Getting informed about risks :
(The cracked wall)
You might have built a steady and growing business now, maybe you’ve reached the break even point or maybe you are generating a revenue of over 30,000 dollars per month – and you surely have some free time for your self.
After being in some positions in my life when a hard work pays off and you can enjoy your earned free time – I found my self eventually not aware to some of the risks that might arise if too much of that free time is not used to manage business risks.
Most of the times this happens because we want to award ourselves for succeeding and accomplishing the goals which were set and after we accomplish them, we usually forget to set the necessary conditions for our work to last.
I call this “the cracked wall” phenomenon, once building such a wall – without maintenance, it will eventually break. Some walls do last thousands of years, some of these solid walls are still standing. You want your solutions and business to be as strong as these walls, to do that you must be aware of the risks that might crack your wall – or end your business.
Easy steps to accomplish this mission :
1. List them – Try all ends of your business as a customer and think of all the possible ways one can stop your success, now put your thoughts on a list, ask other people for known risks they might think of regarding your business.
2. Prioritize – Grant a score from 1 to 3 to each risk, 3 being the biggest threat to your success.
3. Think of solutions – Go over the items you have listed from the most risky to the least and write possible solutions as if this risk has just happened, try thinking about it and imaging as if this is the current situation and you need to deal with it. after you’ll gather lists of solutions to each of the risks you’ll have a complete risk management solution you can use, if any risk does ever come true in the future.
Risk Preventing Tools :
I really like using a spreadsheet applications for such tasks as listing risks – preferably open office, but any app will do.
The importance of risk management :
In a case when a high profile risk becomes real, you’ll most of the time become greatly stressed and won’t be able to think about the best solution to beat that risk in a short time, getting the chance to deal and catalog these risks before they happen can greatly help you prepare for any situation and you can also share these risks with other people from the same line of work and maybe find what’s their solutions to these cases.
Thats about it, risk management can be the most important stone in your business wall.
