During the business life cycle each business owner comes up against challenges. Big and small. Internal and external. Easy and tough.

Some businesses may grow organically from the need of a single sole trader to go on holiday and yet others grow from a more structured base with a business plan and backing.

Regardless of where your SME sits, it will have strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Some of these will be irrelevant and others will be incredibly important. Some will be urgent, and others can be dealt with tomorrow…right?

This is one of the areas business protection tends to fall into. With 24 in 25 businesses under protected there is a significant need for business owners to be proactive in mitigating risks. Afterall some risks can be avoided altogether, whereas others need to be protected against.

Business protection is not widely talked about. But with the recovery the economy will experience over the next few years SMEs need professional advisors to talk to them about it more frequently.

So, what is it?

When we sit with our clients during our Business Health Check, we take time to understand our client’s journey, both past and future, and the pain points they may experience if the worst were to happen. We explore:

·        Shareholder protection

·        Key person protection

·        Business loan protection

·        Personal guarantee protection

·        Group protection (including life cover, critical illness cover, income protection and private medical insurance)

These topics will be explored in greater depth in future blogs but suffice to say these policies do one thing that you will thank your past self for:

Protect your business, your income generator, your nest egg from the risks that are out there lurking around the corner, ready to bring down the house of cards you have spent your life’s work creating!

The ones that you cannot stop! The death of a key person and the subsequent lack of expertise they brought. The shares of your fellow shareholder being passed to their next of kin who has absolutely no knowledge of your business. The loan that enabled you to buy your commercial unit but that needs paying back when the majority shareholder dies.

Plan for the best.

Prepare for the worst.

Nathaniel Lee

Specialist Business Consultant