Posted in Business by iwellbc |
People who own and run small businesses may have been overlooked in the past. Not attracted to the big budgets and sophisticated requirements of big business, the security industry has not focused on providing small business security. Small businesses had to settle for inappropriate and overpriced security that resembled home security systems.
But there’s good news. Leading security industry manufacturers and providers are paying attention now. They’re beginning to understand that the unique needs of small business security require tailored security measures and systems.
Small business security does have one advantage. Needing smaller staff and experiencing less turnover than large businesses, small business’s risk for in-house theft is significantly less, reducing the need for inventory tracking and video monitoring for break rooms and storage areas. But small businesses still face serious risks for theft, vandalism, and violence.
Small business security needs are in many ways like those of corporations and individual homeowners. Common-sense security measures are important. Things like removing potential hiding places for would-be thieves by eliminating blind spots on building exteriors is a basic preventive measure. Lighting the building, inside and out, makes it possible for people outside the building to observe criminal activity at night and when the business is closed. Keeping entry points clear of obstructions and shadows is important to safety and security. Installing locks with security codes for individual employees prevents entry by unauthorized people.
Exterior lighting is not only important for security. It’s an important way to prevent injuries to customers and to prevent crimes against both customers and employees outside the building. Liability insurance is a significant expense, and good exterior lighting can qualify small businesses for discounts and insurance savings. So in a way, liability insurance is a good small business security measure.
Every year, small businesses lose billions of dollars to preventable theft and vandalism. Monitored commercial alarm systems are an inexpensive and effective way to protect your small business. They’re easy to install in less than a day, and they’re easy to operate. A good small business security system will include control panels, security keypads, glass break sensors, window and door contacts, motion detectors, and sirens. Systems can be hard-wired or wireless. They can include loud immediate alarms or silent alarms that alert law enforcement without interrupting ongoing business. They can have add-ons like fire alarms and video surveillance. You can get a back-up system to assure your small business security needs are covered at all times.
If you haven’t already done it, you should ask a security professional to inspect and assess your small business for vulnerabilities and ask for a proposal that addresses them. Inherently more vulnerable to financial losses, there’s no such thing as too much security for a small business. An expert in the field can help you identify your small business security needs and create a plan that both meets your budget and makes your small business more secure.
When shopping for a small business security system provider, there are a few basic ways to select the best one for your needs. First, you should always talk to more than one company. Three or four reputable vendors is a logical choice that produces competition and gives you a variety of ideas and options. They should be willing to come to your business for face-to-face meetings. Be sure to get the proposals and price estimates in writing, and make sure the proposals are complete, including monthly charges, set-up and installation fees, and warranties. Find out if they offer training for you and your staff. Once you’ve made a commitment, review the contract very carefully to make sure it includes all the options you discussed with them.
The small business security specialist can analyze your physical layout, your internal procedures, and your vulnerabilities to help you come up with a comprehensive plan.
Posted in Business by iwellbc |
“Small businesses” is an economically term which generally related to the business scope and extent. The taxing authorities categorize “small business” according to their finance turnover in a defined time duration, in most cases: a year. Another aspect of specifying a business as a “small” one is its field of activity: a single barber shop, or a single “Pizza” parlor, or a single stand in a marketplace, are “small businesses”. When one of those becomes “a chain of…” it’s another story.
The behavioral sciences, especially Sociology, regard “small business” as a small organization. From the sociology point of view a business is a type of social organization. The sociology discipline classifies organizations by their internal human relations and interaction. No matter how many people are involved, what’s count is the quality of the inter-relationships among them. If everybody knows everybody, face to face, by each name, and the instrumental communication is informal as the social communication, then it’s a “small organization”.
Such informal relationships can function when we are talking about 2 to 100 workers, managers and subordinates all together. Probably when it’s a 100 people organization we’ll find formal division of labor, duties definitions and documented regulations. On the other hand – a 4 personnel store: the informality is extreme and there is no room for documentation and definitions, everyone is doing everything and if the boss, the store owner, will keep distance – he’ll lose the great advantage of potential warm instrumental relationships with his three salespersons.
Between the 4 and 100 personnel the most common are the 30-40 personnel small businesses. Even if the business owner will try to establish formal regulations he wouldn’t succeed. In such a small organization people will behave according to the informal habits which dominate the everyday activities. There is no way that a new employee will sit down and read a documented guidance book. What will probably happen is that he’ll be told orally what to do by a senior foreman and will complete his integration by imitating others in his close working environment. If he’ll insist to read written instructions he wouldn’t find it because it doesn’t exist in such small businesses and if he will – it wouldn’t be updated. This is the great fault of small organizations and yet their great advantage: it makes them much more flexible and adaptable to market real time changes.
The sociologist Max Weber claimed that the ideal desirable theoretical model of the most efficient organization is the ‘bureaucratic” model. Weber argued that this type of model will be the only social organization that will overcome human faults and weaknesses. His organization will leave much longer than the individuals who are working for it. People will have to adapt themselves to the organizational needs and demands and not the other way round. He wanted to fulfill the old cliché saying “The graveyards are packed with people who thought they were irreplaceable”.
Just for the sake of argumentation, I’ll point only two of the criticism on Weber’s model:
One – Bureaucratic organizations suffer of stagnation. When a “big business” wants to react to changes in its businesslike environment its got to be someone whose job is to detect such changes and to call a meeting of the right forum which is nominated in advance to take care of such cases and according to the firm regulations to make decisions which will be accomplished by those who will be appointed to the task. Such a procedure is taking a lot of time while small business are reacting immediately and move forward leaving the big businesses behind.
Two - The biggest enemy of the bureaucratic organization is the informal organization within the formal one. A lot of money, time and energy are wasted trying to overcome the influence of the informal organization. In small businesses, which are informal by nature, there is no such problem.
As a metaphor we can compare big and small businesses to a steam ship and a sailing boat. In the big steam liner, even if the crew members know each other personally, they operate a daily routine under strict regulations carried out by formally ranked officers and other commissioned lower ranked staff. If the weather will change and threat the ship safety, no one will react without a strict command issued by the captain. In the small numbered crew of a 40 feet sailboat there are no ranks or strictly defined jobs. Everybody is doing everything which is needed when it is needed to be done. There is a Skipper but in case of a sudden hazard you can carry on each sailor that he’ll do what’s necessary without waiting to be told what to do. In small teams, who are operating in a stressed environment, a small boat in the big blue sea or a small business in the jungle of the wild markets, crew members know that if they wouldn’t operate shoulder to shoulder they will be hanged neck to neck. The friendly commitment to each other is working for the benefit of the organization.
A online print shop is a classic example of a small business. It is organized by the following departments:
Management and administration (3)
Sales and marketing (3)
Accountants (2)
Customer service (3)
Graphic artists studio (5)
Printing machines operators (3)
Production and finish (7)
Shipping (2)
Business development and Internet support (2)
Those 30 workers are crowded in 100 square meters shop including machines and furniture.
The print shop is operating on line and off line.
On line, through the Internet, they offer the classical advertising and promoting printed materials like: Business cards, magnets, fliers, stamps, account books, envelopes, letterheads, invitations, stickers, bookmarks, and so on.
Off line, when the customer arrives in person and orders his request face to face. This is when the products are “heavy” like: books, catalogs, folders, small paper made packing materials, and such.
The small number of employees, operating under the right managers leadership, creates consolidation, unification, integration, and forging “team spirit” based on interpersonal relationship which creates an identification, involvement and empathy with the business goals. The lack of distance between managers, foremen and other employees do not harm discipline and high standards of working moral and ethics. Discussions, which are taking place from time to time, in open forums, enable all workers criticize constructively or suggesting improvements. Workers can express themselves freely in periodical interviews and all channels of communication, including internal E-mailing, are open unlimited. The closeness relationships enable flexible positioning workers in different stations according to various burdens. The outcomes of 30 workers is synergistic by nature and much more than just aggregative.
