Paper Shredding Tips For Your Small Business

Most businesses have confidential information and trade secrets that can be detrimental if they get into the wrong hands. To keep this from happening, you can use a shredding service to dispose of these materials. Below are some tips if you need this service for your business.

Choosing a Shredding Service That Knows the Local Laws

As a small business owner, it is your responsibility to dispose of your customer's personal information in the right way. If not, it will cause problems with your business, and you could violate confidentially laws. Because of this, you should use a shredding service that understands the laws for destruction of private documents.

The shredding service should understand how long you should keep certain documents before you can legally dispose of them. They should also know if it is required that you keep a certificate proving you shredded the documents. You may have to keep an electronic copy of certain documents, and the shredding service should have knowledge of this.

The Right Shredding Service

It is important that you choose the right shredding service for your company. Some shredders shred documents in different ways. For example, they may slice the documents into horizontal strips. The strips may be wide enough that someone could see some confidential information, such as parts of sentences.

If they practice this type of shedding, identity thieves can obtain information, and even piece some documents together. Instead of a slicing the documents in this way, the shredder should use a cross cut shredder. This is more secure, as it cuts the paper in two directions making it much more difficult to piece the document back together.

Separate Shredding Service

Choosing a separate shredding service for your company is beneficial. If you have someone do this internally, you would have to hire someone to do this for you. If not, you would have to use current employees, which takes them away from their job duties. You are also taking the chance that someone visiting your company will see these documents, if they were to get into the wrong hands.

Regular Shredding to Go Paperless

Choosing to shred your documents could allow your company to go paperless. This makes it much easier for you to find the documents you need. Instead of looking through drawers and filing cabinets, you can quickly bring the document up on your computer. This also gives you more space in your office, and it is better for the environment.

Even though it will cost you to hire a shredding service company, it is worth the money. It is much better than putting your business at risk. If you are interested in this valuable service, talk with moving, storing, and shredding businesses such as ABC Moving & Storage.