A relatively short time ago, cybercrime wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t even a word. Yet as technology has increased and we have become ever more reliant on the internet to run our daily lives and, of course, our businesses, cybercrime, cyberattacks, and hackers, are now something we have to protect ourselves and others from on a daily basis.
If a cybercriminal were able to infiltrate your business, they could do untold damage financially and to the company’s structure itself. Whether they hack your network for monetary gain or just to cause havoc, the result would be the same; your business would be hurt; possibly mortally so. This is why it is absolutely crucial to do everything you can to prevent this from happening. Here are some ways it can be done.
Use The Cloud
The cloud is a virtual storage space for important documents and sensitive information. It is exceptionally secure, much more so than a laptop or mobile device could ever be, and this means it is the ideal place to keep your most valuable data such as your customers’ payment details, their names and addresses, and your business banking information.
If you can store everything on the cloud, your business will be as secure as possible. Only those with passwords should be able to access your cloud account. Since the data is encrypted, even if someone did manage to get in, they wouldn’t be able to retrieve the information, rendering it entirely useless.
Strong Passwords
Regarding passwords, you will need to have a different password for every log in you have. This might be an irritation because you’ll have to remember several different passwords, but it’s much better than having just one password which, if it were to be compromised, would mean that absolutely everything you log into online would be at risk too. This would include your business information and even your personal financial information.
When you are creating passwords, they must be strong so that no one can guess them or hack them. To create a strong password, you will need a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols, and you should use upper and lower case. Make it a rule to change your passwords every six months or after ten logins to ensure they stay safe and secure.
Encryption
Data encryption is another way to prevent any cyberattacks from being successful. When data is encrypted, it becomes impossible to read and is useless to anyone unless they have the encryption key. Since a cybercriminal wouldn’t have this, even if your laptop or mobile device were stolen, or if you lost a USB stick with all this data on it, no one else would be able to see it.
Encryption is one of the most critical elements of online security, but it can often be overlooked. Implementing it within your business gives you and your clients an additional layer of protection that really can make all the difference.
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There are some people that just seem to be drawn to entrepreneurial life. There’s just something inside of them that makes starting and running a business a highly attractive proposition. But of course, just because you may be drawn that way, that doesn’t necessarily mean that things will be easy. In fact, they’re certain to be anything but easy! Business, after all, is far from a walk in the park. There are things you can do that’ll allow you to make the most of your talents, however. In this blog, we’ll take a look at some useful tips that’ll lead to just that.
Follow the Passion
You’ll find that everything connected to running your business is much more straightforward if you’re doing something that you inherently enjoy. Though it can be tempting to start a business that you might think will make money flow your way, it’ll be better to select something that’s related to an interest of yours. For starters, this will probably cut down on the amount of time you have to research your industry, since you’ll already know a lot. It’ll also give you that extra motivation, and help when the going gets tough, as it surely will at some stage.
An Inch of Courage
We tend to look at successful entrepreneurs and just assume that they had the skills and talents to get to where they got to. They were always destined to reach the top, is what we think. But actually, this isn’t the case. Though it’s often overlooked, one of the key factors that unite all successful entrepreneurs — actually all successful people — is that they had the courage to make it happen. Unless you’re born to wealthy parents, nothing is given to you on a plate: you have to earn it. And in order to step up and make things happen, you’ll need to have some courage. You don’t need to have it in spades, but at least a little bit!
Find Your Rhythm
Even if you think you’re ready to start your own company after a period of being a regular employee, it’ll still take some time to adjust to the new way of doing things. You’ll have had your established rhythms at your workspace when you worked for a company. Now that you’re on your own, those rhythms will have disappeared — and it’ll be up to you to make your own, new ones. It’s important that you conduct a bit of self-analysis and figure out when and how you work best. It could be that you prefer to be in a busy working environment, or that you prefer to work in silence. Once you’ve figured out which is your preferred method, you’ll find that you’re able to make more progress than if you were trying to work in ways that feel uncomfortable.
Start the Day Well
It won’t be long before you realize that working as an entrepreneur is not the same as working as a regular employee. You’ll have to work harder and for longer when you’re running your own company. As such, it’s important that you take time to ensure that your energy levels and capabilities are at the highest level that they can be. While there are many different ways to do this, one of the best and most simple to enact is to start the day right. You’ll find that you’re able to make much more progress if you have a morning routine that pushes you towards delivering your best work. This all begins with, of course, getting a good night’s sleep. You should try to wake up well in advance of when you need to leave your house, and try to get some exercise in. A short run, cold shower, and nutritious and energetic breakfast will set you up for a great day at the office.
Trust Other People
One of the myths of entrepreneurial life is that people do things on their own. This is virtually never true. Every successful business owner has had to make the most of other people’s help. As such, one of the best things you can do for your business is to learn how to trust other people (that is if you’ve previously had issues with this). This is especially relevant when it comes to hiring your first employees. If all you want to do is micromanage them, then you’ll be doing your business a disservice. It’s much better to hire well and then trust that your members of staff will deliver top of the line work for your company.
Open to Criticism
You’re going to know a lot. You’re going to have successes. But you’ll also make mistakes and take missteps. This in itself isn’t a major issue; every company in the world gets things wrong from time to time. What counts is whether you’re willing to accept that you’ve made a mistake, and take criticism from other people. There are many business owners out there that have pretty thin-skin. They take everything personally! But this will only cause trouble at some point or another (wouldn’t Tesla be better if Elon Musk could just let things go?). Instead, accept that you don’t know everything, and be humble enough to know that sometimes, other people will know better. It’s an approach that’ll take you far in life.
Lighten Your Load
Even if you hire employees to help you, you’ll still have a lot of responsibilities on your plate. But do they all need to be on your plate? Probably not. Not only would it be better to outsource the tasks to other people because it’ll free up your time to work on other tasks, by handing the job over to experts, but you’ll also ultimately strengthen your company. They’ll be able to do a better job than you could, after all. There are some jobs where it just makes sense to hand over to someone else. A company like CalTech Web can take care of your web design, so you don’t have to. Other tasks to outsource include your payroll, marketing, and legal matters. Once these time consuming and complicated tasks are off your plate, you’ll find that you have much more time to work on the jobs that help push your business forward.
Strengths and Weaknesses
As we mentioned earlier: you’re going to have a degree of confidence that you can run a business if you decide to become an entrepreneur. It would be weird if you didn’t! But it’s not as if you’re going to know everything, or even close to it. There are some jobs where it’ll be better to bow to superior knowledge. The difficult part is knowing which is which. In the early days of your entrepreneurial career, it’s recommended that you conduct an analysis of your strengths and weaknesses. This will highlight the areas that you should be in charge of, what others should do, and where you need to improve. And talking of which….
Continue to Improve
You’re not the finished article when you become an entrepreneur. Actually, you’re really just getting started along your journey. Though you’re the boss, don’t forget that there will still be areas in which you improve. And so make sure that you are. Whatever weaknesses you have, you’ll find that there are courses and other materials available that can help you to improve that aspect of your professional life. Think of it this way: it was your open-mind and willingness to learn that got you into a position where you could start a business in the first place. Don’t turn your back on that tactic just because you’ve technically started a business.
Find a Mentor
You’re at the beginning of your new career as an entrepreneur. While you’ll learn a lot on the job, there’s no denying that it would be pretty useful to have some of the lessons under your belt at the beginning. For that, it’s recommended that you find a mentor. This will be an older person who has been there, done that — and who will thus have plenty of wisdom to share with you. They won’t necessarily help you with the running of your company (though they might), but rather offer general advice about how you can achieve success, the habits you need to have, things like that. If you can’t think of anyone who would be your mentor, then you could consider reading the books and podcasts of successful people. There’s always a lot to learn in those!
Conclusion
As we said at the beginning of the article, running a company will never be easy. Even when things are going well, there’ll be challenges on the horizon that you’ll need to overcome. But it’s not as if you need to just go along for the ride. There are things you can do that’ll help you to make the most of your inherent talents. Take the tips that we’ve outlined above, and you’ll find that you’re in a pretty strong position to achieve great things with your company.
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Due to COVID and widespread job loss, many people have decided to become entrepreneurs and start their own business. It’s a great idea to go to work for yourself and build your own dream, but unfortunately, many of these people don’t know what they are getting into and quickly find themselves stressed out, depressed and overwhelmed.
What if it didn’t have to be this way? How can these new entrepreneurs build their new businesses while staying mentally healthy? It is very doable if done right.
Hedge the downsides
You’ve probably heard the hype: Entrepreneurship equals freedom. Starting a business is the fastest way to build wealth. Build the life of your dreams. Unfortunately, it’s the biggest lie out there. The truth is that all of these things can happen, but it’s not so easy. You need to have realistic expectations otherwise you’re going to be quickly disappointed, stressed and depressed when you realize how much work is really involved to run a successful business.
Care enough for people not to fail
If failure tends to get the best of you, you might want to avoid entrepreneurship because it is filled with failure in the traditional sense. In fact, you could say the most successful entrepreneurs are really just professional failures who keep trying. But ultimately, you can relieve any stress, anxiety and depression around failure by caring so much for people that in essence, you never fail. If you show people that you genuinely care and go to bat for them all the time, you’ll never be a failure.
Be adaptable
If you don’t adapt to change well, you might want to avoid entrepreneurship. In business, things are constantly changing. For people who like the same routine day in and day out, your emotions might start to get the best of you when you realize that running a business is filled with new and different challenges every day. Learn to accept change and don’t let it get the best of you.
Find a healthy outlet
Unfortunately, when it comes to depression, anxiety and other negative emotions, many entrepreneurs feel as if they need to appear strong and in control. As a result, they hold it all in and this makes it worse, leads to drug and alcohol abuse, and in severe cases even suicide. The sooner you can address your mental health, the better the outcome.
Focus on your health
All the success in business is meaningless if you’re not healthy enough to enjoy it. Entrepreneurship is hard work and will take a toll on your mind and body. Make your health a priority and eat a healthy diet, get plenty of exercise, get enough quality sleep, find time to relax, drink plenty of water and don’t overextend yourself.
Have a big solution
Deciding to become an entrepreneur is commendable, but you need to have real solutions for people otherwise everything is going to go astray. After all, business is all about soling people’s problems. The more problems you solve for them, the more money you make. After that, you can put your mental health at ease by answering some very important questions: How are you going to get clients? Do you need to hire employees? How will you handle cash flow and bookkeeping? Are you willing to wear multiple hats and work the long hours to build the business? Start with a solution to people’s problems, then follow up with a solid business plan.
The takeaway
Starting a business is definitely a great idea in these times when so many people are out of work and simply trying to make ends meet. It can yield great wealth, immense satisfaction and a totally different lifestyle for you and your family. Just make sure you know what you are getting into and that it’s not as easy as some people portray it to be. Entrepreneurs, in particular, need to take precautions to protect their mental health and take care of themselves.
About the Author
Dr. Alok Trivedi is a health, human behavior and national stress reduction expert. He is founder of The Aligned Performance Institute and author of the book ‘Chasing Success.’ https://aloktrivedi.com/
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Yes, winter is going to threaten every business regardless of whether or not there is a pandemic. It’s always been like this and may always be like this. Winter presents unique challenges that businesses have to prepare for every year. Not only is there a lot of snow and ice to contend with, but you have to deal with colder operating temperatures, less daylight time, more morale-boosting ideas to think of, and trying to beat your competitors during the seasonal rush. Not to mention, the challenge of meeting export and import needs too. But, winter woes won’t get your business down if you do these things.
Get shoveling, or not
Commercial snow removal is very popular for businesses and if you are interested in this, then we recommend you read this. Not only do they use professional heavy-duty equipment, but that will also mean that snow is carefully removed and safely taken away. But it also means that if you have a complex area such as a car park, you won’t be in any danger of doing unwarranted damage to your foliage, lighting, wiring, machines or curbs. And of course, you lessen your liability to injuries. Employees that have an unsafe car park or exterior to the business could slip, fall and get seriously injured. Not only will they need to get sick pay but they could sue you. So commercial removal is quick, easy and very effective when you have suffered a heavy snowfall.
Protect logistics chains
The number one challenge of winter is the travel. The highways and train lines are covered in snow and ice, making them a hazard. It draws logistics to a crawl and can harm your bottom line because you’re not getting supplies and inventory when you need it. So prepare beforehand and ready your logistical chains. But how?
Increase your fleet number temporarily. If you have a fleet of delivery trucks, you should seek to increase the number by 10-20%. So if you have 20 trucks, increase the number to 22 or 24. If one or two trucks break down, another is involved in an accident, another gets trapped, you at least have a technically, full strength fleet.
Export markets need some love too. Just because it’s slow and challenging in your local or national marketplace, doesn’t mean it’s the same on the other side of the world. You should seek to increase your export customers during this time, as you try to compete with your rivals.
Hire more. If you cannot handle your logistical challenges, hire those that can. Hire more drivers, more warehouse managers and employees to make sure you can meet the higher demand and keep things ticking over.
Keep morale high
Make sure the ambient room temperature is nice and toasty in the office. Keeping morale high with surprise hot meals for lunches, extra time for completing projects and providing mental health care for the holiday season, is so crucial.
It’s easy for businesses to suffer from winter woes as they battle the weather and the seasonal rush. But these things will keep your employees happy, your business open at all times and ahead of the competition.
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Make sure you do as much as possible to focus on this right now, and there are a lot of elements that play a part in this moving forward. Think about what it takes to move things to the next level as a business owner. You have to focus on the best ways of being able to do this right now, and it is important that you do what you can to take things forward in the right way.
Come up with ideas that you can use to help improve things as much as possible moving forward. You need to try to make the business a success as much as possible, and this is something that you need to make the most of moving forward.
Study the Market
Make sure you focus on studying the market and how it affects your business. There is so much information you can learn about the industry you are in that can help to inform your business decisions. Whether you run a business in the baby food industry, automotive industry, or recruitment industry, you need to make the right decisions at the right times in order to be a success as much as possible. Making sure you study and understand the market is one of the most important things that you need to do if you are going to be able to work on being successful right now.
Beat the Competition
Beating out the competition and getting ahead of your rivals is one of the best things you can do to ensure the success of the business. This is a massive factor when you are trying to achieve success because there is so much competition, and a whole host of other businesses and business owners vying for market share. You need to learn their strengths and weaknesses (as well as your own), and use this knowledge to get ahead of them.
Customer Service
Make sure you do as much as possible to improve your process and help you when it comes to improving your business. You need to present a company that people are happy to be a part of, and this means you need to treat your customers well and think about what they need and want from your business. Develop a mobile app that allows people to stay in touch with your business at all times, even when they are on the move. Make sure you prioritise customer service and do as much as possible to make the right decisions as a company right now.
As you can see, there are a lot of things you need to consider when it comes to improving your business and achieving the right levels of success. This is something that can play a massive part in the role of taking things forward, and you have to make sure you come up with the best ways of doing this. Try to work on doing as much as possible to factor this in and focus on taking things to the next level right now. It is important that you look at how you can keep up with this as much as possible moving forward.
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A relatively short time ago, cybercrime wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t even a word. Yet as technology has increased and we have become ever more reliant on the internet to run our daily lives and, of course, our businesses, cybercrime, cyberattacks, and hackers, are now something we have to protect ourselves and others from on a daily basis.
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