If you perform a Google search on “business safety” or “business Security,” millions of results appear. It’s overwhelming. But you can apply some structure to the results by separating them into different categories. I’ve placed them into four categories to detail the threats all businesses, regardless of size, encounter.

1. Physical. Physical dangers include thefts, break-ins, and other types of malicious property damage.
2. Digital. Digital threats refer to cyber attacks such as data breaches, hacks, and malware.
3. Internal. Internal threats relate to employees, and employees can be at fault for physical and digital insecurity.
4. External. External dangers are situations over which you have no control—like a burst pipe in the middle of winter or a summer hailstorm.

With those four groupings of threats in mind, you can begin to outline safety measures for them.

Three Ways to Mitigate Physical Security Concerns

As stated above, physical safety relates to property you can touch with your hands—property that can be broken or stolen. Physical threats can result in costly repairs and losses.

A 2016 survey from insurance company Insureon reported the following.

• Nearly nine percent of surveyed small business owners experienced a theft or burglary in 2016.
• Small business owners who suffer burglary or theft could face out-of-pocket costs of $8,000.

Business security incidents hurt in not only lost or damaged goods but also subsequent costs and claims. To counter the security concern, use the following safety process.

1. Invest in a security system. A security system, especially a newer, high-tech security system, gives on-demand visibility into your brick-and-mortar location.
2. Install outdoor lighting. Robbers tend to avoid well-lit locations, so invest in some outdoor security lights and motion sensors.
3. Maintain the property. Burglars and vandals seek easy entry points and places to hide. Limit their options by repairing fences, trimming shrubs and trees, and replacing door and window locks.

Three Ways to Minimize Digital Security Concerns

Digital security seems difficult to pin down. However, you need to understand it as cyber attacks are rising. And if you think small businesses are immune to attack, think again.

Keeper Security collaborated with Ponemon Institute to assess cyber attacks against small businesses in 2016.

• Of the business owners surveyed, fifty percent experienced a data breach in the last twelve months.
• The most common types of attacks used phishing and social engineering.

You can minimize digital security threats with a couple of safety measures.

1. Educate employees. People can be the weakest links in any organization. They use insecure passwords, share passwords, or put company data on a personal device. Prevent such instances with regular education and training about digital threats.
2. Run security software. Keep the digital perimeter as secure as the physical one with quality security software.
3. Develop a response plan. Data breaches happen, so prepare a business continuity plan well in advance. For example, you protect data by regularly backing it up to an offsite, secure server.

Three Ways to Prevent Internal Security Incidents

Internal threats may be the hardest to spot because no one wants to think an employee will steal or damage property, be it physical or digital. It happens, though, as annual reports attest.

Kroll’s annual Global Fraud & Risk Report examines fraud on a global scale and reports the following.

• In the United States, eighty percent of surveyed respondents were the victims of fraud within the prior year.
• Of these instances, twenty-seven percent were attributed to intellectual property (IP) theft, piracy, and counterfeiting.

Preventing IP theft resides in the digital safety measures mentioned in the previous section, and a few other steps can help you avoid internal fraud.

1. Get to know your employees. The better you know your employees, the better you’ll be able to spot deviations in behavior.
2. Audit your business. Conduct audits regularly and without warning. Confirm your results by working with an outside auditor.
3. Manage inventory and equipment. If you manufacture goods or own expensive equipment, track the items to make sure they stay and ship as intended.

Three Ways to Prepare for External Safety Concerns

Preparing for bad weather might seem impossible, but think about your business location. If you reside in a floodplain, you know to insure the business against flood damage. Planning for possible disasters is necessary, even if they never happen.

The Insureon report shared earlier also covers natural disasters. While the number of incidents is less, the costs are more.

• Fires, storms, and cracked pipes account for nearly seven percent of the “most common incidents” faced on an annual basis.
• Fire damage ranks third out of ten for the “most expensive types of claims.” Burglary and theft ranks tenth.

While you can’t stop bad weather from happening, you can lessen the severity of it with the following safety measures.

1. Maintain the building. Repair the roof, windows, and doors as needed. Remember to weatherproof, too. It could diminish the effects of bad weather, not to mention reduce heating and cooling costs.
2. Invest in insurance. You might think you can’t afford commercial insurance. The better question: “Can you afford not to have it?”
3. Make an emergency plan. A disaster preparedness plan won’t stop a tornado from gutting a building, but it will protect employees and critical assets.

There you have it, twelve safety measures to safeguard your business against physical, digital, internal, and external threats. Using them can help keep losses to a minimum, protect and secure data, and help you, the business owner, sleep better at night.

Note: This was a guest post by Sage Singleton from SafeWise.com

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