It happens all the time. Small business owners are defrauded, stolen from, cheated, lied to, and abused… by their own employees! The cost is not just money. Relationships are destroyed, good employees are forced to leave and the business itself can be put at risk. The danger of some stranger breaking into your place of business or your network and robbing you is insignificant compared to the likelihood of being ripped off by your own employee!

What can you do?

There are lots of ways to try and protect yourself and some are more effective than others but odds are that if you are unlucky enough to hire the wrong person (one clever enough to fool you and others into thinking he is trustworthy) then you cannot stop the theft from occurring. Your best bet is to catch it as soon as possible by having your accountant look at your numbers with you regularly and maybe even having a second, unrelated accountant look at the books once or twice a year. On top of that make sure you have insurance coverage called a fidelity policy.

Some types of insurance policies already have a fidelity policy built in so check the policies you already have but you can also get a separate fidelity policy to cover key individuals. It’s cheap. It’s easy and you don’t even have to do it yourself. You can get that key employee of yours that you trust with everything who shows up early and goes home late and never takes a vacation and who is so concerned for you and your business that he does everything himself and won’t let others get involved because, “they will mess it up.” You know the one. Your right hand. The employee you can’t live without…

WRONG!!

I just described the person in your office who is probably already stealing from you!!! I know you trust them – that’s why they are able to rob you! Handle this yourself – don’t trust anyone else with something this important. Make sure it gets done and you’ll be covered should the inevitable happen to you.