Blog

Most business owners and managers would like to believe that employees would never steal from them. After all, if you are at the top of a company, you are probably an honest person. 

However, that’s not the reality. According to research by CBS, the average company loses around 5 percent of its revenue to employee fraud. And when you think about it, that’s a huge amount. What’s more, small businesses are affected by theft disproportionately, meaning that the losses can be immense. 

So what can you do about it as a business owner. Here are some ideas: 

Create A One-Strike Policy

Before employees take work with you, they should know that you operate a one-strike-and-you’re-out policy. Even if they steal just once – and it’s a small amount – they’re gone. 

Most retailers and other businesses use this approach. Over the years, they have found it to be the most effective way to prevent theft, even if replacing criminal staff members is expensive. 

You should also talk to your employees about how you monitor for fraud. So, for instance, you might want to make it clear from the beginning that you record them on CCTV. CCTV for shops is particularly common. 

Improve Your Relationship With Employees

If employees love their work, believe in your mission and like you personally, they are much less likely to steal. They will view themselves as “team players,” committed to the success of the brand. However, if they don’t align with your values and dislike management, they may use that as justification to steal. 

Senior partners, executives and managers must be careful. Do whatever it takes to build quality relationships with your staff. If you can’t make it work, then it may actually be better to let somebody go before they damage your company. 

Create An Accountability System

You should be able to detect shrinkage no matter how small by comparing your takings to your overall inventory. The two should match exactly. However, if they don’t, it is a sign that somebody is stealing from the company. 

In many cases, you will be able to account for losses – damaged or spoiled goods. But if there is a substantial remainder, then it is a clear sign that somebody is taking money from the firm. When this happens, try to create more accountability. Assign employees to individual tills. Keep track of all the money they contain. Always review footage of employees to check that they are behaving honestly. 

Stop Relying On Cash

Cash is a big problem for businesses. That’s because it is so easy for employees to steal. All they have to do is put their hands in the cash register and take it out. 

However, it is much more difficult for them to steal when you take money via card payments. POS systems automatically shuffle funds around between banks, without any involvement between employees. 

The lesson is clear: don’t rely on cash. Minimize cash usage where you can. Encourage customers to make card payments by offering lower limits and minimum spend amounts. 

Ways To Improve Your Office Working Environment

85% of employees worldwide admit to feeling unhappy about their current working environment and the impact on productivity.  Indeed, the office working environment tends to harbour information overload, demanding deadlines, and unimaginable stress. It is the more reason you have a great responsibility as a business owner to ensure the office space evokes positivity, is decluttered, and enhances efficiency. For ideas on how to get this right, please read further.

1. Declutter your workspace and go paper-free

Cluttered office spaces counter the objective of a positive working environment. Instead, it creates a disorganised area that makes locating essential office items such as files and documents even more difficult. Before you know it, your employees will be spending more than half of their working hours trying to find physical documents needed for specific office operations or transactions. That is a waste of productive office hours.

Unless you opt for a secure document storage system in your working environment, your office space will evoke a sense of unseriousness and inefficiency. While at it, encourage your employees to maintain decluttered desks. According to the business news daily website, employees reduce stress when their desks are organised and decluttered.

1. Maximise technology usage in the office

In a 2018 survey conducted by global HR service Randstad, the group discovered that 40% of employees quit their jobs for this very reason. Former employees admitted to leaving the organisations they worked for because the business made minimal use of technology. In the 21st century, technology usage in the office is a must. It is a prerequisite for optimal work performance.

Moreover, worldwide, workplaces are making optimum use of technology to enhance productivity. Therefore, if you run an office without it, you could compromise efficiency and waste more time than you imagined. Since 2017, business automation has become almost mandatory in most workplaces. Additionally, technology is closely linked to business innovation and employee professional development. Indeed, there is much to gain than lose when you incorporate efficient technology usage in the working environment.

1. Ensure proper illumination in all workspaces

A gloomy or poorly lit office space does nothing to improve the working environment. Science has proven that poor lighting increases boredom, leading to drowsiness and unproductivity. The primary explanation for this is that poor lighting negatively impacts your employees’ circadian rhythm. Without much explanation, you already know what boredom and sleepiness can cause in the working environment.

If your concern primarily concerns energy efficiency in the office space, you should consider LED lights designed to conserve power. It’s worth noting that LED lights mimic natural daylight. Therefore, it helps your employees to feel energised and motivated to work.

To conclude, the working environment should be structured in a way that enhances productivity. More importantly, it must be comfortable enough to make your employees want to give off their best willingly. Indeed, your employees get paid at the end of the month, but you have more responsibility to make them want to stay.

Sometimes the dream of owning your own business is deferred or delayed because of how risky it can be. However, many people find themselves in this position and end up regretting not taking the risk sooner. Whether you are considering starting your own company or have already started one. There are some things that you need to know about the risks involved with starting a start-up business. As with all good battle plans, you need to know what these risks are to formulate possible solutions for overcoming them so that you can get back to living your dreams.

Is Your Concept Still Viable? 

The first risk is that the product or service you are going to provide does not measure up. The market might change, and suddenly your idea may no longer be a good one. You need to consider whether it will still be viable in the future, especially if these changes happen quickly. This can leave you with disappointing sales numbers for months until you figure out how to adapt your business model accordingly.

Make Sure The Cash Cow Is Full

Funding is a significant player in any venture and at any stage of the game. Are you able to find suitable funding before launching into your business ventures full-time? In many cases where start-up businesses are trying to get off the ground, it means no income coming in while waiting for funds to arrive. This is a major risk for start-up businesses because it’s already difficult to get investors on board. If you’re not bringing in enough money, this can be even more challenging. Even if you are lucky enough to secure those investments, there might be instances during your financial year where the cash-cow is low and not enough funds are available right away. Suppose something unexpected comes up, like equipment breaking down unexpectedly. In that case, cash flow issues could cause problems before too long as well. So make sure you budget wisely, so there isn’t any danger of running out of money at crucial points during the development process. 

Who Will Go To War With You?

Another risk factor is whether or not you can find the right staff that can help your company grow and prosper. This will be especially important if you’re working from home alone. Because people who work alongside you must be reliable, efficient, and capable of completing tasks such as bookkeeping so that you don’t have too much on your plate. Do you need to upskill your employees? Do they understand your business? Are they in it for the long run? Of course, hiring somebody else costs money. Still, tax benefits may be available depending on where this person works, meaning more money is saved. But also make sure that you hire smart because you don’t want a high turnover of employees. The cost to company on retaining new employees and getting them in your business groove will be high if they and you have a suspension that they will only stick around for a few months.

Is Your Product Invisible? 

There is also the risk that you are not making enough sales. For example, you might have a great product, but there will be no way to generate revenue if people don’t know about it. Therefore nobody can benefit from your invention in this case. So make sure that you put together an effective marketing strategy so customers see how they can use what you offer.

Legal Issues

Starting your business might look easy until you delve deeper into the depths of the consumer pool. It’s very murky and can become messy in an instance. It’s advisable that you quickly outsource an excellent legal company from legislation, compliance, and other legal laws that you must adhere to. You might be soaring high on your sales mountain one second. Then the next, you need a good criminal defense attorney because another business is accusing you of stealing their idea. 

Use Outside Sources To Help Your Dream Come True

You need to focus on solid research, planning out how you will deal with problems when they come up, and putting together an effective marketing strategy ahead of time. You should be able to determine whether this type of start-up is right for your particular skill set. Preferably before making any actual investments. Various support groups are available that provide advice and contacts in specific areas like developing new product ideas or getting funding, so make use of those.

While sometimes a deferral may make sense, like if conditions aren’t right yet, more often than not, what stops you from working towards your dear is the fear of failure. You need to have more confidence about taking the plunge and getting started on your business. Taking all the risk factors into consideration and making contingency plans will give you the added confidence boost.