How to Have a Good Employer Employee Relationship

How do you develop a good employee employer relationship? Is being in good terms with your employees good for the business? Does having a good employer employee relationship increase productivity? Well, i advice you read on to find the answers you seek.

A good employer-employee relationship is the heart and foundation of any business. A good employer-employee relationship is capable of building a successful company as happy employees will always produce better results. The opposite however can adversely affect the company’s operations, reputation, and morale. Etc.

There are state and federal laws that regulate this relationship. This may also be regulated by an existing employment contract and public policy. Without wasting your time, below are some steps that should be observed by both parties in order to facilitate a successful and harmonious relationship.

How to Have a Good Employer Employee Relationship

For Employers

1. Pay your staff properly

This means that you should ensure a proper compensation for any work that is done overtime and be punctual about paying wages. Wages (with some exceptions) should be paid at least two times in each calendar month on the designated days and should be in advance as regular paydays. Overtime payment is equivalent to 11/2 times the employee’s regular rate of payment for every hour worked in excess of eight hours.

2. Avoid discrimination in the workplace

This should be observed because there are many federal and state laws that regulate employment discrimination. There should be no ethnic, religious or tribal bias in the office and you should not make racial comments about an employee.

Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 states that job applicants or employees should not be discriminated because of their genetic information or any information about the person’s family, medical history, or any disorder, disease, or conditions in relation to it.

3. The work place should be kept safe and hazards free

Violation of a cal/OSHA or any occupational health standard or safety order can prompt not only administrative penalties but also civil liability if any employee gets sick or hurt. So you must make sure your business environment is safe and conducive for your employees. It is also your duty to provide safety work tools and apparatus.

4. Listen to your employees

Complaints of employees about discrimination, poor welfare or harassment should be promptly and properly attended to. You should not retaliate against an employee for filing a complaint, even though you feel it is not warranted.

For Employees

1. Follow the rules and regulation of your organization

You should always strive to follow the terms and provisions of your contract. You can be held criminally or even civilly liable if you violate your non-disclosure agreement. You must ensure you go by the rules and not against the rule.

2. Get acquainted with the job

You should always read the employment handbook or operations manual in order to get acquainted with the policies of employment. Always adhere and follow office rules and regulations.

3. Be diligent

You should strive to always perform any task assigned to you by your employer or superior without grudges and with all your heart. By so doing, you will win the heart of your employer.

In conclusion, it is important you know that building a good relationship in the workplace also entails co-operating and interacting smoothly with your team mates. Employees are seen to be the heart of all company and so it will be of great impact if good employer-employee relationship is cultivated and maintained because it is mutually beneficial and encouraging for both parties.

How a Private Corporation Can Reduce Debt

How can a private corporation or company reduce debt? This article will provide the answers you need.

It is a known fact that a business can never be free of debt. In fact, debt is one of the instrument of business growth and sustainability. But like every good side, there is a corresponding bad side to debt. Debt is a double-edge sword that is not handled properly, it could destroy a business.

Debt is something that has to be kept in check throughout the existence of a business. Suppliers sometimes permit businesses to owe money with Net 60 or Net 90 days. With Net 60 day terms, businesses are permitted to pay for an order up to 60 days after placing it, and with Net 90 day terms, businesses are permitted to pay due balances within 90 days of placing the order. Many businesses take benefits of every last day of those terms. When debt gets beyond control, a business must react, and there are certain things that can be done to reduce or totally eliminate those debts. Below are some drastic or necessary things to be done in order to be free from debt.

Six Practical Ways a Private Corporation Can Reduce Business Debt

NOTE: Reducing debt requires a sustainable action plan

When the rate of borrowing becomes excessive and the rate of debt uncontrollable, it can lead too much problems, such as:

Running out of cash
Inability to deal with unexpected costs
Minimizing the value of business
Inability to invest
Losing the confidence of stakeholders
Minimize service/productivity quality
And so on……..

With the help of this article, you will discover various ways or ideas that will assist you minimize your business debt. There are six basic strategies that can assist you out of excessive debt, they are:

1. Minimizing costs.

There are two strategic ways to minimize costs:

Making enough savings by cutting your expenses
Make little reductions across the board

To discover high cost savings, concentrate on large savings first. Take steps to cut some expenses within and without your business. If you spend more on certain products that do not add to the bottom line directly or indirectly, then cut such an expenses.

2. Increasing your business income

There are many ways to maximize the amount of money flowing into your business, such as:

Increase sales
Raise price

Alternative income discovery

For instance: renting out unused office space, selling advertising space on your website (e.g.: YPN, MSN Ad center, Google Ad center, affiliates) or in physical spaces that is available for you and also obtaining commissions from other organizations

3. Restructuring Liabilities.

Your ‘liabilities’ are all the amounts of money that you are owing to other people. Restructuring your company liabilities does not necessarily reduce the entire amount you own, but it can grant you more cash, more disposable income or decrease the amount of debt you require to provide working capital.

7 Ways to restructure your liabilities to reduce your debt include:

Agree longer or scheduled payment terms with suppliers
Secure ones (replacing unsecured loans) to minimize the interest rate
Guaranteed loans (guaranteed by shareholders) to minimize the interest rate
Repayments over a longer period of time
Consolidated loans
Shareholder funds
Defer tax liabilities (this requires specialist tax advice)

4. Restructuring your company’s assets

Your assets are all those things that your business owns. This section of restructuring your assets as well includes disposing of assets. Examples are:

Sell those assets that are unnecessary (e.g: surplus/old equipment, cars)
Convert necessary assets into liabilities: sell in order to finance company and lease them back
Factor invoices (this can minimize the value of the asset invoice, but raise cash)
Use cash or investment to pay off loans

5. Raising more capital

More capital can be raised by:

Discovering more investors
Issuing more shares to current investors
Obtaining aid and grants

Also observe your asset list and assess if it can be converted into assets of greater value. For instance, if you have a land, you can build more offices or houses on that land.

6. Exit the business

This is just like a final option after all other options have failed. If you find out that your company is overwhelmed with debt and there’s no way you can repay such debt, then you might as well sell your business to another corporation or individual with cash. You can choose to exit the business in the following manner:

Selling the business as a going concern
Going into receivership
Selling off every of the business assets (including the goodwill of the business, e.g.: the client base) and making use of the proceeds to pay off the liabilities.

In conclusion, i believe these are the best and acceptable ways by which private cooperation can reduce debt, while increasing income and cash flow.

Five Brand Reputation Management Tools and How to Use them

What are the best online reputation management tools? How do you manage your company’s brand reputation online and how much does it cost? Well, i advice you read on to find out.

Most small businesses don’t really care about their online reputation and they don’t even recognize the essence of brand reputation management. But if you are going to set yourself apart, then you must begin to take into consideration the opinion of your customers about your business. Now the process of core task required in the handling of your business reputation usually involves:

Promoting positive sentiment about your brand.
Being active at social networks on behalf of your company.
Daily tracking of news and social conversations about your brand.
Joining discussions that could hurt your business and redeeming your company’s image

However, executing all these tasks on a daily basis manually or by hand sounds a bit of a formidable job. Luckily, there are online brand reputation management tools that you can use to always stay on top of what people are saying concerning your brand and act on those conversations. Without wasting your time, below are such tools.

Top 5 Best Online Reputation Management Tools and How to Use them

1. Google alerts

This is the first and simplest tool that comes to mind when you are thinking about reputation management. Google alert allows you to create an alert for a specific search term (your business’s name, the name of your CEO, your product name, etc) and as well permit you to receive notifications to your email address each time the keyword is being mentioned on the web.

2. Google discussions

This is another wonderful tool to use in managing your reputation. Unlike Google web search, Google discussions will permit you to discover relevant conversations that are happening specifically at forums and blogs.

3. Social-mention

This is another handy tool which you can use to keep track of what is being said concerning your business online. Furthermore, it provides links to different social posts mentioning your business, it as well shows you the keywords that are often used in those posts and estimate the overall sentiment that the above mentioned has.

4. Who’s Talking

This is a service that is similar in its functionality to Social-mention. It assists you to find an online conversation, videos, images and other content that is essential to the keywords you provide. The inconvenience about Who’s Talking, is that it allow you to see only one aspect of mentions at a time. For instance, you can see a feed that contains only twitter mentions. And if you want to see your Facebook mentions, you will have to switch to another feed.

5. BuzzBundle

BuzzBundle is a multi platform dashboard, which when using, you can track brand-related social mentions in real time. The software as well permits you to reply to individual posts right from the dashboard, send direct messages, re-tweet tweets, and more.

Besides, you can log in to your social accounts via BuzzBund and see the posts which you published by yourself in a separate stream. The SMM tool as well permits you to add relevant conversations to favorites and browse your favorites in a separate workspace.

In conclusion, keeping track of what people say concerning your brand on the internet is an essential part of any business. However, the number of social networks has become so numerous these days that it is almost impossible to stay on top of things without resorting to any tools. Whichever way, the software is bound to decrease the amount of time you invested managing reputation for your business and assist you to reach larger audiences with your social media promotional efforts.

How Diversification Can Help your Business

What is the importance of a diversification strategy to a small business? How can diversification help a business? Is it advisable to operate in several industries or just concentrate on a particular business? Well, i advice you read on to find the answers you seek.

After operating a business for several years, you may decide to expand its operation. Many businesses choose to enlarge by merging with another company or by acquiring a unique company in the same industry just like Oracle Corporation. Sometimes companies choose to diversify by merging or acquiring companies in different industries just like General Electric.

However, some daring companies even go a step further to start business from scratch in entirely different companies. Example of such companies include Dangote Group, Virgin Group, etc. In retrospect, there are companies that have found success by concentrating on their core and example of these companies include IKEA, Wal-Mart, StarBucks, etc. So in this article, i will be focusing on the benefits of diversification for a business.

15 Ways Diversification Can Help your Small Business

1. Diversification leads to continuity

Diversification gives you the ability to control inputs, leading to continuity and improved quality. For example, NewsCorp acquired twentieth century fox and six television stations of metro media broadcasting group in the US. These acquisition provided the company with wide platform for consolidation of its related activities through access to studios for making films and television programs.

2. Ability to control markets by guaranteeing distribution and sales. This can start through a combination of linkages in the value chain. For instance, where production and distribution channels are combined identity to achieve benefits in new markets. The market dominance of Dangote Group in Nigeria is a good example of this scenario.

3. Ability to take advantage of already existing experts, knowledge and resources in that company when enlarging into new activities. This can result in transfer of skills, such as research and improved knowledge and sharing of resources.

4. Diversification creates a platform for better risk control management because there will be no more reliance on single market. A well diversified company like the Virgin Group, Reliance Group, General Electric and Dangote Group can never be shaken or liquidated by the failure of an arm of the business.

5. Another benefit of diversification is that it helps in the provision of movement away from declining activities.

6. It benefits the firm owners because it increases the efficiency of the firm.

7. Diversification helps a firm gain business synergies.

8. It helps the firm make use of internal capital markets.

9. It helps to diversify shareholders portfolios.

10. It helps to economize on transaction cost.

11. Diversification helps in identification of undervalued firms when there is excess capacity.

12. Diversification in business helps allocate investments among the various financial instruments, industries and other categories.

13. It maximizes returns because investments are made in different areas.

14. It is the most important component of reaching long-range financial goals while minimizing risk.

15. Diversification provides an effective, fast and sustainable growth in business.

In conclusion, the above listed information are the ways in which diversification can help a business. In addition to the points listed above, diversification can also assist an investor to manage risk and decrease the volatility of an asset’s cost movements.

However, i must re-emphasize the point that no matter how diversified your portfolio is, risk can never be erased completely. You can decrease the risk associated with individual stocks, but general market risks affect almost all stock, so it is very essential to diversify also among different asset classes. The key is to find a medium between risk and return; this will ensure you that you have achieved your financial goals while still getting a good night rest.

How to Plan a Seminar or Business Presentation

Do you need assistance on how to plan a seminar? Are you finding it difficult to organize a seminar due to lack of knowledge on how best to go about it? Do you want to know what it takes to successfully give a business presentation? Then read on.

Every process, journey, business venture or investment; begins with a plan. Nothing succeeds without critical planning and attention to detail. As an entrepreneur and business owner, you can never shy away from conducting seminars or doing business presentations. Why do i say this? Well, below are some reasons why business presentations and seminars are important.

Why Organizing Business Presentations and Seminars are Important for Entrepreneurs

Business presentations and seminars are important to the process of:

Pitching investors
Raising capital
Product launches
Training employees
Addressing customers and stakeholders
Conferences
Defending a project or business proposal

How to Plan a Seminar or Business Presentation

1. Confirm the purpose of the seminar or presentation

When conducting any research involving venue selection, first consider and make sure that you are familiar with the basic aims and objectives of the event. To really get the purpose of the seminar or presentation, you will need to answer these five questions.

What is the topic of the seminar?
Why will people attend?
What is the agenda of the seminar?
Who is the audience?
Where should the venue be?

2. Create a presentation plan

You have to create a marketing plan that begins with determining whether or not there is much demand for your seminar to attract attendees. Even when you are holding an in-house workshop, you must identify reasons why people should attending your event, this will assist you in the planning of your content.

You should also determine how you will reach your attendees, and how much it will cost you to reach them. Are you going to reach them through the use of direct print advertising, mail or social media marketing? You need to also determine how much to charge your attendees. You can check to see what similar workshops renders and charges. However, you must note that your aim of organizing the seminar or workshop will determine if attendance to your seminar will be free or carry a cost.

3. Determine the content of the seminar

Before organizing a seminar or doing a presentation, you must first determine what your topic is, where you will source the information, who will deliver it and how the information will be presented to the people. You may also need to add a program or agenda, with beginning and ending time for each portion of the seminar. Do not forget to add the breaks. Also, write a list of materials you will require, such as a workbook, the speakers you will invite and lecture handouts.

4. Write a list of the logistics that will be required for the event

Note down the cost of booking a location or venue and make arrangements for seats, a registration table, audiovisual needs, projector, a podium and refreshments. It is up to you to determine if you will be bringing food and beverage to the area, or if you will use on-site catering.

5. Execute the plan

After all the time and effort spent on planning, nothing will get done if you don’t act. It is one thing to plan, and it is another thing to successfully execute your plan.

Now organizing a seminar or presentation is not really a big deal but your success or failure will be determined only after the end of the event. However, i want you to know that if you judiciously follow and use the information above, you will be surprised at how successful your seminar will turn out to be.

How to Deal with Difficult Employees

Are you having problem on how to deal with your difficult and troublesome employee? Do you need guidelines on how to handle your stubborn employee? If your answer to this question is yes, then please read on.

One thing i have learned in business is that shit happens and it happens fast without forewarning. You can make a million dollars today and lose it tomorrow. You can hire an excellent employee today or better still, you can get an employee from hell. Now what do you do in a situation where you have a difficult employee but you lack the power or authority to fire such employee? Well, this article will provide you some guidelines.

How to Deal with Difficult Employees

1. Do not ignore the problem

Though the said employee provides value to the company and possesses redeeming qualities that you wouldn’t want to lose, there are many ways to handle or deal with such difficult employees. Most times, managers will simply ignore the problematic staffs hoping that the problem will just go away; that these people will somehow turn themselves around or will stop being troublesome someday. But ignoring the situation is the wrong solution to what could become a progressive problem.

2. Do not relent to intervene as soon as possible

It is very crucial to take an action as soon as the negative behavior pattern becomes evident. This is because when such attitude is left untouched or ignored, it will only increase.

Occasionally, the difficult employee may have no idea that his/her behavior is irritating and other employees are striving to tolerate or put up with the nasty attitude and putting up with such character may result to job frustration. As a manager or entrepreneur, it is your duty to speak up against such bad behaviour and take a step to address this problem.

3. Make a Research of the Problem Personally

One of the best ways to deal with difficult employees is to be a armed with accurate data and information about that particular employee. To achieve this, you may need to call this person into a conference room or office; away from other employees and calmly address the issue.

Once you are in private with the employee, you can start by asking the employee if he or she is aware of any ongoing issues with respect his attitude. This will help you determine if the difficult person is aware of the surrounding predicaments. If the employee is “not aware”, you may need to describe the effect of his/her unacceptable behavior on the co-workers. The employee might interrupt to disagree or deny the existence of any issues. Nevertheless, you must continue by giving clear instances of the unaccepted behavior.

However, fairness requires that you allow the employee to respond to the allegations. If the difficult employee fails to believe that the allegations are in existence after all the evidence, then you can either choose to get rid of the employee or live with the attitude.

4. Endeavor to draw out the reasons behind the behavior.

As you interact or discuss with the employee, carefully listen to what they say. Stay calm and positive, but remain impartial and non-judgmental. Ask direct questions that cannot be answered in one or two words. Do not interrupt.

When you respond to the difficult employee, remain calm. Conclude back to them with what they just said, so they will know that you are really listening to them. If you could discover what the difficult employee is saying regarding to his/her inappropriate altitude, you have a much better opportunity of finding a solution.

How to Deal with Difficult Employees

5. Assist the problematic Employee to get back on track

Immediately the employee starts to understand that the negative behaviors are real and that it is negatively affecting others in the organization, you can start coaching the difficult employee on how to display more good and acceptable behavior. However, you must know that the employee needs time and practice in order to adjust to better behavior. It is also your duty as an entrepreneur or manager to provide specific feedback to this employee on the success or failure of his or her effort in minimizing the bad actions.

6. If all the Endeavors fail, termination may be necessary.

If the employee insisted on denying his/her inappropriate behavior and refuses to try to amend the situation, you can proceed to place the person on the fast track towards termination. Frequently record a series of well-documented verbal and written feedback about the behavior. You should also give a period for the employee to address the questionable character. If this trial period does not change the output or improve the character, then the employee needs to be terminated.

As a final note, most of the employees will recognize the negative character and will at least attempt to turn it around. This is especially true during tough economic times when unemployment is high and getting a new job is difficult. In any case, you are required to follow company guidelines in recognizing the unwanted altitude, providing direct feedback, providing input to try to change it and ultimately taking action in a targeted manner.

In conclusion, i believe the above information can go a long way in assisting you deal with difficult employees in your organization. Remember, difficult employees may drive away good employees and customers as well; and ultimately tamper with success of your organization.

How to Write a Letter of Recommendation for an Employee

What is a letter of recommendation? Do you want to learn how to write a letter of recommendation for an employee? Then this article is for you.

If you are yet to write a recommendation letter before now, the process might seem a bit frustrating and intimidating. However, with this article, your task should be made easier. Now writing a letter of recommendation for an employee is not a big deal. So without wasting your time, below is a guide on how to write an employee’s letter of recommendation.

How to Write a Letter of Recommendation for an Employee

The Introduction

To write an introduction, it is advisable to make use of the standard formal letter writing format. A letter of recommendation is just like any other professional communication letter, and the same rules and guidelines are been followed. To write the introduction:

Position your address on the top write, and then the date.
Under that, on the left side, add the recipient’s name (if it is known) and address.
Begin the body of the letter with a formal business greeting. For example: Dear Sir or Dear Madam.

The Body

In the body of the letter, you are to describe the employees’ qualities and qualifications. You can also start by stating your purpose and positive relationship with the employee that you are recommending. You must ensure that you add a brief explanation about your self, your job position and qualification. This helps to send a positive message to the recipient.

Furthermore, you should provide an overview of the employees’ responsibilities and the type of projects he or she carried out while under your supervision. You should also include the date he or she was employed in your organization. Also, in not more than two paragraphs, you can illustrate your reasonable point with specific examples. Describe how the employees special qualities enhanced your organization and specify the contributions the employee made to your organization. You can also give some insight as to how the employee related or co-existed with the co-workers and, if possible, your company’s clients.

However, you must take care not to be too brief when writing a recommendation letter for an employee and the reason is because, if a recommendation letter is too brief, the recipient will think you do not know or have much to say about the candidate.

The Conclusion

After the body of your letter, you can then proceed to wrap up the letter by a summation of the recommendation. This is done by giving an overall assessment of the employee. Then you can close the letter affirmatively with the following line:

“For all of these reasons, I believe (Employee’s name) will make a good addition to your team.

You can also offer to provide elaboration and answer to any question they might be willing to ask and a good way to go about this is to provide your phone number. At the end, you must make use of business closings such as “Yours Sincerely”, “best regards,” etc. Then sign your name.

As a side note, you must ensure that you proofread and edit your letter after writing to make sure it is free from punctuation, grammatical and spelling errors.

In conclusion, i want to believe that this article has been of great help to you. Please don’t forget to read the recommendation over again to make sure you agree with what you have written concerning that employee.

10 Reasons Why Competition is Good for a Business

Is competition evil? How possible is it for a small business to operate without competition? Is it a good move to try and avoid competition? Is competition good for a business? Well, i advice you read on to find the answers you seek.

One of the dreaded challenges most beginner entrepreneurs face is competition. In fact, most entrepreneurs and small business owners perceive competition as evil. But in this article, i will do my best to change your perception towards competition. In fact, i believe that after reading this article, you will embrace competition and see it from a positive perspective.So without wasting your time, below are some reasons why i believe competition is good for a business .

10 Reasons Why Market Competition is Good for Small Businesses

Competition paves way for creative thinking

When you have competition within your marketplace or business environment, you are forced to put your brain to work with the aim of devising better ways to add value to your business. Creativity is the bedrock of any successful business but creativity can never be unleashed at its full potential without competition.

Competition improves your customer service

When your business is booming, there simply isn’t enough time in a day to stop and really evaluate every single customer. But when there is competition in in place, you will give enough time and resources to evaluate, appreciate every customer, and treat them right. This in turn will help you win the customers’ loyalty.

Competition strengthens your weaknesses

Competition forces you to study your strengths and weaknesses. This in turn will enable you work on improving on your weaknesses while pushing harder with your strengths.

Competition enables you to discover innovative ways to promote your business

If you keep your eyes and mind open to ideas, you can learn a lot from your competitors’ strategies, strengths and weaknesses and capitalize on it to achieve business success. You can also make use of what your competitors have put in place to adjust your own plan. You can be able to draw inferences from the way your competitors run their businesses, plus their products and services and implement such on your business.

Competition keeps you on your toes and brings out the best in you

Competition can actually help your business grow because they keep you on your toes; and keep you up and doing. They also provide you with valuable market insight, and helps you to keep your product strategies fresh.

Why Market Competition is Good for Small Businesses

Competition motivates your employees

In an industry full of competition, there is always something new to learn. Your employees have a lot of experiences to learn from. Experiences like; how to treat customers when there is business boom and how to handle situations when your competitors have more customers than you do.

Competition helps identify potential threat to your business

If you are smart and serious with your business, you should be able to learn from other competitors what works and what does not work. By learning this, you will be able to know what plans and strategies or even products would be detrimental to your business; and you will also avoid loopholes that your competitor fell for.

Competition gives room for learning

You have the advantage of learning new things from your counterparts. You would learn to broaden your horizon and at the same time add to the growth of your small business.

Competition keeps you focused on your business goals and makes you work smarter

It is a known fact that 80% of sales in business are generated by 20% customers. So in the face of competition, you will be forced to focus on your key customers. After all, your key customers are the reason why there is more cash inflow. By focusing on them, you also devise ways to serve them better.

Competition also makes you work smarter – You cannot afford to work at a crawling rate when you are faced with competition. When there is competition, you must be up and doing; and always on the move.

In conclusion, i want you to know that small businesses are not necessarily better without competition. Learning to leverage the differences, responding to threats and adapting swiftly is what competitive advantage is all about.

A List of Industries and Sectors of the Economy

If you intend being a business person or an investor, then it is presumed advisable that you at least know the industries and sectors of the economy that exist within your environment. Now in the line of duty, i have seen a lot of small business owners that don’t even know the industry they operate under, not to talk of the sector of the economy they operate in.

Now as a entrepreneur or investor, it is important that you are well informed about industry development, statistics and the corresponding competition. This will help you better position yourself and business for successful growth. Without wasting your time, below are the list of industries and sectors of the economy.

A List of Industries and Sectors of the Economy

Typical list of Industries

Government
Telecommunication
Legal services
Construction
Food processing
Consulting
Gambling
Retail sales
Franchising
Real estate
Education
Pharmaceuticals
Hospitality/Tourism
Mass media
Healthcare/hospitals
Public health
Information technology
Waste disposal
Banking
Insurance
Financial services
FMCG

Sectors of the Economy

The economic sector is of three aspects namely:

The primary sector
The secondary sector
The tertiary sector

The primary sector

This is the sector of the economy that makes direct use of natural resources. The primary sector includes:

Agriculture
Forestry and fishing
Mining
Extraction of oil and gas etc.

The secondary sector

This aspect of economy includes those economic sectors that create a finished, tangible product (production and construction.):

The function of this sector is to generally take the output of the primary sector and manufactures finished goods. These products are then exported or sold to domestic consumers and to places where they can be use by other businesses. Secondary sector is divided into:

Light industry
Heavy industry

These industries consume large quantities of energy and needs factories and machinery to convert the raw materials into goods and products. They also in charge of waste material and waste heat production that may pose environmental problems or cause pollution.

The tertiary sector

This sector is also known as the service sector or the service industry. The service sector is made up of “soft” parts of the economy, i.e. activities where people offer their knowledge and time to improve productivity, sustainability and potential. The basic components of this sector are the production of services (intangible goods) rather than end products. The services include:

Attention,
Access,
Experience,
Advice and discussion.

The production of information is generally as well regarded as service, but it is now attributed to fourth sector by some economists, as the quaternary sector.

How to Prevent Fraud in your Business

Have you been a victim of fraud before? If no, do you want to learn how to avoid been a victim of fraud? Do you want to learn how to prevent fraud in your business? Then read on as i share with you the top ten best ways to prevent been a victim of fraud.

Being a victim of fraud or losing something valuable to fraudsters is a very painful experience. I have almost fallen a victim of fraud in the past but i guess luck was on my side. However, my dad wasn’t so lucky as he lost a very huge sum of money in a business deal with a fraudster posing as a man of God. While i don’t want to go into details of what happen, i want to draw on the experience gathered to share with you some tips that will help you avoid being a victim of fraud.

How to Prevent Fraud in your Small Business

1. Control your Greed

Well, there is a popular saying that if something sounds too good to be true, then it is definitely too good to be true. One thing that pushes people forward in a deal even when there are warning signs all over that deal is greed. I strongly believe that greed is the winning factor a con man always looks out for. If you can control your greed, you will never fall for any scam.

2. Knowing who you are dealing with

Don’t do business with anonymous individuals. You must endeavor to find a seller’s physical address (not P.O Box) and phone number. With internet phone services and other web based technologies, it will be tough to tell where a person is calling from. Do an online search for the company name and website, and look for reviews. If negative experiences are being reported by people, you now have to decide if the offer is worth the risk. After all, a deal is always good only if you get a product that actually works as promised.

3. Note that wiring money is like sending cash

Don’t send money through untraceable media such as wire transfer, Western Union or MoneyGram without first verifying the authenticity of the deal and the individual involved. People wire money as often insisted by Con artists, especially overseas, because it is closely impossible to reverse the transaction or tracing the money. Do not wire money to unknown people, especially to sellers who insist on wire transfers for payment, or to any person who is claiming to be a relative or friend in an emergency and wants to keep the request a secret.

4. Always read your monthly statements

Scammers will always steal account information and then run up charges or commit crimes in your name. Dishonest merchants will bill you for monthly ‘membership fees’’ and other goods or services without your authorization. Worst still, your employees will steal from you and inflate the price of items purchased if they discover that you don’t bother to go through the books. So invest time to scan through your financial records regularly and when you see charges you do not recognize or do not welcome, contact your bank, card issuer, or other creditors immediately.

5. Place a withdrawal limit on your bank account

Yea, you can stem the growth of fraud within your organization by placing a withdrawal limit on your account and instructing your bank to contact you when someone tries to withdraw above the limit.

How to Prevent Fraud in your Business

6. Investing comes with a risk; never forget that

If your are contacted with any low-risk, high-return investment opportunities, please stay away. When you receive a pitch that is urging you to act immediately, offers you a guarantee of big profits and promises little/no financial risk, please take your money and run.

7. Make sure that the staff handling account receivable is different from the staff handling account payable.

8. Do not accept a check and wire money back

By law, banks will have to make funds from deposited checks available within days, but uncovering a fake check can take weeks. You are responsible for the checks you deposited: if a check turns out to be a fake one, you are going to be responsible for paying back the bank. No matter how convincing the story, someone who overpays with a check is almost certainly a scam artist so be careful.

9. Setting a clear standard

The best way to help safeguard a business is to set clear standards from the beginning. This involves an appropriate example and ethical tone, starting from the top down. An employee manual can be of great help in establishing the principles and values to guide your organization. An employee manual levels the playing field and keeps the rules from becoming arbitrary. The rule is applied to all. If someone is dismissed and you discover yourself in court, the manual is capable of being a reference that will explain what actions will warrant dismissal.

10. Checking Employees References

Before hiring a new employee, always check references and perform background checks that include past employment, licensing, credit and criminal history. The cost of doing this is always far outweighed by the benefit. For instance, as a business owner, you should be cautious of hiring a bookkeeper or accountant with bad credit because the weight of crippling financial duties could turn an otherwise honest person into a thief.

How to Prevent Fraud in your Business

11. Secure your organization

Make use of renumbered checks as this will enable you to audit for missing checks. Also, checks clearing out of sequence could be spotted more easily. All checks should be kept under lock and key, and the keys should never be distributed. Other precautions include having a ‘’voided check’’ procedure and do not sign blank checks. All disbursements should be reviewed on regular basis. Scrutinize, and then scan checks made out to suppliers you do not recognize, checks made out to an amount for cash, checks appearing out of sequence and cross check missing numbers.

12. Always be in control of who reviews sensitive documents.

Small business owners should be in control of who first receives the bank statements and other sensitive documents. It is not far fetched for small business owner to have a separate post office box for the purpose of receiving bank statements, customary receipts or any other sensitive documents. This will assist to eliminate the possibility that someone intercepts the mail first for the purpose of stealing or covering up an earlier theft.

13. Do not send money to someone you do not know

Do not send money to an online seller that you have not heard of/or seen—or an online love interest who asks for money. It is best to do business with sites and persons you have known and trusted. If you purchase items through an online auction, consider making use of a payment option that will provide protection, like a credit card.

14. Do not play a foreign lottery

15. Do not reply to messages asking for personal or financial information.etc.

16. Safeguard your payroll

This is another chapter subject to abuse. Small-business owners and managers should take the extra time to review every payroll check personally. Although it is time consuming, this procedure will provide a monitor to assure employees are being paid appropriately. This could be especially important when a business has temporary and part-time staff. Although is not always possible in a small business, certain obligations should be maintained separately.

For example, the person who ‘cuts’’ or is in charge of the checks should not be the person who the authority to sign. The person opening the mail should not be the recorder of receivables and reconciliation of the accounts. Even a small business could take a step to separate relevant functions.

In conclusion, i believe the above listed precautions will go a long way in helping you prevent fraud in your business, so take it seriously.