Cybersecurity should be an essential talking point for every small business owner. Of course, we are referring to everything your business does to protect it from online threats. Sadly, there are many small businesses that do not take cybersecurity as seriously as they should.
Why is this the case?
Mostly, it’s because cyber threats are invisible. You don’t see them; they lurk in the shadows. In fact, you could be a victim of a cyber attack right now and you don’t even realize it. It’s hard to be concerned about something you can’t see, so it gets ignored.
Clearly, this is not a good approach for your business. You must focus on cybersecurity and you will end up seeing overall improvements in your small company. For context, here are just a few ways you can improve your business with excellent cybersecurity practices:
Boost Brand Reputation & Build Trust
Trust is crucial for every small and upcoming business. Existing business rivals have already earned the trust of consumers. So, how do you convince people to come to you instead? You have to make them trust you and your brand – and this begins by establishing a strong reputation.
With poor cybersecurity measures, your brand can end up with a terrible reputation. You’re constantly being hacked, meaning customer information gets leaked or stolen. People lose all trust in you as a company. On the other hand, excellent cybersecurity ensures you never get breached and can protect customer data. If you clearly demonstrate a commitment to cybersecurity, consumers will start trusting you. They see that you have enabled encryptions on your website and use secure payment methods. It makes them more likely to give you a chance over some of your rivals.
Save Money & Boost Profit Margins
It’s crazy how many small businesses don’t understand the savings you make when you invest in cybersecurity. A small investment in IT support services can help you strengthen your online security measures to prevent attacks. Okay, this seems obvious, but how does it help you save money?
Simply put, you reduce the chances of suffering cyberthreats. A cyber threat can be extremely costly for your business in multiple ways. As mentioned above, it damages your reputation. This means you lose money by missing out on potential sales opportunities. Moreover, cyber threats can directly impact your revenue. Some hackers might be able to hack your business accounts and take money directly from them. Or, they can hold you at ransom. They take down your website and demand payment if you want it back up. All the while, you lose money by missing out on sales opportunities as you have to deal with this threat. Not to mention the fact you may have to pay them if it’s the only way to get your website back.
Alternatively, you will have to pay people to come in and help fix any cyber issues you have in your business when they happen. This can be far more costly than investing in better security for your company. Cybersecurity saves money in the long run, which can help you widen your profit margins by lowering your expenses.
Increase Business Productivity
Perhaps an underrated benefit of excellent cybersecurity is what it does to your productivity. We’ve already spoken about the impact that cyber threats have on your business from a financial and brand perspective. However, have you considered what it does to your productivity levels?
Evidently, if you have cyber threats to deal with, you can’t focus on anything else. Everything has to be put on hold until you fix the problem. This could mean your business faces days – weeks even – of limited productivity as you deal with online threats.
Investing in good cybersecurity measures will mean these threats aren’t present. You don’t have to worry about something chaining your business to the ground and stopping you from working. In fact, your entire business can be more productive as you work without these problems. There will be less downtime and more time spent working on acquiring leads, closing sales and improving your business.
The best way to summarize this piece is that every business should focus on cybersecurity. Just because you can’t see the threats, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. You might not suffer from any cyber issues right now, but who knows when they could come around. If you believe that hackers won’t target you because you’re a small business, you are so wrong. Ironically, they’re more likely to target smaller companies because they know you have worse network security than bigger ones. You’re easy pickings for them, which is why you need to focus on creating a good cybersecurity program at work.