How Do Solo-Entrepreneurs Protect Their Business?
/Running a business is challenging in its own right. However, for solo entrepreneurs, the challenges can be enhanced by their solitary position. When you are an independent professional trying to keep your business afloat by yourself, you need to be the strategist, the administrator, and the employee, all at the same time. While there is a fair amount of tasks and essential jobs that can be outsourced, you still need to oversee every business process. As such, business protection can be overlooked for the benefit of more pressing projects.
However, protecting your business from cyber threats is especially important in times just as now, where the global pandemic has forced many companies to interact remotely with their customers. When your interactions and work happen online, you can’t afford to ignore the risks of mishaps for your brand. Here are some tips for solo-entrepreneurs to manage risks and sail their companies safely through the troubled waters of the pandemic situation.
Protect your confidential data
The online world can be a dangerous area. Hackers are a significant threat to small businesses. Therefore, if you are new to a remote business concept, you need to make sure you’ve got everything to keep your data secure. The first and most obvious line of security is to give your work device the best support against cyberthreats, such as using an antivirus solution and using secure cloud storage for your data. You can consider reaching out to experts and outsource your cybersecurity. A managed service provider can monitor your business online and offer increased protection. Additionally, solo-entrepreneurs also need to add identity protection for all transactions performed online. As you need to purchase additional solutions to move your activities online, ensuring nobody can steal your financial data is a no-brainer.
Protect your ideas
With millions of businesses offering similar services or products, you need to differentiate your brand from the crowd. An original idea can open the door to a new market and help you reach out to a broad audience. But innovative and creative ideas are tricky to find. That’s because ideas are so valuable that other businesses can sometimes steal them. You need to protect your intellectual property through trademarks, patents, and copyrights, depending on the type of content. Copyright applies to written documents, while a trademark can be used for your brand name, catchphrase, or product name.
Protect your reputation
As a solo-entrepreneur, you can’t hide behind a brand. You are the personality of your business. Therefore, managing your professional reputation in the market can help your brand growth. The first place to start is Google. When you Google yourself, you can find out what others think of your business or of yourself, and many spot weaknesses that can be rectified.
Another excellent place to observe and manage is social media. Claiming your business accounts online will stop others from impersonating you, and it provides you with a platform to communicate with your audience. Not every solo-entrepreneur needs a reputation manager. However, if things are getting too tough, you can reach out to experts for help.
Protecting your business online in the age of COVID-19 is challenging. But it is indispensable to keeping your business alive and supporting your customers as effectively as possible. Stay safe, stay online, stay virtually protected.