by Sharon Jones
What is foresight? Foresight is the ability to predict things before they happen. Contrary to belief, this isn’t a magical skill. There are many experts on the market today who make a living by using this skill to help other business owners.
If you can foresee issues that could arise in your company, you can avoid them completely by putting the right measures in place. There are a number of problems that could crop up later that you can prepare for right now. Let’s look at some of the issues you can foresee and assess the best ways to handle them.
Tech Trouble
According to a recent report, at least a third of companies on the market today will at some point be exposed to a cyber attack. This could be an attempt to steal from your business or perhaps just a plot to take down your company. In most cases, it’s going to be a theft, and you might be surprised what the criminals are going to be trying to steal. Gone are the days when the technology was the most valuable aspect of your business. Today, it’s all about the data that you store on your customers and your clients. This is what criminals are going to be most interested in when they seek out your company. This is what you must prepare for.
How do you do this? Well, you do need to think about having a data backup. With a data backup, if your data is stolen or deleted, you can still make sure that you have full access to everything you need to run your business. This includes information on clients and the entire codex of setups for your systems, technology and software. If you have a great backup, you can avoid a tech malfunction or hack spelling disaster for your company.
Bad Reviews
Do you think that a service or product that you’re offering on the market is going to get bad reviews? If that’s the case, then you may want to consider avoiding the release completely. Or, at the very least fix the issue that will cause the negative reviews. Ultimately, this is all about quality control, and it’s an important aspect of keeping your business a success. While there are exceptions, typically speaking, a business that doesn’t provide on the promise of quality will not be successful.
This is particularly true in the new age of online interactions where one bad comment about your business will spread like wildfire online. It could burn your business down. This is also why you want to make sure that you are using a Google analytics service. With a service like this, you can make sure that you are keeping track of the chatter surrounding your company. You should be able to determine exactly what people think of your business before it starts to impact the level of sales that your company receives.
Financial Strife
A lot of issues can impact your business financially. Remember we mentioned a data backup? Well, a lot of companies will choose to use a backup service that is offsite. This means that your backup could be a continent away from your IT infrastructure. Why is this? Like any property, a business is always exposed to the danger of a natural disaster. This could be a flood, a fire or in some parts of the world, an earthquake. It’s not uncommon for a data centres in America to actually have earthquake protection. You need to think about the impact an issue like this will have on your business. Imagine the cost of the damage it could do to your business. Don’t just think regarding repairs. Your business will probably be knocked out of the market for a few weeks or even a couple of months. That could have a severe impact on your bottom line. This is why you need to make sure that you have the right business insurance in place to protect your company. With this type of coverage, you can make sure that if your business is hit by a natural disaster, it will remain in the green and not sink into the red.
Of course, a natural disaster isn’t the only problem that can hit your company hard financially. You also need to think about the possibility of a legal issue. Your business could be sued for a contractual dispute. Let’s say that you agreed to supply a certain amount of stock to another business. If you fail to do this at any point due to low supplies, you could be leaving yourself open to an expensive lawsuit. That’s why it’s best to make sure you are using a legal representative to help you handle any situation that could leave you liable. While this can be a costly addition to your business, it really is the only way to make sure that your business won’t be hit by an expensive legal claim.
Don’t forget, if the supply of your product is crucial to the successful sales of that business, you could find yourself paying for their lost profits.
Keeping Costs Low
Finally, you do need to think about costs in your company. At some point, you could end up in a price war. A price war is a nasty game on the market, and it can be used to push a weaker market out completely. It does happen. Basically, you’ll find that your competition drops their prices, forcing you to meet their low offers or lose a lot of your customer support. You will only be able to do this if your overall costs are low enough that you will be able to afford it.
There are various ways to cut the costs of your business. We suggest that you start by looking at how to be more green. You can introduce new tech into your business model that uses less energy and thus will save you a small fortune. Keeping your business lean will also help you prepare for the event that the economy takes a nasty turn.