Best Business Practices

The reach of social media goes beyond sharing family photos. Shoppers are reading product reviews online before deciding what to purchase. And disgruntled customers are sharing their displeasure with anyone who will read their rants.

A New Risk

The benefit of social media to small businesses is considerable. It has leveled the playing field in many ways. But it has also introduced new risks. One of the most critical is that bad reviews or negative comments could ruin your business’s reputation — or worse.

A Proactive Approach

How can you protect your business from online attacks? Here are some suggestions:

Join the conversation. If you’ve been visible on social media, you’ll have more credibility if something erupts. But that’s not the only reason to have a social media presence. Even if your business is never involved in an online dustup, social media offers an opportunity to market and promote your business and engage with your customers. Smartphones and tablets have made it even easier for people to go online.

Pay attention. Monitor the Internet for news about your brand. Routinely check online review sites (if appropriate) and social networking sites for references to your company, and run your company’s name through a search engine.

Be prepared. You can’t draft specific responses ahead of time, but you can identify your vulnerabilities and draft a response strategy. You’ll be well ahead of the game if you do this before a crisis hits rather than during one. You’ll also be able to dial down your emotions and respond more objectively. There’s another upside to identifying your vulnerabilities ahead of time: You have an opportunity to eliminate them.

Respond. Make sure you have the facts straight before you do anything. However, things can escalate rapidly online. So if you’re going to respond, do so quickly and publicly. That said, not every attack warrants a public response. The complaint may not be legitimate or the person complaining may be a troublemaker, in which case responding may be a waste of time.

Half Full

Any time your business is under attack — online or off — try looking at it as an opportunity to change some minds and bolster your reputation.

 

Our Northbrook, IL tax and accounting firm provides accounting services and bookkeeping for all types of small businesses. Call us at 847-982-1040 now and tell us about your business or request a free consultation online.

What if disaster strikes your business? An estimated 25% of businesses don’t reopen after a major disaster strikes.¹ Having a business continuity plan can help improve your odds of recovering.

The Basic Plan

The strategy behind a business continuity (or disaster recovery) plan is straightforward: Identify the various risks that could disrupt your business, look at how each operation could be affected, and identify appropriate recovery actions.

Make sure you have a list of employees ready with phone numbers, email addresses, and emergency family contacts for communication purposes. If any of your employees can work from home, include that information in your personnel list. You’ll need a similar list of customers, suppliers, and other vendors. Social networking tools may be especially helpful for keeping in touch during and after a disaster.

Risk Protection

Having the proper insurance is key to protecting your business — at all times. In addition to property and casualty insurance, most small businesses carry disability, key-person life insurance, and business interruption insurance. And make sure your buy-sell agreement is up to date, including the life insurance policies that fund it. Meet with your financial professional for a complete review.

Maintaining Operations

If your building has to be evacuated, you’ll need an alternative site. Talk with other business owners in your vicinity about locating and equipping a facility that can be shared in case of an emergency. You may be able to limit physical damage by taking some preemptive steps (e.g., having a generator and a pump on hand).

Protecting Data

A disaster could damage or destroy your computer equipment and wipe out your data, so take precautions. Invest in surge protectors and arrange for secure storage by transmitting data to a remote server or backing up daily to storage media that can be kept off site.

Protecting Your Business

If you think your business is too small to need a plan or that it will take too long to create one, just think about how much you stand to lose by not having one. Meet with your financial professional for a full review.

Our Northbrook, IL tax and accounting firm provides accounting services and bookkeeping for all types of small businesses. Call us at 847-982-1040 now and tell us about your business or request a free consultation online.

Source/Disclaimer:

¹Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, www.sba.gov/content/disaster-planning.

 

Your manager breaks her leg playing softball and will be out for a month. Or your receptionist’s husband lands his dream job, but it’s out of state so they’ll be moving. When you own a small business, learning to expect the unexpected comes with the territory. Yet, you don’t have to stand idly by and wait for something to disrupt your finances and send you down a path of trouble. Consider being proactive with these troubleshooting tips.

Watch Your Numbers

You can monitor your company’s financial health, spot developing problems, and improve performance by reviewing key ratios derived from the numbers on your financial statements. Taken together, these ratios help paint a picture of your company’s financial well-being.

At times, you might dwell on problems in one particular aspect of your business. But don’t ignore the rest. If you’re not seeing the big picture, you might not spot trouble in other areas. For example, if your profit margin is falling, you could become so focused on trying to find a solution that you fail to notice that several of your biggest customers haven’t sent a payment lately and a cash flow problem is brewing.

Watch Your Assets

Always try to make the most of your assets. If you carry inventory, keep your eye on turnover rates. Slow inventory turnover can strain your cash flow. Figure out how many days’ worth of product you’d ideally like to have on hand, and adapt your purchasing to meet that goal. Also, check your fixed assets. If you have equipment that’s not being fully utilized, you may be able to repurpose it. If not, it may be time to sell or donate it.

Watch Your Debt

It’s practically impossible to operate a business without taking on at least some debt. Debt itself isn’t a problem, as long as you keep it under control. A high level of debt can eat up your cash, cut into your profits, and reduce the return you’re getting on your investment in the company — and that’s definitely trouble.

Our Northbrook, IL tax and accounting firm provides accounting services and bookkeeping for all types of small businesses. Call us at 847-982-1040 now and tell us about your business or request a free consultation online.

For businesses that haven’t traditionally embraced remote employees, it may be difficult to get up to full speed with the current turn of events.  To make the inevitable transition less overwhelming, we assembled a handy checklist of actions to consider while adjusting to the new workplace reality.

Organization

• Access your staff members and/or roles that are able to work remotely, those that can’t work remotely, and those where remote work may be possible with some modifications.
• Conduct an employee survey to determine the availability of computers that can be used for working remotely, as well as availability to high-speed internet access.
• Create company guidelines covering remote employees, including inappropriate use of company assets and security guidelines.
• Develop and conduct work-at-home- training for using remote access, remote tools, and best practices.
• Select a video-conferencing platform for services, such as Zoom, Cisco WebEx, or Go To Meeting.
• Develop a communications plan to involve remote employees in the daily activities of the organization.

 Security

• Create and implement a company security policy that applies to remote employees, including actions such as locking computers when not in use.
• Implement two-factor authentication for highly-sensitive portals.
• If needed, confirm all remote employees have access to and can use a business-grade VPN, and that you have enough licenses for all employees working remotely.

Staff

• Institute a transparency policy with your staff and communicate frequently.
• Check in on your staff, daily if possible, to confirm they are comfortable with working from home. Find and address any problems they may be experiencing.
• Make certain each staff member has reliable voice communications, even if this results in adding a business-quality voice over IP service.
• Don’t attempt to micro-manage your staff. Remember their working conditions at home won’t be ideal, and they will need to work out their own work patterns and schedules.
• Create a phone number and email address where staff members can communicate their concerns about the firm, working at home, or even the status of COVID-19.

Infrastructure

• Ensure that you have ample bandwidth coming in to your company to handle all of the new remote traffic.
• Make sure you have backups of your services so your staff is able to keep working in the event extra traffic causes your primary service to go down.

You may need to adjust or expand this list to match the specific needs of your firm and the conditions affecting your organization.  Use this list to get you started and to help guide you through the process.

You can count on us to count for you! Call Robert H. Lewin, Ltd now at 847-982-1040 to learn more about our accounting and bookkeeping services for small businesses. You can also request a request a free consultation online.