Many people do not take care of risk factors in their businesses even though risk management is vital for any business.

Many people do not take care of risk factors in their businesses even though risk management is vital for any business.

The fact that your business is running normally and making profit does not necessarily mean that it is immune to risk.

Risk can come in many forms and it is therefore crucial that you have a risk management plan in place.

Just like a business plan, the risk management plan is very important.

Even before you start operations, it is important to take a look at your business and think about the risks or dangers facing it, or which disturb its operations.

You should be able to identify the top five risks that are associated with it. This should include both technical and business, or process risks. You should also be able to decide what steps can be taken to respond to those risks.

Take for example the Eskom power-shedding problem. It does a lot of damage to businesses that never thought the country would ever face such a problem. Many businesses don't have back-up plans when the power goes out and as a result their production stops.

This wouldn't happen if there were risk management plans in place. It is no surprise that many companies don't have electricity generators, which could be attributed to not having risk managers in those companies.

Failure to have a plan to respond to risks can have a huge impact and can even lead to your business closing down if the risk is mainly related to the core operations of your enterprise.