As a small business owner, you probably work hard to keep your finances in check, but unexpected events can sabotage those efforts — and these events happen more often than you might think. An estimated 25 percent of businesses don’t reopen following a major disaster. Protect your finances with business income insurance.
Plan ahead and take action today – get business insurance and maximize your business’s chances of survival. Here is a five-step plan you can put in place now to protect your business against any potential loss of income in the future:
1. Evaluate Potential Threats
The first step to protect your business income from unexpected threats is to consider where potential threats may arise. Natural disasters, power failures, theft and vandalism are possibilities. Lawsuits and data breaches also pose a significant threat to businesses today.
Think carefully about the type of business you have, the location, your leadership team and the key factors critical to your business’ operations. Brick-and-mortar businesses will face some different threats than online businesses, for example. Some things to consider:
- Do customers visit your physical location?
- Is your home, office or store in an area that is exposed to unfavorable weather conditions, prone to floods or at greater risk of crime?
- Where do you keep your inventory?
- Do you employ staff?
- Do employees work on-site or virtually?
- What might prevent employees from showing up to work?
- Who are your suppliers and what kind of threats might they be exposed to?
- Do you rely on large data servers?
- Where do you keep customer information?
- How do you process payments and account receivables?
These are all important questions to ask as you examine what might halt your business operations and result in a loss of income.