Every business needs a risk management plan to identify any issues that could have a negative impact on trading, and put procedures in place to minimise the effect on your systems and processes.
The last 12 months alone have served as a hard lesson in expecting the unexpected.
If you don’t have a risk management strategy, even the most straightforward problem could prove catastrophic to your business. Never mind the impact of a global pandemic.
Here is a three-step plan to make sure your business is prepared for the worst.
Three steps to successful business risk management
1. Identify the risks
Each business has different risks, and it’s vital you identify the ones that are most likely to impact your particular business. Here are some of the most common risks, consider how each of the following would affect your business:
- Sudden closure – What if your business had to close suddenly due to fire, flood or any other unexpected event? How would you and your employees cope financially?
- Theft, loss or damage to equipment or stock – How quickly would you be able to get back to work if your business suffered theft, loss or damage to vital equipment or stock?
- Staff problems – Would your business be able to cope if staff suddenly became unavailable?
- Infrastructure problems – Would your business be impacted by building or road closures that could affect footfall?
- Operational risk – How effectively could you cope with operational problems? This could be anything from a power out to a loss of internet connectivity to server problems.
- Reputational risk – How badly would negative customer reviews affect your business? Do you have any plans or processes in place to limit the damage?
2. Carry out a full risk assessment
Once you’ve identified the main risks to your business, you need to assess which ones are most likely to occur and how much of an impact they’ll have on both the immediate day-to-day running of things as well as the long-term effects.
3. Evaluate and review the risks
Once you’ve worked out the major issues, you then need to evaluate how you would respond to each and whether you need to take out any additional insurance to cover against them.
Part of this response plan should also contain pre-emptive measures to lessen the likelihood of each risk, alongside a contingency plan in case the worst should ever happen.
With your plan in place, you should finally review the risks to make sure each has been covered so nothing can catch you by surprise.
How a conference call can help
Having a reliable conference call provider in place should form part of your risk management plan – if staff can’t make it into work, or your business premises is of bounds for any reason, you can reschedule important meetings via conference call, so business can carry on as normal.
It makes sense for whole business to use the same provider, so there’s no confusion about access.
ConferenceCall.co.uk is the UK’s simplest teleconference operator, with more international dialling codes than any other and capacity for up to 100 participants per call – big enough to meet the needs of any business, but small enough to care.
