Ways To Protect Your Intellectual Property

/in /by

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Protect your Intellectual Property|Ways To Protect Your Intellectual PropertyProtecting your intellectual property can be harder now more than ever, especially since the avid use of the internet. Intellectual property includes anything from your original ideas, designs, discoveries, inventions and creative work produced by you or a group of people with you in it. Protecting those kinds of things are crucial to the success of your business because it allows you to confidently share your intellectual property without the fear that it will be copied or stolen. Here are some tips you to protect your intellectual property, whether you want to implement a consulting firm like GHB intellect or you want to do it yourself.

Avoid Filing Patents

Patents may seem like the smart idea, but you could actually be setting yourself up. Your patent gives a step-by-step breakdown of how your product or service can be created. When you file something like that, it is published for the public to see. All they need to do is some research. Someone can easily create a homogeneous product with some really clever ways to ensure they are not violating your intellectual property rights.

Register Your Copyrights And Trade

Copyrights are extremely important as they apply to the protection of tangible and intangible creative works. It is something that you own instantaneously. As soon as you create something, no matter what it is, you own the copyright even if you do not register it. Registering your copyright is highly recommended because it will be easier to prove that you own that creative work in court. Keep in mind that copyrights expire 70 years after the death of its creator, but it ultimately depends on the nature of the intellectual property.

Trademarks are slightly different than copyrights. These are things like symbols, designs, logos, catchphrases. Trademarks are typically used in marketing strategies and identifying a brand. These have to be protected at all costs because those are the first things your customers connect with. Be sure to register your trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, though it is recommended that you hire a trademark lawyer. You want to make sure nothing slips through the cracks when it comes to the paperwork. Unlike copyrights, trademarks do not have expiration dates. You own the rights to your logos, symbols and other branding identities in perpetuity.

Implement A Confidentiality, Non-Disclosure or Licensing Contracts

There is nothing wrong with asking employees to sign a confidentiality, non-disclosure or licensing contract as these are imperative to making sure your business does not fall prey to leaking intellectual property. Keep in mind confidentiality agreements have to be prepared by lawyers. They bound your employees to comply with your demand to keep intellectual property private. On the other hand, licensing agreements allow for third-party partners to use your products for branding and distribution.

These few tips will put you in the right direction to protecting your creative intellectual property. Following these tips will reduce your chances of having your IP stolen.

Why Workplace Security is More Important Than Ever

/in /by

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Workplace Security|Why Workplace Security is More Important Than EverRegardless of whether you run a small start-up business or a huge company, you must understand the importance of workplace security. Having a comprehensive security policy will not only protect you and your staff, but it will also protect your equipment, products and sensitive data. By knowing which aspects of your business are at risk, and the security options available to you, you can establish a solid security policy to keep you protected.

Why does your workplace need security?

You may not even realize all the ways that your business is at risk, or what you have that someone might want to compromise. Here are some of the reasons that your workplace needs security.

1. Physical assets and valuables

If you base your business in an office, then chances are that you have expensive equipment on site. Even your home office will likely house valuable items that you’d rather not lose. You may also have physical records that contain sensitive client and business information that you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands. Protection from theft is important externally, but also internally. Staff are just as capable of robbery as an outsider, so you need proper measures in place to protect yourself.

2. Cybersecurity

Beyond physical theft, you also need to protect yourself from a data breach or cybercrime. Your business likely stores a lot of sensitive data on computers and cloud-based software. Information includes business credit card and bank details and a bank of client and staff records. A data breach can have devastating consequences for a business, so the more protection you have, the better.

3. How can you make your workplace secure?

As technology continues to advance, there are new and effective security software and equipment that can protect your business. Here are some of the best investments you can make to protect you, your staff, and your data.

4. Access control

First and foremost, you need to implement access control into your workplace. Access control will allow you to monitor who comes in and out of your office and keep out people who should not be there. Remsdaq offers a ton of different Remsdaq access control options from keycard access to coded access and even biometric access. Implementing access control will be the best line of defence for protecting anything within your workplace.

5. Data protection

Your office may have physical protection with access control, but it’s also essential to protect your documents and data. Invest in a quality data protection system with secure access to documents and files. Ensure that only the necessary staff members receive access to the relevant documentation, and everything is password protected. Data protection will help prevent cybercriminals from hacking into your system and destroying your data.

6. End of day procedures

Create solid end-of-day practices which all your staff need to follow to ensure everything is secure overnight. Make sure that each staff member logs out of all windows in their workspace and shuts down their computer. Whoever is the last person on site should be in charge of setting the appropriate alarms when they exit the office. It’s a good idea to assign two people to this task to double-check that it is properly done.

The Most Dangerous Things for Businesses

/in /by

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | The Most Dangerous Things for Businesses | Business RiskIf you are in control of a business, no matter how large or how small it is, you likely have problems that keep you up at night. There will always be inherent risks to any business-owner, which typically runs proportionally to rewards; everybody knows that entrepreneurs take big risks by not being employees, but they do so because they anticipate a payoff. In business, you should be looking for ways to minimize inherent risk at every opportunity. Here are some of the most dangerous things for businesses.

Non-Paying Customers

The world of commerce is relatively simple: a customer buys a product by giving you money and leaves with a product in a simple exchange. Unfortunately, this is not how most business operates. Many business transactions involve large sums of money, and as a result, customers become more likely to complete a transaction over several payments instead of one lump sum.

Not everybody pays on time, however, and this isn’t an unusual encounter in the business world. However, problems arise when non-paying customers build up or when customers try to avoid paying altogether, as Donald Trump’s power asymmetry negotiation style is famous for. This can have a major impact on cash flow, which can decimate most businesses. When activist investors take over a company, one of the first things they do is call in any remaining debts to the company with the help of a good legal team.

Fires

A wise man once said that the rich should fear two things: gambling and fire. Fire has the potential to destroy any business, even one which isn’t physical — a fire in a server room can wipe out an entire online enterprise if the servers do not have backups. A glance at a list of businesses that were destroyed during a town’s fire in Tennessee in 2016 would send shivers down a small-business owner’s spine. Fires are impossible to completely prevent, but with regular fire protection inspections and, of course, good preventative measures like working carbon monoxide detectors can mitigate the risk massively.

Legal Action

A lawsuit can be an exceptionally damaging thing for a company to deal with, especially if the business is small. In America, lawsuits have become a very common part of dealing with competition, especially when a larger company is fending off a smaller competitor. In these business skirmishes, whoever is willing to spend the most money can often bankrupt their competitor, causing many small companies to pay special warning to cease and desists from larger businesses.

Legal action can also be completely justified if you have, through negligence, committed a fault that can put an employee or customer in harm’s way. This is especially dangerous for companies that do not have a good vetting process for their managerial employees, as a bad mistake from a managerial representative of a small business could cause a lawsuit that could bankrupt the business completely.

Preventative measures hence become incredibly important. They ensure that all employees and business operations adhere strictly to legal guidelines; also, health and safety procedures can be the difference between a healthy, long-lasting business and a business with good prospects that made a mistake and went bust.

5 Key Fire Safety Measures for Small Businesses

/in /by

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | 5 Key Fire Safety Measures for Small BusinessesIf you’re a fledgling business owner or are in the early stages of setting up premises for a new venture, one aspect you are likely not thinking about a lot is fire safety. Starting a new business requires a hefty amount of thought and planning, but most of that will be focused on acquiring customers, financial planning, marketing strategies, overheads, and so on.

Once you’re up and running, ensuring that the bricks and mortar of your small business are physically and financially protected from fire is essential. Below are five safety measures to implement as a small business.

Identify Fire Hazards

The importance of a fire risk assessment cannot be underestimated. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), there are roughly 37,000 fires on manufacturing and industrial properties every year in the US, resulting in nearly $1 billion in damages. The first place to start when conducting a risk assessment is to evaluate any fire hazards around the facility, such as electrical hazards or combustible and flammable materials. It is also a good idea to review all areas of the office and consider how fires may start because of surrounding materials.

Identify People at Risk

Once you’ve identified potentially hazardous areas or materials, you will also need to evaluate any people who are more at risk during a fire. For example, do you employ anyone who may be visually or physically impaired? Or do you have people whose roles put them at additional risk to fire than others? Identifying these people means you’re able to put secure plans in place should a fire strike.

Invest in Fire Protection Services and Products

It goes without saying that installing the necessary fire protection products around the office is a necessity. Items such as fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, alarms, emergency lighting, and the like will all need to be evaluated and installed. If you are unsure about how to go about this, try consulting experts at a fire protection services company like APFE.

Plan and Practice a Fire Exit Strategy

Every business or office should have a sound fire exit strategy and this should be practiced regularly. All employees need to be aware of the main exit points and what is expected in the event of an alarm. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) require all companies to have evacuation maps and visual communication so that staff can quickly refer to guidance if needed. Facilities are also required to have two exit points and paths that are clearly identified.

Train Staff in Fire Awareness and Safety

Creating a fire safety plan for your business is not enough. You will need to train your employees so that they clearly understand the risks of a fire, how they can prevent fires, and what they need to do during an emergency. As fire safety training is a legal requirement, there are various fire safety eLearning modules that your staff can complete online at any time.

The risk of fires is a very real and serious matter to consider when setting up and running a business. To ensure that you and your staff are safe, refer to the above tips and take the necessary precautions. Otherwise, the danger to life and financial consequences for your business could be huge.

Creating a Personal Protective Equipment Strategy for Your Business

/in /by

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Personal Protective Equipment|Creating a Personal Protective Equipment Strategy for Your BusinessEvery business should have a personal protective equipment strategy in place whether staff sit at a computer or handle toxic chemicals. In light of recent events, this strategy is ever-more important, and there will be a range of extra things to consider protecting your workforce.

Adapting and updating your PPE and broader health and safety processes can be challenging, depending on your industry. However, there are some key considerations that every strategy should have, and these are detailed below:

Carry out a risk assessment

Before you start to plan the strategy for your business, a risk assessment needs to be conducted. This assessment will look at every aspect of the company operations and identify hazards to the workforce. This initial look into the areas that require PPE will examine how people require safety equipment and how much you need to carry out everyday tasks safely. The added requirements for the recent pandemic also mean that extra elements need to be considered, such as face coverings and screening.

Adequate training

A crucial part of the PPE strategy is training. Your company may have all the right equipment, but if people do not know how to use it, it is counterproductive. Everyone needs adequate training on what they use and how to use it. It is also crucial to impart knowledge of your employees on how to identify risk and carefully equip themselves to avoid danger in the workplace.

Using the correct equipment

There are several suppliers of personal protective equipment. However, it is essential to choose the appropriate equipment for the job. Employees must have a safe and well-fitted kit to ensure they are safe at all times. Suppliers such as medical-supermarket.com have a wide selection of equipment to assist across all departments, including overalls and gowns, to face and hair covers. For the recent risks due to COVID-19, there are also thermometers, sanitizing gel and cleaners to reduce the risk for all staff.

External risks

Businesses come into contact with external risks every day, so this needs to be a part of your overall strategy. A significant part of this area will involve identifying potential risks that could come in from deliveries, outside contractors, or if your staff work off-site.

Responsibilities as an employer

Business owners have a responsibility to ensure their workforce is safe to conduct their daily duties. This aspect needs to be incorporated into the strategy, as it will detail these areas and how to ensure you comply with regulations. It is also an area that needs to be kept up to date as changes frequently occur in the health and safety arena. You should also have a plan in place in regard to changes in government policy and ensure that a health and safety officer is available to answer questions and manage the responsibilities.

Regular reviews

After you’ve completed your PPE strategy, regular reviews need to take place to ensure you are equipped for changes that could happen quickly and without warning.