Simply put, the more your business expands, the greater risks you face. With more people and locations under your management, the less feasible it becomes to have direct interaction or communication with every single person at all your business locations. This is why it’s crucial that you’re evolving strategies and approaches to identify and mitigate risks in your operations as an enterprise and multi-location business owner—a practice otherwise known as risk management. Risk management trends are shaped by changes in the business environment, technological advancements, standardized developments, and lessons learned from past experiences. Things like cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, and supply chain resilience are some of the more commonly known risk management trends of operating multiple business locations, but we’re going to dive in a bit deeper than that.
The Risks You (Might) Face as an Enterprise Owner
To understand what risk management trends really are, though, it’s important to get an idea of what risks you might actually face. Let’s take a look.
Changes to Business Environment: Sudden market shifts or disruptions due to unexpected events like the outbreak of a pandemic, changes in government policies, or global economic downturns can affect demand, supply chains, and customer behavior—potentially leading to revenue loss and operational challenges. If these changes aren’t adapted to, or no preparation had been made in expectance of them, your business could suffer due to a lack of clients, revenue, inventory, etc. And if you have locations in different demographic areas, you may see a difference in how they operate based on conditions in their geographic regions.
Compromised Data: As newer technology and online processes are introduced to the world, the more prevalent cybersecurity threats, data breaches, ransomware attacks, or system failures become. Such things can result in the compromise of sensitive customer information, financial losses, reputational damage, and legal consequences. For these reasons, it’s important that the technology and software you choose is reputable and secure.
Regulatory Non-compliance: Failure to comply with new industry regulations or changes in data protection laws may lead to fines, legal actions, and damage to the company's reputation. It can also hinder enterprise or multi-location business operations due to varying regulatory requirements across different regions. See how you can check that your enterprise business is adhering to regulatory compliance, here.
Supply Chain Failure: Disruptions in the supply chain caused by natural disasters, geopolitical tensions, or pandemics can result in production delays, increased costs, and a shortage of critical components, affecting your business’s ability to meet customer demand. Without products or supplies, you won’t be able to sustainably run your business.
Understanding and mitigating these risks requires comprehensive risk management strategies that align with current risk trends. Thankfully, each of the following can eliminate the risks we’ve discussed.
Note:
When it comes to specific risk strategies and procedures, these are best created after conducting thorough research on the specific risks your business faces and assessing your understanding of current risk management trends in your industry. A quick web search is a great place to start!
What Are Some Current Risk Management Trends?
Dynamic Business Environment: You’re likely aware of this already as a multi-location or enterprise business owner, but industry landscapes are constantly changing. It’s important that you stay flexible, adapting to these changes and staying proactive to identify emerging risks. Certain online tools, like Vagaro’s historical reporting feature, can be of a significant help with this.
Being flexible allows you to anticipate and respond to new challenges to ensure the sustainability and long-term growth of your enterprise business.1 Here’s an example: You’re a multi-location beauty or wellness business owner, and you begin to notice a trend towards all-natural or eco-friendly skincare, so, you start looking into how you can offer or create such products. Essentially, all this means is as industry trends change and blossom, your business should do. In some instances, it could even mean altering your business model to adjust with current economic or geographical circumstances, much like how numerous restaurants adopted pick-up and delivery services—or outdoor dining—during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Supply Chain Resilience: Consider raising your awareness of the importance of building resilient and diversified supply chains. Disruptions in the supply chain can have a significant impact on business operations. As an enterprise or multi-location business owner, it’s important that you focus on risk management strategies that enhance supply chain resilience to mitigate the impact of unexpected events. How? Well, while there might not be much you can physically do to change or interact with your supplier, you can conduct routine checks to measure and monitor their success using the numerous online risk analysis services that are available to you as an enterprise business owner.2 These tools, and things like Vagaro’s robust arsenal of inventory reports, can spot patterns or trends in things like damaged or lost deliveries, defect rates, or material costs and savings, all of which help you identify any potential pain points or strengths, allowing you to stay confident in the face of supply & demand uncertainty.
Technology Integration: Implement the use of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, and cybersecurity measures, into your risk management processes. As people become more reliant on technology, we face new risks related to data breaches, cyber threats, and technology disruptions. Look for business management tech that is ISO, PCI, SOC-2 & HIPAA compliant, to cover all your bases, like Vagaro. Adopting cutting-edge risk management technology helps safeguard sensitive information and maintain operational continuity. Most online services often have a status page as well, which can help you decide whether it’s worth using or not. Take Vagaro, for example, who’s uptime averages 100% over the last six months.3
What Do I Do Now?
Staying informed about and adopting current risk management trends is essential for you as an enterprise or multi-location business owner. Why? These trends help you navigate the complexities of the business environment, protect your assets, comply with regulations, and build resilience against emerging risks. Proactive risk management contributes to the overall success and sustainability of your business in an ever-evolving landscape—which means you can confidently (and safely) continue to expand your enterprise.
Looking for an effective way to mitigate risk? Ensure you’re protected with a complimentary 30-day trial of Vagaro—the software that scales with your business along every step of its journey.
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