[sws_frames imageurl="http://www.paymentsense.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Protect-your-business-premises.jpg" imageframe="" borderradius="8" imagealign="sws_right" imagesize="350" imagemaxheight="175"] [/sws_frames] It would surprise you to know how many business premises are inadequately protected.  This includes actual protection, including fire safety checks and adequate intruder alarm security, and also insurance protection.  This is not something that any business can take lightly.  This brief article aims to point out a few things you need to consider and how best to go about them.

Safety

Fire Probably one of the most common things businesses are encouraged to undertake are fire safety checks.  If you have business premises you are obliged by law to ensure that it is adequately protected from fire risk.  These days you must have a designated person who is responsible to carry out these fire safety checks, run drills, carry out fire risk assessments and keep an accurate record of events so they are able to implement any necessary changes. Break-ins You also need to protect your premises from potential break-ins and criminal damage.  The measures you take to secure your premises will obviously depend upon what hours your premises are open and the risks involved.  You may only require alarms and CCTV during the evening when your premises are closed for example. It’s not all about protecting your premises either.  When you have employees, you need to ensure that their safety and security is taken into account at all times too.  As a general rule it’s always good to do things such as checking visitors in and out of the premises so you know who is there at what time.  Always checking visitors IDs and getting signatures wherever possible is also a good security measure.  These are just basic housekeeping procedures really, but you’d be surprised at how effective they are as a deterrent. CCTV is one of the best forms of security these days and if you have a premises that carries stock, and is left unsupervised during the night then this is definitely a good choice for you.  Recordings can be given to the police following any incidents and the chances are that your insurance company will be happier in the knowledge that you have taken steps to prevent anything happening so they won’t have to pay.

Insurance

Insurance is necessary, no matter what kind of business you run.  When it comes to choosing business insurance you need to ensure that you get everything covered so that in the event of an accident, fire or break-in you will be able to resume trading as soon as possible. As well as ensuring you have everything covered in the event of any eventuality you also need to ensure that you have adequate public liability insurance.  This will cover you if anything should happen to a member of the public on your premises; whether they should be there or not in many cases.  Consult your insurance company and make sure you’re adequately covered.