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How can businesses identify and manage their risks?

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At Centrewest, when a client first approaches us we like to advise them on the different aspects of risk that their business faces.

There are many risks that business owners may never have considered and many of these risks require regular assessment.

Here are the top five areas of risk we commonly see:

Strategic
External forces can impact the delivery of your chosen strategy. You may have to change direction.

Operational
Internal issues, staffing levels, loss of key personnel and software glitches.

Financial
This can be internal and external. Consider your profits, margins, business value, loss of projects or failure to deliver projects.

Reputational
Events that lead to negativity amongst your staff, clients, suppliers, industry or the public.

Compliance
Non-conformance with regulations, legal risks, lack of standards or poor practices.

The implications for businesses that do not mitigate their risks can be severe.

In May 2021, an Esperance builder was imprisoned for six months plus 18 months suspended sentence, fined $2,250 and the company fined $550,000 for a workplace accident that left one man dead and another severely injured after a 7-9 metre fall. The workers were not harnessed and neither worker held appropriate licenses, plus the owner didn’t have a crane licence.

As of 31 March 2022, changes to Work Health & Safety legislation mean that fines and penalties are no longer indemnified by insurers.
The solution is to ensure your Work Health and Safety compliance is complete.

Our advice to all business owners is to analyse their risks and ensure they have the appropriate insurance cover in place.

For further information, contact our team of local insurance brokers today.

General Advice Warning: This advice is general and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether the advice is appropriate for you and your personal circumstances. Before you make any decision about whether to acquire a certain product, you should obtain and read the relevant product disclosure statement.

All information above has been provided by the author.

Centrewest Insurance Brokers, ABN 44009265105, AFSL 245406

This article originally appeared on Centrewest News and has been published here with permission.