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Ring Fence: 5 Ways To Prevent Theft On A Construction Site

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article
Photo courtesy of Matti Mattila via Wikimedia

Construction is booming at the moment as more people realize that manual labor is a suitable career. Of course, you have known that for a long time but are only now reaping the benefits. However, it isn’t all picnics and bouquets of flowers. When you run a site, you have to put up theft. Whether it’s your employees or burglars, it happens on a daily basis, and it costs the firm a lot of money. So, it needs to stop, and it needs to stop as soon as possible.

For those of you that won’t put up with it any longer, you have come to the right place. Below are five tips that will help you prevent of types of theft in the workplace.

1: Install Cameras

The obvious thing to do is to invest in construction cameras and create a high-tech security system. Now, if you think that cameras are reactive, that isn’t the case. Yes, they great tools for looking at incidents and figuring out what went wrong. But, they are also useful in the moment. For one thing, the majority of thieves don’t bother targeting a site which has CCTV. Because they are opportunists, there is too much risk even if the rewards are high. Plus, advanced systems allow you to monitor any incidents and take control in real time. A real time alert, for example, warns you of any suspicious behavior so that you can call the police or inform your people on site.

StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

2: Light It Up

Let’s stay on the topic of prevention for a moment. Cameras prevent theft because they add an element of risk, and lights do the same thing. Powerful lights take away a thief’s most treasured tool: darkness. Burglars use it all of the time to creep around in the shadows unnoticed, which gives them more time and a better chance of success. With spotlights, there aren’t many places a person can hide in the grounds. As long as the lights are bright enough, it should illuminate the entire site. And, if they sweep the area randomly, it only makes everything safer. If there is an incident, the light also helps identify the culprits the next day on CCTV.

3: Lock It Up

Construction sites are prime targets because they house lots of valuable materials. It isn’t uncommon to work with everything from copper to steel, and these have a high resale value. So, a common criminal won’t think twice about shifting as many raw materials as possible. Obviously, you need to make this as hard as possible, which is why lockers are essential. All you have to do is place anything of value in the lockers and keep it there until the morning. As long as the lock is strong enough, it should deter any person with light fingers. A safe is also a good idea if you can find one that is affordable. Regarding machines, there aren’t many ways to keep them under lock and key. Instead, stack materials around them to block off the path. Also, fit an immobilizer that cuts the ignition.

Don’t forget to lock up your personal items, such as your jobsite radio. To learn more about these radios, read this review of the The 10 Best Jobsite Radios.

StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article
Photo courtesy of Max Pixels

4: Background Checks

The biggest assumption bosses make is that they can trust their workers. That isn’t always true because employees are opportunists, too, especially if they think it’s a sure thing. As a result, the credentials of the people on your site must come into question. No one is saying that you need to grill them like a suspect under questioning, but you should look into their past. By talking to previous employers, it is possible to learn more about their personality and analyze whether they are a perfect fit. Also, a criminal background check should alert you to any major incidents in the past. No one likes to tar a person with a brush, yet you have to be careful. After all, it is your livelihood.

5: Security Team

Technology plays a massive part, but so do the people that walk around and stay on guard all night. The problem with a site is the size. It is too big to install cameras all around the perimeter, which leaves you vulnerable. Thankfully, boots on the ground can cover the places that technology misses. It is tempting to think that tech is infallible, particularly with recent advancements. The truth is that it is far from perfect, and that makes retro features like a security guard even more important.

The site is much safer when you put the new age and old school methods together.

When You’re Faced With A Frustrating Business Problem, There’s Always A Solution

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article
Photo courtesy of Pexels

No matter how good we are in our business, or how well we can do our jobs, there are sometimes problems that we’re faced with. Some will be easy to remedy, but others will be much harder. Then, when you’re faced with a frustrating business problem, you can feel like it’s impossible to solve, or that you’re never going to get the time to tackle it head on. But, don’t let that put you off. When it comes to overcoming your business obstacles, there are easy solutions to most – you just have to know how to handle them. So, take some of these solutions and see if they work for you.

Not Having Enough Hands

Firstly, you may find that you just don’t have enough hands to get all of your business tasks done. This can definitely be the case when you provide a service to customers, and you spend a lot of your day with customers or clients. But, there is a way that you can gain more hands – or more time. And that would be to start outsourcing tasks to a virtual assistant, so they can get them done for you. Whether it’s admin, emails or processing invoices, you can have a lot of work done for you.

Losing Custom

Then, there is the kind of problems you face when you lose customers. Now, you may not always know why it’s happening, but that’s your first fault. To find a solution, you have to be able to figure out why you are losing them to get them back, or gain new ones. Sometimes you need to be able to improve your customer service or even the quality of your product or service. And then there’s also the option of pushing your marketing efforts too.

Not Being In The Office 24/7

When you can’t be in the office all day every day (because you do have to go home and have a social life too), it can be frustrating. If you’re missing calls, it can drive you crazy. But, instead of spending time playing catch up, you should look into options for answering calls after hours to save the frustrations. You should do the same for an online chat service or answer emails if you get a lot of contact via those two methods too.

Falling Behind

Sometimes, when you’re business, you realize that you’re starting to fall behind. It can be tough because you’re not sure how you’re going to find the time to keep up. But, just like outsourcing your admin tasks, you may need to look into innovative business options that can keep on top of things for you. You may find that automated online process means that you never fall behind the business trends.

Struggling To Find Investors

And finally, it can be super frustrating when you want to grow your business, and your business is ready to expand, but you just need the cash. So, you’re on the look out for investors, but how do you find them? You may find that you can pitch to different investors using online platforms, as well as considering selling stocks in the traditional route, to give you lots of options.

3 Innovative Ways You Can Move Your Business Online

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When you first start your business, a lot of it boils down to trial and error – especially if you have never done it before. You could follow another person’s business hints down to a tee, under the impression that whatever worked for them will surely work for you too. But as every company is so different, you will stand a much better chance of success if you take the plunge and carve out your path. That said, there are always certain things that successful businesses have in common, and one such example is having efficient operational systems in place. There are so many different components required to keep a business ticking over on a daily, monthly, and annual basis. Using multiple systems, or a poor one, won’t hold you in very good stead against your competition. Manual systems, in particular, are very outdated, and as the business world is all about efficiency, you may want to consider moving every aspect of your business online. This can be pretty intimidating if you are something of a technophobe, but it honestly isn’t as complicated as you may think. Here are a few examples of ways you can bring your business into the digital age, to create a more straightforward and streamlined company.

Employee training/monitoring

Depending on the size of your business, training and monitoring your staff can be a bit of a laborious ordeal. Sure, you want to invest time into your team so you can rest assured they know exactly what they are doing. But taking time off from your work to do so can potentially have a knock-on effect to the daily runnings of your business. With that in mind, moving your training online can save both you and your colleagues a lot of time. Plus, you can also invest in performance monitoring software so you can keep tabs on your team from anywhere in the world.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Accounting

Bookkeeping and accounting are often the banes of a business owner’s life. Keeping track of all your expenditure, as well as any profit you turn, can easily be confusing – especially if you are doing everything by hand. Inevitably, pieces of paper will get lost, and those finance notes you made at 3 am suddenly don’t look quite as coherent in the cold light of day. Using something like hnwi and online accounting software can help you keep all your financial information in one place. Just make sure you have plenty of security on your computer systems too, as obviously, this is some pretty sensitive data.

Cloud computing

The term ‘cloud computing’ is a bit of a strange one – it arrived a few years ago, but still, very few people know what it means! It is something, however, that can revolutionize the way you operate your business. The Cloud is fundamentally a network where you can store files and documents, which means they are not linked to a particular hard drive or desktop. Therefore, you and your colleagues can access your work from any location, at any time – perfect for a modern business which has to work around the clock.

Take A Leap Of Faith & Launch Your Startup Abroad

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You think starting a business in your own country is hard, well it’s even harder launching one abroad. There’s the language barrier to overcome. The different currency to adjust to. The different culture and values to understand. It’s always going to be easier launching a business in your own country, that goes without say. However, just because it’s easier to start a business in your native country that doesn’t mean you have better chances of success there, which ultimately running a business is all about.

The reason that so many budding entrepreneurs choose to start businesses on foreign soil is because the rewards are often much higher abroad, depending which country you opt to open your business in, that is. Another reason so many business owners choose to launch their ventures abroad is because there’s call for what they are offering, which in the long-run boosts their chances of business success.

To make the process of launching a startup abroad easier, below are some useful pieces of advice.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article
Photo courtesy of Unsplash

Learn about business practices

First things first, if you are going to launch a business abroad, it’s vital that you understand the business practices that are in place in that country. Business laws and practices differ from place to place, which is why it’s crucial that you learn about the business practices of the country that you intend on moving to, to launch your venture. For example, in New Zealand, you can set up a business in one day, while in other countries it can take weeks or even months. Take the time to learn about the laws that are in place in the country that you want to move to as well as what the requirements are to be allowed to move to that country. To learn more about this, get in touch with an immigration law firm for that country. The more knowledge you have about what is required to be granted residency, the better.

Get to know the area

If you are going to launch a business in an area, it’s important that first, you get to know it. What you want to do is learn more about the culture and values of the country (and specific region that you want to move to), to see whether your business idea would be a good fit. For instance, in the US fitness may be a big thing but in middle eastern countries, it may not be. To ensure that your business will fit into the community, visit the area at least four or five times and spend some time getting to know the place and people properly.

Put together a solid business plan

Once you’re certain that your business idea has the potential to be successful in the area that you’ve chosen, start putting together a business plan. This should describe your business idea, what your goals are, and how you plan on making it work. To make the process of creating a business plan easier, you may find working with a mentor beneficial.

Deciding to launch a business abroad is a daunting prospect, but if you have taken the time to do the research and plan out the concept carefully, then you should take a leap of faith and launch your business. It might be somewhat scary moving abroad to launch a business, but if it’s well thought out and planned, it could just be the best thing that you ever do.

Business Admin Online: Making Sure Your Business Is Functioning As It Should

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article
Photo courtesy of medithIT via flickr

Keeping your business operational online isn’t as easy as it first sounds. For the uninitiated, it might seem that just purchasing and keeping the website domain name is enough, and as long as you have an attractive internet site, the money will start rolling in without any more thought put into the matter. This is simply wrong. Many things go into the functioning of a great business website, and simply letting the site tend for itself is not one of those considerations.

But what does your online team do all day? Refresh the website to make sure that everything is functioning as it should? Thinking that way is simply an insult to them because a site that functions correctly, especially one that operates properly under demand is one that is multi-faceted and requires a diligent eye to keep operational. Remember, your website is the forefront face of any beginning consumer interaction with your firm, and if it’s unattractive, unresponsive, or simply has repeated and extended terms of downtime, your business will look unprofessional.

But how do you stay on top of everything? These tips will show you how:

Software Testing Tools

To keep your business online and operational, there will be some software packages that your business employs to directly aggregate the data they receive from the consumer use. This includes social media profiles and also installed software you use to manage your online postings securely. It’s important to use software testing tools like QASymphony to easily navigate the health reports of your software, and schedule your maintenance tasks more efficiently. Your online team will thank you for the considerations here, and it will also give you as a business owner added respect for what they do.

Department Synergy & Communication

Communicating and taking the advice from your departments is a sacred activity of any successful business owner because it’s those staff members who are in the trenches and arguably know the intricate responsibilities of their department much better than you do. Talking to these departments is absolutely no cost to you so you should keep that in mind when it comes to taking on advice that could help them perform their roles better.

At the end of the day, your staff is only trying to fulfill their roles more effectively. Usually, if a solution makes life easier for them, it makes life easier for you, too.

Reliable Server Hosting

Whether or not you hold the server hosting as part of your firm, or you outsource it (likely,) you need to have a stable and dependable service that is unlikely to go down, and relatively secure against hacking attempts. DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks are always going to get through if you’re unlucky to be the victim of one, but if the regular functioning of your server hosting service is failing you, you should look towards more stable areas of operation.

The online world is where all the important business action happens these days. It’s important to stay on top of modern trends and keep sharp with your maintenance if you want to stay relevant.