by Jacques S Eskena (aka SavvyBusiness)

With 60 % of all new businesses failing to make it past the first year, everybody knows that risk taking is an integral part of running a business. Taking steps to ensure that such risks are measured takes an even greater importance when considering that if 1 an every 4 businesses fail in the first year, the figure reaches court records proportions over the course of 5 years when it becomes 3 out of 5!

When such risks are assessed, it is common to assume that external market forces are influential in the development of any business, and attempts at forecasting such forces should indeed be on the agenda of any business owner as these external factors do play an important part in the risk taking process. What is often times summarily brushed to the side are the internal risks though, factors that do not dependent on outside circumstances but rather on internal structure or even actions from within the company itself.

Workers operating heavy equipment for example introduce an added element of risk into the equation. Likewise, businesses operating motor vehicle also fall within this category where the human factor becomes a risk.

And it is not just in-situ that these types of risk can take place. Any business that has an interactive relationship between its employees and its customers runs a risk when an employee’s mistake takes place. For example, a company that sends employees to the home of its customers sees these risks extended outside of its walls and it is not just the risks that are compounded but the actual nature of said risks!

And so, an employee’s solitary mistake could have a potentially damaging effect on the business in financial terms which could affect its very livelihood and at best could result in a substantial increase in liability insurance premium.

In other words, one employee’s actions can have damaging consequences for the company in terms of reputation and eventual cost of a litigation process.

Of course, mistakes do happen and steps can and indeed must be taken to try and make sure they do not happen in the first place.

Business owners must therefore ensure that only the right people are employed so that should a mistake be made, it is not made by an employee with court records showing a less than desirable employment history or worse.

As such finding out about eventual court records are an essential and indispensable tool for any serious business owner even though this subject elicits unease and discomfort in a society which takes privacy of its citizen extremely seriously!

But we do live in a world ripe with litigation lawyers and lawsuits and the risks of damages imposed by a court to a company who has been found guilty of negligence or worse can mean the death of that company as a business.

After all, the idea here is not only to protect the business owner’s investment and business but also to ensure that the rest of the workforce are not adversely affected by the actions of a single person who should never have been hired in the first place. Court records then become essential for the job security of all other workers.

About the Author: