A Blog for Small Business Owners & Operators

As a business owner or operator you have a business plan that outlines your strategy for sales and operations. You measure your sales and analyze how much you make daily, weekly monthly and annually.

How often do you as a business owner or manager think about whether your employees may be stealing from you?

Retail theft is more than a $35 billion dollar issue. Studies, surveys and interviews with industry experts show that regardless of the size or segment of your business, theft can destroy profitability.

When it comes to thinking about loss caused by theft and error, many small business owners view their losses as little more than “nickel and dimes.” It is often alarming, that when some actually look deeper they see that the hidden impact is a lot bigger than one might suspect. Here is a little scenario to highlight that point.

“Be prepared.” That is the Boy Scout Motto and should be yours, particularly this month. September is National Preparedness Month and in light of the many recent incidents (such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes) and the upcoming holiday season, we at LPI thought it best to provide you with some web links to help you “be prepared.”

Running a business requires knowledge in various areas including merchandising, operations, finances and human resources to name just a few. The amount of time, effort and money it takes to make a sale is substantial. But what efforts do you make to ensure those sales become revenue? What are you doing to protect and improve your profitability?
 
Here are 5 items that you can develop to help protect your revenue from costly losses.

Maintaining tight inventory levels is good business.  Good inventory levels keep the cost of goods reasonable and allow any business to be in a position of profitability. However, any loss of inventory due to theft, error, waste or damages will impact the overall cost of goods sold. An increase to costs of goods will most certainly impact your profitability and margin.

A dictionary would define an error as something incorrectly done or a mistake. In business, an error can be defined as a contributor to loss. Understanding that not all losses are theft-related, here are four of the most common errors we have found when working with retailers and businesses. 

Here are some common facts regarding employee theft within the retail environment.  Not specific to any retailer of size, segment or environment, see how many of these facts surprise you!

When it comes to protecting your business against loss, there are certain areas that you want to have written and acknowledged policies