Choosing the right type of safe for your business is a crucial decision. There are many types of safes available, but not all of them are suitable for your business to protect your most valuable assets. Whether your business is a small one or a large corporation, you need to choose a safe that can protect your sensitive documents, cash, and other valuables.
It’s important to understand what the various types of safes are and how they can benefit your business. This article will help you understand what you need to consider when choosing the right safe for your business.
The Right Safe to Protect Your Business
When searching for a business-based or commercial grade safe, there are several things to consider. The first and most important step is to determine what the safe will be used for. For example, do you need it to protect cash or company files, employee records, or backup disks?
The next step is to determine the size and type of safe that you will require. There are such a wide variety of safes to choose from that it can be rather confusing. A professional safe retailer or locksmith that specializes in selling safes will have the knowledge to help you select what type of safe will fit your needs. They also should have the ability to provide service and installation if needed.
Company Records
There are countless companies around the world that have suffered a great loss because they did not protect their important company documents. Statistics show that close to 45% completely go out of business, while others lose the ability to produce financial records, and some will experience a decline in their credit rating because of fire.
The question is: can you afford not to get a safe? Realistically no business is guaranteed that it will never experience a fire.
If you need to protect company records, your best choice is a fire safe. All safes have different ratings. For instance, an A rating is the best, and a C rating will be of lesser quality.
C-rated safes usually protect in a fire for up to 30 min, while A-rated safes protect for up to 2 hours. You will want to go with the best-rated safe to secure your irreplaceable documents.
Fire safes are designed with a special filling to keep the internal temperature under 350 degrees by producing steam. So when temperatures surpass 405 degrees (the temperature at which paper chars) you can relax knowing your records are protected.
Cash
Whether your company is large or small, anytime you handle cash you need a safe. Think about it. You cannot be at the office 24/7 and you can’t run to the bank every time someone passes you cash. The size and type of safe you choose will entirely be at your discretion.
Depository safes are popular in businesses. Whoever handles the cash opens the door places cash inside and closes the door to deposit the money into the interior. This helps to minimize employee theft because you do not have to give out the key or combination to anyone.
There are also remote-controlled cash safes. If you have several people handling cash, this safe will log who deposited the money, tell you what time a transaction is made, and record the amount that was deposited or withdrawn. If you are a very large business with an enormous cash flow, a vault safe may be a better decision for you.
Important Media
There are special data or media safes available. These safes are designed with a special dry filling that will protect media, disks, USBs, or photographs from moisture. You may need to store company computer backup or other types of media. If this is the case, it’s important you find a good quality safe that will protect your critical business records. It is good to make duplicates of your media or data files and to keep them in a separate location as well.
The Best Location for a Safe
If you have the ability, the best options are floor safes or wall-mounted safes. Most commonly because they can be kept out of sight by a rug or a picture. The average thief goes in and takes what is readily available. If they can’t see the safe more than likely they won’t even think about looking for one.
However, there is always an exception to the rule and here that will be an expert thief. He will tend to know prior to the break-in what he is after or have the knowledge to search for such hidden safes. For such incidents, you should look for a high rating to gain maximum protection.
Burglary safes are designed to hinder even an expert thief equipped with adequate tools. The higher the rating, the longer it will take a thief to gain access to the interior of the safe. Higher rated safes do cost more, but in the end, it’s worth the personal peace you gain knowing you have proper protection for your business.
Insurance
Another factor to consider when purchasing a safe for your business is insurance requirements. Check with your local agent to determine their requirements. Failure to do so may result in a lack of coverage or higher premiums.
Conclusion
All in all, there is a lot to consider. However, as they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Can you really afford not to invest in a safe to protect the valuables of your business?
