has a desire to maintain its own identity and strategic path. If you think you, your company, or your industry is immune, I urge you to look at the telltale signs.

If you are one of those business owners or leaders who have invested many years of your life building a brand, then you most likely have a vision for that brand for the future that exists beyond your involvement. Sure, you could decide to sell the business or have it acquired by another organization, but the control of the decision should be yours.

So what do you do if you’d like the company to stand alone moving forward?

The Hidden Threat That Many Do Not See

Many signs of corporate consolidation are apparent; we read about them in journals and online every single day. XYZ corporation announces the acquisition of ABC LLC, etc. Mergers and acquisitions have been around forever, but there is a new legal form of conquest that is allowing organizations to steal market share from well-established businesses. Does it exist (yet) in your niche?

The menace of which I speak is the digital marketing organizations that are springing up in most industries, offering services on a pay-per-lead basis. If you are an established business, you likely have encountered one or more (or your marketing department has), and perhaps you have even paid for their services. These organizations spend their resources online, gaining a marketing edge, and then sell you (or your competition) the data on the leads. It seems like a win-win relationship at first.

But consider this. Isn’t this type of behavior, by you and your competition, outsourced marketing? No big deal, right? They spend money to generate consumer information, and then you buy it. Outsourcing frees you up to focus on things other than creating new business opportunities. It’s a true parasite-host relationship, where your organization serves as the host, and the digital marketing organization serves as a benevolent parasite.

Over time, the parasite will get large and robust. It will more than likely service many companies, not just your own. When they hit a point of market saturation, who do you think will be the most prominent brand known to the consumer? You? A competitor? No! It will be the digital marketing company that has been growing its reach across digital channels.

I believe that at this point, the digital marketing organization will have the leverage, and it is then that the parasite begins to consume the host. They raise the price on your cost per lead. If you refuse to pay, they merely sell the information to a competitor. Or worse, they quit selling information exclusively; instead, they sell the same information to multiple organizations. Once they are large enough in the eyes of consumers, they have the leverage to do this.

Would you like some real-world examples of this? Look no further than Zillow in real estate or Homeadvisor in the home services sector. These marketing-only organizations started simply with a website, but now each is the biggest name in its field. Zillow is now buying homes and working directly with home sellers. Can it be much longer before they have a buyer service available?

How To Avoid The Digital Marketing Parasite

If you own, lead, or manage an organization, acknowledge that the primary task of any business is the generation of new customers. You cannot outsource marketing, or it will put your company in a position to finance the organization that will one day put you out of business.

Take care of the parasite when it is a pest. Ensure that you run a learning organization that evolves its marketing strategy to utilize the same channels and processes that the parasite would use to unhinge you.

The parasite exists in every location and every field. Do not make the mistake of outsourcing business generation responsibilities. Instead grow your digital marketing solutions so that your company can thrive and grow into the future.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Joe ManausaJoe Manausa is CEO of Joe Manausa Real Estate in Tallahassee, Florida and author of The Business of Getting Business: The Digital Marketing Guide for Small Businesses.  After observing industry giants move to a digital-first marketing approach, Joe made the transition within his own company, which resulted in over $10 million of revenue from the business’s website.  For more information, please visit lidpublishing.com or https://www.digitalmarketingforbusinessbook.com/.

How To Safeguard Your Company Data

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | How To Safeguard Your Company DataIt doesn’t matter what kind of business you run, you will need to take steps to safeguard your company data, and that of your customers, from cybercrime and data loss. Losing important business information or having it stolen by a hacker could easily spell the end of your enterprise altogether, and it will certainly have a negative impact on your reputation. Therefore, it makes sense to put in safeguarding measures to protect the information and yourself. Here are some ways to do it.

Back Up

Backing up your information is simple and effective. Although it won’t protect against an attack by a cybercriminal by itself, it will allow you to restore the potentially missing or corrupt information left in the hacker’s wake, or as a result of a system failure.

If you can restore the information then you can continue working, even if there are other problems that still need to be dealt with. Without a backup of your work, you may well lose everything and have no way of continuing your business at all.

The most important thing to remember about making backups is that you will need to use a reliable external source to do it. There is no point in backing up your information to another computer on the same system; this is not going to keep it safe. Ideally you should use the cloud as not only will the information be protected but you can access it from anywhere – this is perfect if you are unable to get to your office or if there was a fire, for example, that destroyed your computing equipment.

Use A Firewall

A firewall will give you an extra line of defence against cyberattack. It works as a barrier against any malicious software that you may have inadvertently downloaded. This barrier, when correctly installed, will ensure that the virus cannot reach the more vulnerable and important parts of your computing system, blocking it completely.

The idea is a simple one, but there are many different types of firewall and it can become confusing and even overwhelming when you start to look more deeply into it. Because of this, it is best to have IT services Birmingham find the right firewall for you and install it – that way you know you are protected.

Password Protection

It is possible to set passwords on some programs such as Adobe Acrobat and the Microsoft Office suite. This adds an extra layer of security so that only those who have the password are able to open the document.

You can even password protect entire folders and networks if you want to and feel that this would be a useful protective measure that will safeguard your company data. When you are choosing a password, it must be something unique that cannot be guessed easily; never use phone numbers or birthdates or names. For the best password, you should use a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Although this will be harder to remember, it will also be harder to guess, so your information will be much safer.