Protect your business

Here are major strategies from a pro.

Her name's Ruth King.

Ruth is a business woman, author and consultant.
These are in her “The Courage to be Profitable.”
This book can make you a better business owner.


You trust your employees, don’t you?
Sure you do, You hired and trained them. Right?
They’re like family. Loyal and honest.
99% of them are. Don’t bet on the other 1%.
They can succumb to temptation.
They have problems they think your money can fix.
Are you going to give them a chance to steal?
That may be more temptation than they can stand.

A friend of ours disappeared recently.
He was a respected community leader.
It took the police a week to find his body.
He had left a suicide note blaming himself.
His bookkeeper had embezzled thousands of dollars.
He finally caught it and blamed himself.
She ruined her life and drove him to suicide.
He could have taken three simple steps.
As a business owner, you should take them, too.

Are you alone authorized to sign checks?
Take care who’s on your bank signature card.
You should guard this like the key to your lock box.
It’s better if only your signature is on the card.
Only you can sign payroll and other checks.
Do you have partners?
They will want to be on there, too.
Be careful about who you partner with.
How about your spouse? Trustworthy, right?
Spouses have cleaned out bank accounts.

Are your bank statements mailed to your home?
Why not? Then fewer people can tamper with them.
Go over them carefully. Look for:
• Late fees and payments and bounced checks.
• Excessive payments to your vendors.
• Anything that looks suspicious.
But your sealed bank statements come to the office.
That’s where they can be steamed open.
A dishonest bookkeeper could alter the statements.

Ruth has filled her book with other safeguards.
It’s in print and Kindle editions at Amazon.com

Next: Is your bookkeeper often late?

Got a burning  business question?
Contact me at JerryBellune@yahoo.com

What can go wrong? Part 4

I’m sharing with you another true story.

This is from a client friend of ours.
We had done business with him for years.
We believed he was honest. And he was.
He is the victim of this true story.

Jim sold office equipment.
He sold us our first fax machine.
That gives you an idea how long ago this happened.
I recalled the early fax machines.
They were barely readable.
Jim assured me this machine was top of the line.
“Let me put it in your office for 30 days,” he said.
“You’ll beg me not to take it out then.”
I thought he was nuts but agreed to the test.
He was right. The machine was excellent.
I didn’t wait 30 days to say we’d buy it.

Jim advertised his business with us.
He had a good credit rating.
We had never had trouble with his checks.
One day we realized his account was overdue.
Way overdue. More than 90 days overdue.
This was unusual. It had not happened before.
I called Jim. He said he had paid us.
He said he recalled signing the checks.

We double checked with the bank.
Was it our mistake?
No. The bank had received no checks either.
He finally had his accountant audit the books.
He found his trusted bookkeeper was embezzling.
She was changing our checks and depositing them.
Our money was going into her account.

I could have kicked myself for not acting sooner.
That was an important lesson.
Check your receivables regularly.
Don’t let accounts go into the 30-day column.
Call or go see them if that happens.
The older the receivable, the harder it is to collect.

Next week we’ll discuss protecting your business.
These strategies will help you sleep better each night.

What can go wrong? Part 3

Do you trust your employees to do the right thing?
Most of them will or you made a hiring mistake.
But 1% to 2% will rob you if you let them.
The one you trust the most may be dishonest.
You are most vulnerable to them and their deceit.
That’s because you don’t watch them as carefully.

A fellow newspaper owner told me this story.

He trusted the wrong person. The felon published one of his papers.
He had know the man for years. He couldn’t believe he would steal.
But he did.
Bob made one mistake.
He had no cross-check system.

Here’s what the man was doing to him.
His bookkeeper wrote weekly bank deposits.
The felon offered to take it to the bank.
He was going for lunch and could drop it off.
It seemed innocent enough.
She appreciated him doing this little chore.
She never suspected him of theft.

The felon had set up an account with that bank.
His account was in a name similar to his employer’s.
He had a supply of blank deposit slips.
He would rewrite the deposit slip.
In doing this, he would leave out one check.
It was a large check from a big advertiser.
He would make out a second deposit slip
This one was for his account.
The big check was deposited into his account.

This went on for almost a year.
Bob could see the dip in monthly revenues.
He called in an auditor to go over the books.
The auditor caught it right away.
The felon had been too greedy.
What if it had it been a smaller account?
The smaller thefts might have been overlooked.
Or at best, would not have set off an alarm.
He might have got away with it. 

Who makes up your bank deposits?
Who takes them to the bank?
Do you match deposit slips with bank statements?
If you don’t, you could be in trouble.
More about this touchy subject next week.

We invite you to join us in a worthy cause.
We raise money for literacy tutoring.
A $100 donation will get you a gift.
Four autographed copies of my books.
Just email me at JerryBellune@yahoo.com

What can go wrong? Part 2

Last week we talked about a thief.
He was exposed on a reality TV show.
It’s Mystery Diners on the Food Network.

The thieving employee lost his job.
He could have gone to jail.
He stole hundreds of dollars.
I recommend you watch this show.
You will see how employees can steal from your business.

Here’s an example from a recent show.
A popular bar owner’s nightly take was falling.
She suspected the night bartender was doing it.
But she couldn’t prove anything.
The guy was resourceful and she liked him.
She also liked being able to go home at night.
She trusted him to run the bar after dark.

Revenue kept falling so she made a call.
Mystery Diners came in and set up cameras.
She watched her bartender bring in his own booze.
He wasn’t selling hers and ringing it up.
He was pouring his and pocketing the money.
No wonder her revenues were falling.
The guy was using her place to run his own bar.

To make matters worse, he had a friend helping.
The guy wasn’t an employee but he was working.
They were both drinking booze themselves.
You can see where this was headed.
Her bartender had a part-time limo driving job.
So he left his friend in charge of the bar.
He had to go pick up someone in the limo.

The owner stopped him and brought him back.
She took him to the secret screening room.
He saw himself on the monitors stealing from her.
He was a big guy and gave her a hard time.
She fired him and told him not to come back.
If he did, she would call the police.

This is the kind of thing that could happen to you.
You don’t need to run a restaurant.
Just about any business will do.
Trusted employees may take advantage of you.
What do you do?
More about that next week.

Want my leadership and management book?

Just make a $20 donation to our literacy tutoring.

Call me at 803-331-6695.

What can go wrong?

“Whatever can go wrong undoubtedly will.” 

That’s Murphy’s Law of Business Management.

Sure, it’s time worn but still true.

Some of us think Murphy was an optimist.

Over the next few weeks we’ll discuss this.

There are many ways you can lose your shirt.

One of the best is trust your employees.

The one’s you trust the most may be bad apples.

Let me give you a few examples.

Do you watch Mystery Diners on Food Network?

This is one of the best business shows going.

It will convince you to stay out of the food business.

The Mystery Diners help owners in trouble.

Revenues are falling and customers don’t come back.

Yet the owners can’t figure out why.

So they hire the Mystery Diners.

The Mystery Diners set up cameras in the restaurant.

They can see the kitchen, dining areas, bar.

They can see the supply room and the back door.

In a private room, they watch what’s going on.

They sit with the owners to watch their employees.

This is an eye-opener for trusting owners.

On a series of recent programs:

The head chef was catering from the kitchen.

He used the owners food, utensils, everything.

His catering ads carried his cell number.

Customers called him, not the restaurant.

He took the orders and prepared the food.

He even left the kitchen to make deliveries.

The owners could watch him stealing from him.

Hundreds of dollars walking out the door.

He brought him in and fired him.

He told him not to come back or go to jail.

You don’t have to own a restaurant.

Are you a trusting business owner?

Then something like this could happen to you.

What do you do? The internet may help.

Google “business surveillance systems.”

It will bring up lots of options.

Next week we’ll talk more about protecting yourself.

We help business owners with problems. 

Call us at 359-7633.