Unexpected business disasters and their solutions

No matter how careful you might be with regard to how you run your business, there is always going to be the possibility of things going awry. This is due to the simple fact that not everything is in your control, and you can’t be fully in charge even of everything in your business all the time.

There are, in fact, a number of real disasters which can strike any business at any time, and when they do occur you might well find yourself at something of a loss as to what to do about them. All you can do in the meantime is to be fully aware of them and prepare for them as much as possible, which is what we are going to look at in this article.

Here are some of the unexpected disasters that any business can face – and what you might be able to do about them when they do arise.

Data theft

Today, data is more important than ever. All businesses will find it hugely important to take care of their data, and with good reason. After all, much of the data that a business holds will actually pertain to individual customers and members of the public, which means that the company in question has certain responsibilities under the Data Protection Act to make sure that data is kept safe. In short, you need to make sure you are doing everything you can to stop your data getting stolen. But whatever it is that you do to prepare, there might be times when some lone hacker manages to find their way into your system and disrupt or even destroy your data, or simply copy it for their own purposes. When this happens, you need to know how to limit the damage.

The first thing is to remember to be honest should this occur. For one thing, you need to inform your customers by law if this does happen. It is then a matter of making sure you tighten up your security so that you can reduce the chances of it happening again. Then next time, you will hopefully be well protected and won’t have to worry about it. Data theft can be damaging to individuals and businesses alike, so having a good plan of attack here is hugely important.

Loss of a shareholder

Most companies understand the necessity of keeping their shareholders happy. After all, they ensure that the business in question continues to be a viable force in the marketplace, and it is for this reason that you will generally want to make sure you are keeping them happy. If you ever lose a shareholder for whatever reason, it can indicate that there is some kind of problem with how you are approaching your business, and that you might need to do something different. Usually that simply means engaging with them and seeing what they think you could do. But there is another situation which can occur, which can be much more disastrous for many reasons, and that is when a shareholder dies.

If a shareholder passes away, you will need to make sure that you limit the damage to your business while still respecting the family of the deceased individual. One of the best ways to make these ends meet and ensure that you are protecting shareholders along the way is to use shareholder protection insurance. With this in place, you can buy out the deceased shareholder’s shares from their estate, so that you can maintain control of the company, and their spouse or next of kin can receive financial remuneration too. This is a useful situation which is worth having in place, just in case the worst should happen.

Trouble with the law

When you start out in business, you will probably find yourself wondering at some point or another how exactly you can get in trouble with the law unless you purposefully try to get around it. However, the truth is that most businesses which receive the wrath of the law do so not because of a purposeful sleight, but because they have flouted it quite accidentally. Therefore, you should be as careful as possible with every legal issue your company is subject to, to ensure that you do not get into any trouble further down the line. Such legal troubles, when they do arise, can often be enough to bankrupt a business.

So long as you take preventative care of these three disasters, you should be able to keep your business from disaster – and so ensure its longevity.