4 Common Disasters Businesses Don’t Expect
Risk is inherent in every type of business. Yet, there are some obstacles that most companies may never foresee, which may interrupt their operations or grind them to a standstill.
Whilst it’s impossible to predict the issues you might encounter in the future, you can identify potential threats and their solutions.
- An Intellectual Property Lawsuit
It might feel like an intellectual property lawsuit has come out of the blue, especially if your brand didn’t know it was doing anything wrong. However, even if you never meant to plagiarise another organisation’s branding, product, or material, you could still face a lawsuit for intellectual property infringement.
Unfortunately, the lawsuit could cost your company a substantial amount of money in legal fees and compensation, which could damage your finances. Therefore, you must perform due diligence to ensure you do not replicate another company’s brand identity, patent or materials.
- A Fire
Every business is at risk of a fire, which can cause serious or irreparable damage to a building, its contents and assets.
Common causes of business fires include:
- Human error
- Arson
- Faulty equipment or electrics
- Combustible materials
- Waste
- Smoking on site
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to foresee many of the above risks. For this reason, you must invest in insurance to help your business financially recover from a fire.
Also, you must organise a fire damage cleaning service should the worst happen, to help your business resume its operations as soon as possible.
- A Natural Disaster
If you ask a business owner the greatest risk to their business, they will likely say emerging competition, cash flow issues or reputation damage. It is unlikely a natural disaster would be a primary concern, yet they can and do happen to companies of all sizes.
Here are some of the natural disasters that could affect your facilities, operations and cash flow:
- Floods
- Snowstorms
- An earthquake
- Extreme weather conditions
A natural disaster in another country might also have serious implications for your business. For example, flooding in another destination could damage the servers that host your company’s website. For this reason, you may need to store all data in an off-site location and invest in business interruption insurance to protect your finances.
- Fraud
Despite your best efforts to run an honest, transparent and ethical business, your business may still be susceptible to fraud. For example, an employee or contractor could mismanage your company’s finances or steal from your business in other ways. Plus, start-up companies are more at risk of misleading customer interactions, which could result in legal action taken against your business.
Every company will face various obstacles during its lifespan, which are often impossible to predict and prevent. However, you must familiarise yourself with the various potential risks and have plans to ensure a swift recovery. Despite not being able to foresee these bad events, you can prepare for them so that their effects are not as devastating. By researching the main disasters that can occur, you can find ways to help you manage them and keep your business operational.
