Volume 7, No. 3
March 2015
Business Kelso Longview
Connection Chamber of Commerce
CEO’s Message
Boot Camp focuses on business security and safety
By Bill Marcum CEO – Kelso Longview Chamber of Commerce
Small Business Boot Camp starts up this week, Friday, March 6, at 7:30 a.m. in the Heritage Room in the Admin Building on the Lower Columbia College campus. This marks the start of the third year for the Kelso Longview Chamber to provide business classes designed to help your business be more successful and profitable. The past two years we focused on financial, human resources and sales and marketing classes, designed to bring more importance and awareness to understanding some of the aspects of your business that most of us hate doing but are a huge impact to our success. This year we decided to focus on the safety and security of your business. This means keeping your employees safe and your responsibility in providing a safe place to work. Classes will deal with workplace violence, what a safe environment looks like, and what information the police department will need from you in the event of an incident. Kelso Police Chief Andy Hamilton will facilitate this class.
Last season’s Boot Camp series drew large numbers of local business owners. The second class is on fraud protection, both internal and external. We will examine the signs to look for in determining if you have an employee who might be taking advantage of you, or externally, what to look for if you suspect bad checks, fake purchase order numbers and fraudulent claims. Certified Public Accountant David Futcher from Futcher-Henry CPA Group will facilitate this class. The third class is on protecting your technology, computers and data. Listen, if they can hack Target, they can hack you. So how do you protect yourself from those who might want to steal informa-
tion, crash your computers, lift your customers’ information including credit card, banking and purchasing data? Jayson Rogen with Technalytix will help you have a better understanding about how you can protect your business and your customers. Chief Hamilton returns for class four (March 27) with the topic employee theft and theft from other businesses. Now that you know what to look for, and have your suspicions, what do you do? How can the police help you to prove or disprove what
Please see Boot Camp, page 5