Your business assets are your most valuable assets. They include everything from cash and inventory to your business’s building. You want to protect these assets to continue operating even during emergencies or natural disasters.
If someone were to steal or damage any of these items, it could have a devastating impact on your business. That said, here are four ways to protect your business assets.
1. Hire An Asset Protection Attorney
When running a business, it’s essential to protect your assets. If you have a company, you may have heard of asset protection. You can save your business from creditors and lawsuits by registering it in another state or country. An asset protection attorney, like Nevis LLC offshore asset protection attorneys, can ensure that your business is out of danger.
Hiring an attorney can help you set up a corporation or LLC with protection against lawsuits and creditors. They also deal with tax evasion and money laundering issues, so they can help you with these problems as well.
You shouldn’t hire just about any attorney to help you with your asset protection needs. You want to find someone who has experience in dealing with businesses and corporations, so they’ll know what they ought to do when registering your company in another state or country.
2. Get The Right Insurance
Many businesses aren’t adequately insured, leaving them vulnerable to financial loss or even ruin in a disaster. Before purchasing any insurance policy, you should first understand what types of coverage are available and how they can benefit your business. Your business insurance should cover your core needs, including property damage and liability coverage.
Property damage coverage will help cover expenses incurred due to unintentional damage or destruction of property owned by your business or rented to it. It also covers losses resulting from theft or vandalism.
Liability coverage protects against lawsuits filed by clients, customers, or other parties who’ve been injured on your premises or as a result of something connected with your products or services. Liability policies may also protect you if someone steals from you while working onsite at your company’s office building.
You’ll also want to consider your risk profile when determining which coverage is best for your company. If you have employees who regularly travel by plane or train, then worker’s compensation insurance may be worth considering.
3. Create A Business Plan
It’s a good idea to create a business plan. It’s not just an exercise in futility. A business plan helps you think through your business before jumping in and spending money. It’ll help you identify the potential problems that could arise and the opportunities that might be available to you.
If you want to grow your business, it’s essential to make decisions based on facts, not emotions. If something doesn’t work out, you’ll have no one but yourself to blame if your decision was made on impulse and not carefully thought through beforehand.
When creating a business plan, be sure to include your goals for the future. What are the benchmarks for success? How many customers do you hope to attract? How much revenue do you expect from each customer? Identify specific goals and target dates for achieving them so that in six months or a year from now, you’ll know whether or not those goals have been met or exceeded.
4. Keep Records For Your Tax Returns
Tax records are essential for your business. They can help you avoid audits and penalties, but they also provide valuable financial information that can help you grow your business. Here are some tax records every small business owner should keep:
- Income and expense statements
These documents show how much money came into the business, where it came from, and how it was spent. You need to keep these records for at least three years after filing your tax return.
- Cash receipts journal
Every time you make a sale or collect money, record the date, amount, and transaction description in your cash receipts journal. It’ll help you track your income and expenses more accurately since the data is already organized by date.
- Sales receipts
Keep copies of sales receipts for all purchases made on behalf of the business — from inventory items to office supplies to utility bills — because these documents prove that you’re entitled to deduct them on your taxes as ordinary and necessary expenses.
- Tax records
The IRS requires businesses to keep detailed records of all income taxes paid during the year and payroll taxes withheld from employees’ paychecks.
Takeaway
Once your business starts growing and you hire employees, you need to ensure that you have taken all the proper steps to protect your business from being stolen. The four tips above can help protect yourself from the possibility of thieves and hackers stealing your information or, even worse, causing other employees or customers harm.
