The wonderful thing about starting an eCommerce business is that you can do it from home. Many people start this way before gravitating to a larger office and hiring in-house employees. Regardless, you’re reading this because you’re currently running an eCommerce business from home. There are more of you now than there was a few months ago, largely because a lot of companies have been forced to work from home if possible. Whether you’re just starting your eCommerce business or have been forced inside, you need to be aware of different safety measures to take.
With these safety measures, you will protect your business from a lot of potentially harmful things. This includes threats to physical and virtual planes. Here are the measures you should put in place when you’re at home:
Using A VPN For Ecommerce Security
A VPN is a virtual private network that’s essential for protecting your online presence. The simple fact is that your home internet connection might not be as secure as you’d hoped. When you work in an office, you may have a team of professionals monitoring the connection at all times. At home, you don’t have this. Therefore, the VPN acts as an extra bit of online security for your business. All the things you do while online are protected, preventing any cyber threats from taking hold of your company.
Have A Smoke Alarm In Your Home Office
Your home will already have a smoke alarm, but you need one in your home office. Why? To prevent instances where fires burn all of your equipment and destroy the data you have on your hard drives. The key is to have an alarm that’s fitted with a Piezo transducer, as this provides a very loud alarm sound that can be heard throughout the house. Now, imagine you’re in bed, and your office is downstairs. Maybe a fuse blows, and a spark triggers a small fire in your office. Thanks to your loud alarm, you pick up on this right away and can prevent the fire from spreading or causing any permanent damage. Thus, you protect valuable business data and hardware from physical threats.
Using Security Locks On Windows & Doors
Thirdly, it’s wise to install security locks on any doors or windows leading into your home office. Preferably, you should use something like biometric locks that require a fingerprint to open. It sounds extreme, but you don’t want anyone going into your office at home. You’ve got no employees there, so there’s no need for anyone else to go inside. Even your family should be kept out as you can’t risk a child accidentally breaking something or deleting your data files. Plus, if you have physical items that you sell from your home, then these security locks can come in extra handy. Add them to whatever room you keep your stock in – it could be your office, or a garage; wherever!
For the safety of your business, don’t neglect these additional security measures. The threats still exist when you run a company from home, so be cautious and take steps to keep them at bay.
Large businesses typically have hefty budgets to spend on fraud prevention, but if you’re self-employed or the owner of a small mom-and-pop shop you may not have a lot of resources at your disposal. Our experts created a guide to help small business owners protect themselves from credit card fraud. Check out the guide here.
