Protecting Your Assets: Essential Safeguards for Every Small Business

When running a small business, it is easy to overlook potential problem areas in terms of safeguarding assets, especially in this era of virtually uncontrolled online activity. If you think that the only security measure you need is a lock on the door, it’s time to think again. Even though your business may not be particularly high profile, you need to put measures in place that protect your building (and everything in it), your computer network, your finances, your employees, and of course, you. So here are just a few ways that you can begin to safeguard every aspect of your business.

1. Alarm. You might think that being in a relatively safe area rules out the need for an alarm in your store. But any time you have product and cash on the premises, you should have an alarm to protect them from theft. This is just common sense. Burglars will make short work of a lock or simply smash a window to get in, so if those are your only safeguards, you might arrive one morning to find everything of value missing. For high-end merchandise, a video surveillance system or even a security guard may be called for.

2. Armored truck service. For small businesses that handle cash, it pays to hire an armored truck service to pick up bank deposits and deliver withdrawals for daily use. The reason is that the service is both secure and guaranteed. While employees entering or leaving the store with cash may be vulnerable to mugging and attack, guards on armored trucks are armed and prepared for such dangers (not to mention they know what they’re signing up for). And if an armored truck does get robbed, your money is insured against theft (so that you don’t have to suffer a total loss).

3. Firewall. Any business that has sensitive data stored in their system should have a firewall in place to keep out prying eyes. It’s also a good idea if you’d rather not have hackers breaking into your computer system to steal, delete, corrupt, and generally wreak havoc (for no other reason than because they can). This is computer security 101.

4. Websense. This program (and others like it) will help you to protect your business from its employees. This may sound somewhat mistrustful, but considering that you’re the one who stands to lose if employees get paid for wasting time, you might want to consider it. What it does is block business computers (and potentially mobile devices) from accessing restricted websites (like Facebook and Twitter, for example). Of course, it does a lot more than that, as well (protecting email and providing network security, for example), but most business owners seek it out as a means of blocking social networking sites at work.

5. Asset labels. If you don’t know what an asset label is, you’re not alone. Probably you have seen one but just didn’t realize that’s what it was called. These small stickers often sport the company name, an ID number, and sometimes even a bar code, and they are attached to valuable equipment in the office to ensure that these assets are tracked (as in, you scan the bar code on the label or manually enter the number when you assign a piece of equipment to an employee). The system helps to keep employees honest and ensure that assets are appropriately allocated.

Carol Montrose is a writer for SeaReach a manufacturer of labels, tags, and security documents. In her spare time she likes to attend writing classes at CSUN, go hiking on the weekends, and help with an animal rescue out of Los Angeles, California.

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