Two places where you need risk management planning If you started your small business with an inheritance, great news! Congratulations. But most likely you have a board ofdirectors; initial investors whose focus is on the long term success of the company, on strategies for future growth andprotection of their investment. Part of their concern will be threats and risks to the present business. Here are twofinal topics that you, and they should be focussing on when making strategic risk management plans. Brand damage and reputational loss. If your company is the victim of a cyberattack, you will need to inform any customer whose data may have beencompromised. This will definitely not endear you to your clients. If word gets out, this can damage your ability toattract and convert new prospects into customers. This issue of brand damage could likely be the most severe, long-termrisk to the success of the business.Adding to this is the competitive disadvantage it places you in. Competing fi

Is your Board addressing these two issues? We’ve been talking about how your Board and shareholders have a vested interest in understanding and overseeing how yourcompany will defend itself against the effects of cybercrime. Here are two more areas where you will need to have plansand your board should be focussed on how they will be handled Data Loss Unless their goal is pure mischief, most cyber thieves are seeking data that can be monetized in some fashion. Customerdata is a rich trove of data, providing thieves with the information to steal identities or hack bank accounts andcredit cards. Only, they don’t just want your customers' data. Your business has its own proprietary and financialinformation. You have company credit cards and bank accounts. Legal Should you suffer a significant loss of customer data, you may be subject to legal regulations. At the very least, youare likely required to notify the victims and the state or legal entity that regulates data loss in your juri

Your Board and risk management For small business owners, it may seem your daily energy is caught up with just keeping the doors open and revenuescoming in. However, unless you were very fortunate when you started up, you have a board of directors; most likelyinitial investors whose focus is on the long term success of the company and on strategies for future growth. Part oftheir concern will be threats and risks to the present business. A particular concern may be the risks to the businessin the case of a cyber attack. Small businesses are just as vulnerable to cyber attacks as large companies. However,they are far less likely to have the resources to recover. In our next few blogs, we are going to look at what ways a small firm may be vulnerable to a cyber attack. Inparticular, we discuss the major areas of vulnerability your business faces.Specific topics include customer and companydata loss, legal implications, fines and regulatory penalties, brand damage, downtime and revenue los

Social media: it gets stale fast. Be careful. It is time to understand the importance of social media and your responsibility to maintain your presence on whateversites you select. Social media is ultimately special because of its interactive nature. Your clients and prospects canpost questions, observations, remarks (both good and bad). Because of this, it is important that you consistentlymonitor your page. If they ask questions, they want answers. If you had a storefront and a customer walked in, youwouldn't ignore them would you? Same for social media. Also, each question they ask is not only an opportunity to helpthem understand how your product or service meets their needs, it is an opportunity to understand features and optionsthat you presently may be overlooking. That can help expand and grow your business and open new target markets. And that takes us to the part about social media marketing that makes some people a little uneasy. It is not justquestions about features an

Why social media? We’ve been talking about social media as a good way to market if you're a small business. Facebook , in particular, canbe useful not just as a marketing tool, but as a platform that can serve as your website. If you don’t have a website,facebook offers a way to have a “faux” website. It can provide basic information about your goods and services, and itcan be easily updated. Unlike a website, it takes no web skills to change the content of your facebook page. So at thevery least, this is a pretty safe way to get into the shallower waters of social media.It is important to remember to update your facebook page. Leaving it to get stale doesn't send a good message. If youdon’t care enough to keep it up to date what does that say about how you run the rest of your business? Once you have set up a facebook page, you now have to think about social media as a marketing tool. It is a way tomarket your goods and services and it offers the opportunity to interact with p