It isn’t at all surprising that businesses sometimes forget the importance of protecting and maintaining their physical assets. After all, who would be interested in their hardware such as laptops, printers, and equipment and tools? It’s not like you have high-tech computers in your office. All you have is a regular laptop that can type reports, send emails, and crunch inventory numbers. But lo and behold, you will be surprised at how thieves operate. They can pull your business down, rendering it completely useless because of the loss of physical assets.
But it’s not just thieves and criminals that you should protect your assets from. You should also be protecting them from your own neglect. Not maintaining your products, equipment, and tools well can also lead to disruption of services and failed business operations. This is why more than just protecting your physical assets, it’s also critical to have them maintained properly.
Plan a Schedule for Each Asset
Can you imagine going to the warehouse and not having a forklift to help you reach the items on the shelves above? Or, how about visiting a construction site and finding out that the bulldozer broke down? That’s what happens when equipment and machinery are not properly maintained. They break down right when you need them. Aside from regular maintenance, which should be scheduled routinely, it’s also essential to find a supplier of aftermarket construction equipment parts so that you have someone to contact in case you need a part replacement.
Track Maintenance Costs
How can you reduce the costs of maintaining the equipment and machinery? You can do that by analyzing why it costs so much in the first place. That means using digital maintenance software to take advantage of analytics that can track every detail of the asset. The software can analyze key performance indicators that will help pinpoint the exact reason why the equipment breaks down.
Upgrade Your Security
Aside from maintenance, the security of your physical assets is also primal to businesses. Among many other things, this means putting in deterrence factors that will stop criminals from targeting your business. What does it mean to update your business’ security assets? Install CCTV cameras, smart locks and access controls, security lights, and alarm systems. You should also hire security personnel because nothing deters criminals more than the presence of actual guards.
Secure Valuable Goods in Vaults
Not every criminal is going to be deterred by your security system. Most of them will still try to enter your office premises despite it having cameras and alarm systems. Criminals have become sophisticated that they can already bypass alarms and even security personnel. What will keep them from getting your most valuable physical assets—cash and laptops, for example—is if they are tucked away safely in vaults.
Streamline Maintenance and Security Systems
You can use a modern computerized maintenance management system since this will help manage, organize, and automate all your maintenance needs in the business. The thing about having an effective system like this is it keeps you updated no matter where you are. It helps you keep track of your preventive work schedule, spare parts inventory, and maintenance costs. You will also eliminate instances of shock and surprise when you find out a piece of machinery has broken down just when you accept a big bulk of orders.
Get Insurance
Asset insurance will ensure the proper maintenance of your physical assets and protect your cash. When unexpected problems occur, the insurance company will cover the costs of the repair and sometimes even the replacement of the equipment itself. You can insure many types of assets, including but not limited to the property itself, cash and credit, business contents, IT infrastructure, commercial vehicles and machinery, and goods currently in transit.
You can also protect your business from debt, creditors, claims, and liability. Another type of insurance exists specifically for these needs, especially if your business handles sensitive products and services. Do check out legal strategies such as incorporating your business or forming a limited liability company in protecting your personal assets from lawsuits that your company can face.
The maintenance and protection of your business’ physical assets are tantamount to growth. No matter how you look at it, a company cannot grow if its assets are out there for everyone to take advantage of. If you want to protect the business from criminals or lawsuits, you need to use both traditional and modern methods. And if a new method emerges for the maintenance of a system, invest in that, too. You shouldn’t leave any stone unturned when it comes to asset protection.
