Risk Management for Solicitors
Estate Agents and other professionally based enterprises
Risk Management Solution For Solicitors, Estate Agents & Other Professionally Based Enterprises
All businesses that offer a professional service must demonstrate compliance with a set of professional standards; non-compliance will increase the threat of imposed regulatory action, fines and the potential loss of reputation. Additionally, for some professions obtaining professional indemnity insurance may also become more expensive in situations where conduct is questioned. For all these reasons, as well as running a successful and profitable business, implementing a robust risk management process within the firm is good practice and will demonstrate intent to stakeholders.
It often takes a “shock event” for a business to recognise where it is vulnerable; a customer complaint, a fraud or even a new competitor. All too often entrepreneurs focus on maintaining a healthy balance sheet and profit and loss account, without recognising those developments which may exist in their operational environment that may impact on sustainability of the firm in the short-term and may be critical to business continuity in the medium to long term.
Recognition therefore of the issues which if they were to occur would damage continuity is critical to success. It is true that risk management may just be a natural part of survival for some however paying attention to formally recognising factors that would harm your business, is just good business sense. Continually reviewing them and therefore staying ahead is likely to pay dividends as this will ensure that you maintain a current awareness of what can wrong.
An investment therefore in RiskMate, user friendly software, will help busy managers to demonstrate that they have considered the most significant matters and have undertaken a deep dive regarding what could adversely impact on the firm, where there is serious concern. True this may be financial, particularly surrounding working capital, but this is influenced by systems which manage the performance of staff and debt collection. Of equal concern to business owners should be matters reflecting service or product quality, health and safety, estate management and the use of technology.
RiskMate will therefore, without consuming vast amounts of time, allow firms to develop a framework of risk management that:
- Allows business owners to stipulate what types of risk they consider to be significant,
- Provide guidance regarding what level of risk the business can sustain across its activity – therefore embedding a risk appetite throughout the organisation,
- Allocate risk management responsibility to selected managers, and
- Monitor that the current residual risk is tolerable and that appropriate action is being taken to action any specific risk mitigation that has been agreed.
Operating in real-time on cloud-based software, RiskMate will help ensure that you maintain control as well as looking ahead to ensure that you are as prepared as possible for what your business may face.