For the next few months/years as a small business owner, you’re bound to face a lot of challenges. From staying relevant in the industry to fighting legal battles, the odds seem to be stacked against you. Most of the time, you’ll be limited on resources. Due to this, it's critical to find creative ways to protect the future of your small business.
However, history has proven time and time again that small businesses can succeed when starting with a shoestring budget. It takes a lot of careful planning and anticipating what will be thrown your way in the future.
We can’t plan for everything, so it’s important that we take matters in our own hands when it comes to the things we can control. In this article, we’ll take a look at three things you can do to protect your business’s future as much as you can.
Getting the right kind of protection can be the difference between ensuring your business succeeds and drying up your own personal savings to keep it alive.
There are multiple policies out there to protect your business from various threats. They can even benefit you with tax savings to an extent. For example, if you are self-employed, you may be able to deduct health insurance premiums.
Generally, small to mid-sized businesses should have a business owner’s policy (BOP). This policy bundles up the major insurance policies most businesses need into one that’s easy to understand. These include:
Here’s a breakdown of what they cover:
Coverage that protects you from claims from normal business operations such as property damage and bodily injury.
Covers any lost business income as a result of your business shutting down due to a covered disaster such as fire and theft.
Whether you own or rent your business’s property, this policy covers the repair or replacement costs of insured items such as inventory, personal property, and computers within the property due to damages.
In addition to the above, life insurance and keyman insurance should also be considered for company directors and owners alike. This can help protect your company and importantly, your family, in the case of an accident or tragedy that prevents you from running the business. Visit PolicyScout to compare the best life insurance plans for your needs.
Many small businesses start as a sole proprietorship. However, depending on the direction of your business, you may want to consider incorporating your business into a limited liability company (LLC) soon.
The biggest advantage of this is that the business owners can separate and protect their personal assets, in any event, the business falls under due to legal judgments and debts. To add to the cake, in the event of any of the owner’s passing or management changes, the business will continue to exist.
But one advantage that’s not talked about is that have an “LLC” or “Inc.” at the end of your business name shows your authority in the industry. You will be deemed more trustworthy amongst customers and other businesses and be given a competitive edge.
Even if you own a brick and mortar store, it pays to work on your online presence. This can be as simple as creating a social media account and running targeted ads to the local community. You can also invest in complex SEO strategies to make sure you rank well in Google.
Whatever the case may be, you’re losing out if you can’t be seen online. The global e-commerce scene has boomed and will continue to grow in the years to come. It's simply critical that you look at ways to protect the future of your small business. According to Statista, 53.9% of all e-commerce sales will come from mobile devices by 2021. There’s a powerful quote by Max McKeown that goes “all failure is failure to adapt, all success is successful adaptation.”
