The Small Business Administration (SBA) frequently offers helpful tips, advice and resources for small businesses in a variety of topics, ranging from taking care of your fleet to knowing how to protect your workers from illness or injury, to offering a free small business cybersecurity online course.
The newest topic is on crime prevention with a brand new crime prevention course. It is available on their website, is free to users, and is not only beneficial to business owners, but their employees as well. Here is more information about the course, the topics included, and how you can prevent crime from occurring in your place of business.
The Crime Prevention Course
The Crime Prevention Course offered by the SBA is a full course guide intended for small businesses that want to know more about how to prevent various types of crimes. Theft, burglary, vandalism, employee-related crimes, or those related to cyber crimes are just a few of the crimes small business face.
The course is self-paced, allowing you to go through the course as fast or slow as you want. Most people get through it in about 30 minutes. As long as you have Adobe Flash Flayer and Acrobat Reader, you can access the online course. There is also a text-based version that is easy to follow, share with your employees, and print to save for later.
Important Topics in the Course
The Crime Prevention Course covers various types of crimes, as well as the importance of proper crime prevention. It begins with several slides about what you are about to learn, why you need to pay close attention to preventing crimes, and what the course objectives are.
It then describes crimes like theft, embezzlement, computer-related crimes, shoplifting and burglary, and how best to prevent them and protect your business. By learning how these crimes typically occur, you can avoid some of the common mistakes small businesses tend to make.
Tips for Preventing Against Crime
The following tips can help you work toward protecting your business and preventing against various crimes:
- Have deadbolt locks on all inside security doors and outside entrances.
- Have proper lighting inside and outside, particularly around windows and doors to deter burglars.
- Anchor your safe if it is kept in your business and be sure it is fireproof. Change the combination if an employee who had the combination has left your business.
- Set up your store so there are not blind spots or easy places for a robber to hide.
- Have cash registers near the front of your store.
- Keep only small amounts of cash in the register at all times.
- Look closely at the card for evidence of tampering with a letter or number.
- Train employees to always ask for ID and follow other authorization procedures.
- Run background checks and verify references for all employees before you hire them.
By taking this online course about crime prevention and keeping the important tips in mind, you are on your way to preventing crimes before they happen. However, you should also have additional precautions against crimes that can’t be prevented with a commercial crime insurance policy.
