Hawkesbury Bookkeeping

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Small Business

Stay Smart Online Week

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7-13 October 2019

If your organisation uses the internet for email, banking, accounting, running a website or other activities, you need to know how to keep your information and assets safe. Many small businesses don’t realise they could be an attractive target for hackers – but the good news is that you can take simple steps to protect your business and customers.

You may not think that your business could be a target, but cybercriminals are motivated by a variety of factors – most of them lead back to money!

Cybercriminals make money through holding data to ransom, stealing funds from bank accounts, identity theft and sale of stolen information. Profits from these activities are highly lucrative and can be fairly easily obtained from unprotected businesses.

It’s easy for a business to underestimate the potential harm that a cyber incident could cause. Loss of revenue, damage to equipment and reputation are some of the concerns that can come from cybercrime and other malicious online activities. Even if no data is lost, the impact can still be detrimental for organisations. Don’t think that it can’t happen to you.

By acting now to prepare your business, there is a good chance that you can protect your interests and recover from an incident. 

Investing in your online security will almost certainly save you money in the long run – even if you suffer a cyber incident, the cost and time of any recovery is likely to be less if you have good measures in place. 

Every day we take measures to safeguard ourselves and our businesses in other areas. Likewise, protecting your business information should become part of normal day-to-day activities.

For more important information on how to protect your business, visit https://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/protect-your-business

Information provided by Stay Smart Online

NSW Small Business Month

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October is NSW Small Business Month – a month dedicated to promoting and celebrating the success of small businesses and recognising the important role they play in the NSW economy and their local communities.

The state’s small business sector employs an estimated 1.65 million people across NSW and makes up almost 44% of the private sector workforce. As the home to 765,000 small businesses, NSW is building an ecosystem to support growth.

Visit the businessmonth.nsw.gov.au website to see and take part in all of the events to assist small business. There are free forums, webinars and workshops to attend on a range of topics such as Business Basics, Starting a Business, Marketing and Social Media and more.

Information sourced from: https://www.businessmonth.nsw.gov.au/about-us/

HeadsUp for R U OK?

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As a small business owner there is much to enjoy about being your own boss such as the freedom to make the decisions and the autonomy to run the business your way. Following your passion can help you to feel good and be productive and can also contribute positively to your mental health.

But anyone who has run a small business knows that there are also a range of stressors or challenges too. Putting in long hours, feeling isolated, worrying about cash-flow and all that decision making can come with a sense of great responsibility. On top of that, there can be external factors outside your control that influence your business or the demands on your time too.

Today is R U OK Day and a good day to assess how mentally healthy your workplace is.

The mental wellbeing of people at work is good for everyone and enhances personal and organisational resilience, and success. Everyone has a role to play both in looking after their own mental health and creating a mentally healthy workplace.

The headsup.org.au website has some fantastic resources to help small businesses, business owners and their employees in achieving a mentally healthy workplace.

Download some of their resources:

If you think that someone may be struggling, start an R U OK? conversation by using these four steps:

  1. Ask R U OK?
  2. Listen
  3. Encourage Action
  4. Check in

Visit ruok.org.au for more information on learning the signs and finding help.