FINANCE

RUN YOUR BUSINESS SAFELY

While you need to be aware of your safety throughout the year, making sure that you are ready for any challenge is vital

Your business is your pride and joy. The most vulnerable time of year for it is probably also the most lucrative. This not only means a rise in opportunities, but it also means a rise in opportunists, which you need to safeguard yourself against. Criminals work hard to find new ways of stealing from small and medium businesses – just like yours – so you need to work even harder to prevent that from happening. Most taverns get a boost in revenue over the December holidays which means having more cash and stock on site in the beginning of the year. This is a risk for small business owners, and you will need a way to ensure that your investment is protected. Here are a few ways that you can protect the cash on site, and transfer the cash to the bank with ease:

Call in Professionals

Look into using a licensed cash-in-transit security company to move and deposit large amounts of cash for you. This is a safer way of handling large amounts of cash yourself and takes the stress off you. When using a security company for this, you are assured that you will have well-trained and professional people doing the dangerous part for you.

Less is More

Try to keep as little cash on site as possible. Having just enough float on site to see you through the day or week reduces the risk of being robbed down. Even if you have already felt the effects of a robbery, don’t think it won’t happen to you again. In fact, if you have already been robbed once, you are probably more vulnerable than you were before.

Safety First

Invest in a quality, durable safe that you can either keep on site or in your home. Don’t look for budget units: you want something that will be impossible to break into. The safe is where you can keep excess cash while waiting for the cash-in-transit company to collect your profits. It is also a good place to keep any important documentation you might need for your business, like tax forms, licence documentation and contracts. Make sure that only you and one other trusted person has a key or combination to open the safe on your premises. You can avoid unnecessary losses by minimising who has access to your cash and valuable documentation.

Be Deposit Smart

Don’t let your employees carry cash with them, and if they do, don’t let them carry the cash on their own. Avoid anything that can identify that you or an employee is carrying cash, such as typical bank bags or briefcases. Try make yourself look as unnoticeable as possible when going to do a deposit.

If you or your staff need to deposit cash, make sure that you have the resources that will save your money and possibly lives, such as a full tank of petrol, airtime and charged cellphones that can be used immediately in the event of an emergency. Don’t rely on public transport or letting anyone walk to the bank with bags full of cash, even if the bank is close by. Finally, make sure that you and your employees alternate between bank branches so that you don’t form too much of a routine for potential criminals to follow.

Storing Stock

Making sure that your stock is safe after hours can be tricky. You might even be losing sleep over the fear that your business is being broken into at any given moment of the day or night, while you are not there. Take time to re-evaluate how you store your stock, where it is kept at night and what you can do to increase its security. A popular choice these days is to have a permanent security guard on site. Alternatively, beef up your existing security with extra security bars and industrial locks.

Keep track of the stock on hand by having a record of what is sold and what has been restocked, on a daily basis. That way you can also see where any losses occur during busier seasons in your business.

Employee Safety

Finally, happy employees are productive employees. So make sure that your employees stay happy and safe by arranging to transfer their wages directly into their bank accounts. This way they are getting paid regularly, without having to worry about being robbed of their cash on the way home. It will also minimise any risk that you might face when travelling to the bank at the end of the month to withdraw their wages.