Risk is part of everything we do. Any business could be sued by anyone. We can’t change that, but we can manage the risks and reduce our potential liabilities.
 |
| A shooting station at Claythorne Lodge: a risk that must be managed. |
Agritourism businesses have some extra risks to manage: being around animals and horseback riding, shooting, being around water and fishing, and more.
At the recent tri-state agritourism event, Sharon Glidden from Tiger Mountain Ranch talked about her risk management strategies. Now, Sharon is not your everyday person when it comes to risk management. She said she used to manage risk at an assisted living center in Florida, where she learned that caring about people is your number one asset.
Her risk management manual cut her insurance cost from $21,000 to $11,000 per year. She said to share your strategies with your liability insurance agency in order to achieve a similar savings. Here are some of her other tips and ideas:
Risk management means being capable of identifying a potential danger, as well as showing the ability to see to the needs of the injured party.
Effective risk management takes steps to assure there is no further injury that occurs from the same cause.
When Something Happens: Incidents
Incidents are clues that something may be wrong. Most incidents are preventable.
Incident reports are your internal tool. You use these to investigate and to prevent future problems. Report all the facts and only the facts of what happened. Complete them promptly after each and every incident.
Working With People
Educate everyone involved: staff and guests.
Staff ratios depend on activity. The highest risk activities, like shooting, can be one staff person for each guest. Lowest risk activities might be unguided. With unguided activities, limit liability by providing signs that explain not just the risk, but also how to conduct the activity as safely as possible. Post clear rules in visible places.
Her guests sign participation agreements, not liability releases. She said the term “liability release” implies that you have a liability. A participation agreement is better, because it only implies the guests are participating in something.
More Resources
Of course, in a one hour workshop, we didn’t get into a lot of detail. So I’d love to hear your resources for managing risk. What sites and resources have you found helpful?
New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.
- For easier social media marketing, fill in the blank - August 5, 2019
- Need a downtown business idea? Try a Cookie Crawl - July 22, 2019
- Need funding for the next step in your business? - July 17, 2019
- Youth business idea: phone clinics - July 8, 2019
- Chain link is everywhere in downtowns. Here’s how to dress it up. - June 30, 2019
- Stop using “3 legged stool” to describe any idea - June 24, 2019
- What are your challenges? Add your voice here - June 17, 2019
- How to publicize your biking trails before they’re finished - June 10, 2019
- How $5 and a bowl of soup can rebuild your community - June 3, 2019
- Getting people to mix at an event - May 27, 2019
