When you own a business, regardless of it being a small or big one, yet another of your duties is to protect your business premises from theft. After all, you have invested so much of your energy, time, capital, creativity and dedication into it to let anything bad happen (well at least anything that’s in your power to try and prevent).
To protect your business, you need to come up with a security plan. Don’t be naïve and think that just because your business is located in a neighborhood with a low crime rate that you are safe – these things you can never know.
So, to protect your business, your employees, the inventory and yourself from any unpleasant situations, we recommend you take the following steps to improve the security of your business:
#1. Security guards
Hiring security guards to guard the entrance is only common sense. If your business takes up one (or couple of) the floors in a particular skyscraper, then the building probably already has a security guard whose job is to check out everyone who enters and exits the building. If, however, you are a small business and are a part of a building complex then you should hire a guard to be on top of things at all times.
If you want to keep your business secure, you may want to consider hiring a day and a night guard. Apart from making sure you and your offices aren’t in any jeopardy, their job description should entail employee and visitor checkups, meaning – they should be entitled to ask for ID cards and remain the right to let (or not) someone in.
#2. Know your people
It may sound a bit silly at first, but when you think about it the employees you work with are “people from the inside” and they can easily be your leak to a person planning a theft. So, when hiring, make sure you get to know people you are planning on giving the position to. Do a background check on them, analyze their psychological profile, see if they can be a potential danger. Also, if at any given moment during a collaboration with your employees you get suspicious about their behavior talk to them before you accuse them of anything. Share your concern with a fellow partner only if you feel there’s something cooking there.
#3. Invest in a surveillance system
Securing your firm isn’t the time to think about the depth of your pockets. Spending good money on a quality surveillance system is definitely better than spending it on buying new equipment since the original one had been stolen.
Best security comes with surveillance cameras. Cameras are expensive, but they are also extremely efficient. Plus, nowadays, you’ve got cameras connected to alarm systems, which are connected with the police. Investing in installing security cameras may be a bit expensive at first, but it will pay off on the long run.
#4. Alarm systems
Installing an alarm system goes hand in hand with installing a security camera. Modern alarm systems have the option of automatically sending a signal to the police in a case something unusual is happening. They are programmed in such a way that they “understand” the difference between normal and unusual movement of people approaching the entrance.
They will also “react” to the type of entrance people choose. Say, if someone decided to enter the building through the door, the alarm wouldn’t sound. If, however, the person decided they wanted to enter through the window – a siren and strong lights would go off, while the signal of breaking and entering would be sent to the police. Both cameras and alarm systems are the best high-tech solution to modern security problems.
#5. Basics
Apart from the things we listed above, there are a few basic moves you should cover before moving onto bigger security measures:
- Always lock the doors at the end of your shift and double check whether it’s locked
- Do a background check on the cleaning lady, too
- Have all bushes around the building trimmed as these are the easiest hide away places
- Have the building itself, the parking lot and the space around the building lighted – if you want to save energy, opt for sensor lights that trigger when someone is approaching
- Don’t keep extremely important valuables and documents at the office
- Don’t give the key of the offices to any newbies or colleagues you are not particularly close to
Better safe than sorry, right?
Images: ”security guard watching video monitoring surveillance security system/ Shutterstock.com“
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