Whether you are a newly minted entrepreneur or a seasoned executive, the power and benefits of business coaching are dramatic.
Business coaches help small and medium sized bu
siness owners and managers achieve better results by providing an outside-the- company point of view. They provide feedback, ideas, guidance, and encouragement while also augmenting the skills and experience of the owner.
Coaches usually have knowledge and expertise in business management, marketing, social media, sales management, employee compensation, team building, finance, project management and many other business skills. They also often know and can refer many other professionals who can provide services to the business as needed.
Some businesses engage the services of a business coach when they have a special project for which they don’t have all the necessary skills or bandwidth. Other times they have heard such good results from an associate that they decide their business can benefit from these professional services. Sometimes a business owner realizes that their business could - and should perform better than it has been doing.
Some professional executive coaches work on a project basis, while others work on a retainer and provide ongoing services to the business. Many times the relationship begins with a project and then leads to an ongoing commitment. The advantage of beginning with a single project is that this offers both the business owner or manager and the business coach to get to know each other and see how they work together.
However you begin, it’s always a good idea to have clear goals and objectives for the coaching services. Since they will amongst many other things act as a sounding board, they can often help clarify and crystalize these goals and objectives. One key success factor is to be open and honest with the business coach. You have to decide how much information you are willing to share, but for them to act as a trusted advisor they must be equipped with a clear picture of the business and the executive’s goals. Since their goal is your success it makes sense to start with an honest evaluation of your needs, abilities and clarity of how you think the business coach can help you.
Last fall, Jeff Hilton of KnowledgeCircles initiated a new organization called the Alliance For Channel Success.
The Alliance combines the IT channel experience and expertise of five industry veterans to create powerful sales, marketing, business leadership, and strategic planning support for solution providers, VARs, and integrators.
It is comprised Ken Thoreson of Acumen Management Group, Jeff Hilton of KnowledgeCircles, Eric Rabinowitz of Nurture Marketing, Eric Frantzen of B2B Contact, and Howard M. Cohen of HMC Corporate Copywriting & Consulting.
Since our founding last fall we have been creating and delivering live sessions and webcasts for IT Channel partners.
Recent notable events include sessions at Microsoft Dynamics Convergence 2012 Conference in Houston and a series of webcasts on behalf of Microsoft and the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP). We have also been selected to deliver a number of sessions at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2012 (WPC) in Toronto.
To read more about the Alliance For Channel Success, click here
If you are a Microsoft Dynamics partner or customer, you may be heading to Houston this week to attend Microsoft Dynamics Convergence 2012. If so, you have a great opportunity to accelerate your business.
If you're attending, have a great conference and stop by to say hello!
Any successful organization must have discipline, accountability and control. In this interesting economy and changing technology environment it is even more important to implement proven business strategies and tactics to ensure a sustaining business model. Ask yourself: “Are you steering your business in the right direction?”
We are an experienced team of entrepreneurial leaders.
We provide strategic management, business leadership, and executive coaching, consulting and training via in-person and online classes for small and medium business owners, leaders and Microsoft partners.
Attend our workshops at Convergence and learn the tools and processes you need to navigate the road ahead. Not only will you be exposed to proven concepts and ideas, you will have the opportunity to see how to put it into action-within days!
We encourage you to attend our 3 Business Leadership sessions. Each attendee will be eligible to select one FREE GIFT for each session you attend:
These FREE GIFTS include your choice of:
Sessions to Attend:
The Role of Management & Leadership in a Recovering Economy- Ken Thoreson, Acumen Management Tuesday, March 20th, 3:30pm-4:30pm, Code CSBL03 - Hilton Ballroom E
50 Business Success Tips in 50 Minutes- Jeff Hilton, Eric Rabinowitz, Erik Frantzen, and Ken Thoresen
Tuesday, March 20, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM, Code CSBL04 - Hilton Ballroom A
Project Management tips for Success -By Jeff Hilton, KnowledgeCircles
Wednesday, March 21, 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM, Code CSBL02 - Hilton Ballroom A
It began with a simple enough question
How exponentially does your LinkedIn network grow with each additional connection? Asking a few friends in a few different industries yielded significantly varying answers. Therefore, we decided to ask more people and got over 100 responses. We also got a lot more questions. Following is a summary of our findings.
First some definitions
LinkedIn – a business oriented social networking site boasting over 120 million members, tracks the number of people you are directly connected to, the number of people they are connected to and finally the number of people to whom those people are connected.
They refer to this as 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree connections. You can view these statistics along with a lot more information about the composition of your network in LinkedIn under Contacts / Network Connections. Look for the little icons, which look like these:
Next, the questions and research results
In addition to the question about exponential growth, we were asked about how meaningful network size is. You may be indirectly connected to hundreds of thousands of other LinkedIn members, but does anyone use those connections?
The Numbers
After we received information from a little over 100 people about the number of their 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree connections, we learned some interesting facts. Within this group, the average person has 508 1st degree connections, over 141,500 2nd degree and over 5,700,000 3rd degree connections! Many people wrote that these numbers surprised them. We were too.
That means for every person added as a connection, on average another 279 people become potential 2nd degree connections and 11,250 3rd degree connections. That’s a lot of exponential network growth potential!
Microsoft Partners lag behind other IT peers
One interesting item that stood out was that the Microsoft Partners in our survey had fewer connections than the other IT related participants. Their non-Microsoft-Partner competitors, customers and vendors have on average 18% more connections. To the extent that someone may consider it important to be connected, this may be an opportunity for improvement. Click here to read the full report LinkedIn 2nd and 3rd degree ratio analysis and the see the numbers behind this.
Having a gigantic network of connections you don’t know is not necessarily going to be helpful. The quality of connections matters much more. A network of people in your industry, profession or geography is much more valuable than one that has tremendous numbers of people with whom there is no logical connection.
Building a network with LinkedIn Groups
Joining and participating in LinkedIn Group discussions seems to be a very effective way to build a quality network. There are currently over 870,000 different LinkedIn groups. Some are for Alumni of a company or college. Some are centered around a given professional or career topic. As people participate in group discussions they tend to make new connections with people who share similar interests, careers and professions.
What to do with your network
All this is IBU (Interesting But Useless), unless someone actually reaches out to leverage this extended network. Our next level of research compelled us to ask other groups of people how they have leveraged their connections to expand their direct network. Here is what we found out.
People use LinkedIn in many different ways. Some are fairly evident and typical. Keeping up with coworkers who move on, reconnecting with former coworkers and associates and the other usual social networking activities such as updating friends, family and associates about career developments are pretty typical.
We also found some interesting and creative ways in which people use LinkedIn, mostly around their 1st and 2nd degree connections.
For example, many people said they peruse their network to find and connect with people they already know. This is a practical and useful network building activity. LinkedIn also suggest contacts you may already know. They use an algorithm based on a number of factors to derive these lists. Some are spot on - others way off.
People also use their network of contacts to ask for recommendations of their previous and current work.
Several recent polls and discussions on LinkedIn and elsewhere suggest that a number of people use LinkedIn to search for and approach new customers. Rather than approach these people directly they tend to engage in discussion groups where they develop new connections and relationships.
How Microsoft Partners leverage their networks
Microsoft Partners reported using 1st degree connections to make introductions to people they don’t already know who are in their friends’ networks. They also use it to research companies, perform searches for potential candidates for job openings, to post job openings, to find contractors and other partners for collaboration on complex projects. They also reported using Microsoft Pinpoint and VARportal to help find these potential collaborators.
Sales people in general - and at Microsoft Partners - reported leveraging their network by asking for introductions, prospecting clients and decision makers, and researching companies and people before a sales meeting.
Recruiters at Microsoft Partners (and job seekers) reported using LinkedIn to research companies, search and post job listings, research hiring authorities before interviews, and asking their connections to help make introductions and land interviews. Employers and recruiters use LinkedIn along with other social networking tools to read about job candidates.
We also learned that Attorneys and Litigation Support Consultants used it to research companies and people, read about litigants and to identify contractors and professionals with specific skills.
The overwhelming majority of these activities take place 
within 1st degree and 2nd degree connections. 3rd degree connections are interesting, and the statistics lend themselves well to discussions about how much more interconnected the world has become since the film Six Degrees of Separation, but that remains largely an interesting academic discussion more than an immediate business tool.
Learning More
Download and read the full report:
Join our live webinar
Please comment on this article and tell us how you use LinkedIn to leverage your network.
We just published our newest guide: Top 10 Tips For Business Growth and Success.
In it you will find business success tips and ideas to help you grow your business and acheive your goals. Read our ideas about how to focus your efforts on actions you can take today, tomorrow and in the future to optimize your businesses performance and success.
“…So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid”
- Robert Frost “Something Like a Star”
Keep in mind, as you read this, a very important distinction: the distinction between a company’s market value, as opposed to it’s true, intrinsic value.
In today’s fast paced world, dominated by “efficient markets” and the near instantaneous delivery of information, it seems to me that there are more emotional and psychological factors that affect market movements than the cumulative effect of either improving or deteriorating factors that cause changes in the intrinsic value of particular companies.
There are any number of reasons that might explain the decline in market value of a particular company; here are a few of the most prominent:
- The company is swept up in a general market decline, as in the recent financial and credit crisis, and what is happening now (late July – early August, 2011), which is a combination of the US fiscal situation and negative economic news that has some economic forecasters giving probability to a double-dip recession). In this instance, otherwise good companies get “swept up” in the emotional elements that often drive the market, in contrast to the staid and unchanged fundamentals of the particular company itself.
- The company is caught up in “out of favor” sentiment for particular industry segments. This has to do with those companies that operate in cyclical industries or those who operate in industry segments that may temporarily be in “out of favor”; (think large money-center banks which were at the center of the financial and credit crisis, and still today are lagging, having not returned to pre-crisis levels nearly 4 years after the events and whose share of the S&P500 has shrunk dramatically).
- A change having to do with “analyst expectations”. We see this most often in the publicized affect of a company “missing earnings expectations” (negative); or “beating earnings estimates”, (positive). Generally, after these announcements there can be significant price swings that largely dissolve in short order.
- A change in market value for a company having to do with either a “negative”/”positive” circumstance which is particular to the company (for example, when a Best Buy misses same store sales growth, a perceived “negative”; or when Apple sells more iPad's than was “expected”, a “positive”).
- A change in the earning power, or financial structure of a company, which affects the intrinsic value of a company; or when an investor has misjudged intrinsic value on the buy, and the market, over time, adjusts the market value to the lower intrinsic value assessment.
As an investor, which of the above is the more troubling?
Granted, the changes in market value having to do with any of the items #1-4, can be cause for the investor to indulge in large doses of alka-seltzer, for sure. However, most companies that have been in existence for a long time period, will have suffered declines in market value for any one of the 4 reasons cited in items #1-4 above, without ever affecting intrinsic value. Good, resilient companies with provable business models, and track records, more often than not recover from any of these, albeit, depending on the DNA of the company, at differing recovery rates.
The long-term history of the market is that even what at the time seems like a “new normal” and there are large, significant changes in market value, (most recently, recessions, the tech bubble, the financial and credit crisis), these all appear as mere blips when viewed in the context of greater time. But no doubt, living it causes us to believe that we are in for a seminal change, when in fact it is very much like getting caught up in a terrible storm that seemingly lasts forever, and all of the angst prior to the storm hitting, then experiencing living through it, only to see that after a while there is indeed a return to calm, blue skies.
The macro events of today, the several trading days of negative market value changes and the effects of the possibility of a double-dip recession and the continuing fiscal status of the U.S., should all be viewed in the context of the immediately preceding paragraph.
However, it is the change in market value deriving from item #5, that one should most concern oneself with, (assuming that you are not forced to sell into the dips in the market). Changes in intrinsic value and/or the miscalculation of intrinsic value at purchase represent the real risk of investing in equities. If, on the other hand, you own good companies, and have correctly assessed their quality and intrinsic value, and have purchased at a price below the intrinsic value which affords a “margin of safety”, then the temporal affects of changes in market value which are macro and even perhaps extraneous, are just something that we have to endure as we move toward the market realization of the true value of the company.
The takeaway from this: The important characteristic of “expanding intrinsic value” that some companies possess, is alive and well, despite Mr. Market’s tantrums and personality defects. If you own good companies and are assured of their quality and financial strength, then hold on and try not to fret too much over the daily price changes of the stock indexes, even though the variability might persist for an uncomfortable time period. And try to do as Frost admonishes, above, “choose something like a star, and be staid.”
Michael Kindred is a former CFO and board member of a public company with a degree in economics and finance. He has held various positions with major financial institutions and investment partnerships. He is developing the soon to be available website http://www.knownothinginvestor.com. The site is being developed as a resource for individual investors to help them identify financially strong (weak) companies. He also consults with small business owners to create long-term sustainable value for their companies, which enables the enhancement of the personal net worth for them and their families. Michael's email is knownothinginvestor@gmail.com
In the wake of Lehman Brother's collapse in 2008, shareholders filed lawsuits against Lehman and its auditor, Ernst & Young. The suits against Lehman allege that the company materially misrepresented its financial position. The suits against E&Y allege that the auditor, at a minimum, turned a blind eye to Lehman's misleading financial reporting. Lehman's alleged misdeeds were due to its use of loopholes to obscure its true financial picture from its shareholders.
Four interesting points came out during the recent court proceedings:
- Lehman's use of accounting loopholes was technically compliant with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
- Lehman may have violated the spirit of GAAP by allegedly using these loopholes to mislead investors.
- Due to the lack of evidence that E&Y was aware that Lehman's accounting might have misled investors, the court dismissed the claims against E&Y's 2007 audit.
- Due to E&Y's awareness of whistle-blower allegations in its 2008 audit, the court affirmed the claims against its 2008 audit.
Would closing current accounting rule loopholes and audit gaps prevent such violations in the future?
Maybe not.
Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Law of 2002, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)'s responsibility was, in part, to close the loopholes that had allowed public companies to mislead investors. The PCAOB's responsibility, in part, was to close audit gaps that had allowed company misrepresentations to pass through audits without notice. Clearly, these efforts have not been completely successful. Perhaps a specific accounting rule mandating compliance with the spirit of GAAP would be more useful. Such a broad-based rule would prevent companies or their auditors from escaping though the loopholes of the current accounting and auditing rules.
Substance over form
The concept of substance over form is the spirit of GAAP.
A company's financial reporting should reflect the true substance (i.e. the business purpose) of its operational and financial transactions rather than the technical accounting form of these operations and transactions. Investors need and expect financial reporting in the spirit of GAAP – an accurate depiction of the company's business performance.
So what rule governs the spirit of GAAP?
The principle behind all of the accounting rules.
The Financial Standards Accounting Board (FASB) establishes GAAP accounting rules and its guiding principles are found in the FASB Concept Statements. FASB Concept 2 specifically discusses "substance over form", stating that all of the accounting rules are designed to ensure substance over form reporting. Given this implied principle, Concept 2 determined there was no need for any explicit "substance over form" rule. Perhaps, however, there is a need for an explicit rule.
Over the past decade, we have witnessed many companies that have used loopholes and technical GAAP compliance to misrepresent their true financial picture to investors, thereby obviating the intent of the accounting rules. Given these practices, establishing an explicit rule requiring substance over form reporting would eliminate some of the wiggle room for misleading investors.
Whistle-Blower Allegations
Similar rules should be established for whistle-blower allegations. Right, wrong, good, bad – whistle-blowers can help or hurt a company. They may be the red flag of substance over form transgressions. In all cases, these allegations should not be ignored by management or the auditors.
In my securities litigation financial consulting work, I have seen internal communications from whistle-blowers to company hot lines, supervisors, and others in their attempts to notify the company of potential wrongdoing. Unfortunately, these whistleblowers' allegations were often dismissed as being just the complaints of disgruntled employees. Resultantly the boards of directors were not aware of these claims until they came out during the litigation.
Any whistleblower allegation, whether the auditors or management thinks it is worthy or not, should be brought to the attention of the audit committee and thoroughly reviewed and investigated. The specific whistle-blower allegation may not prove worthy or correct; however, the claim may be onto something that should be explored.
Why is this important?
Whistleblower allegations may be the tip of the iceberg.
In my experience, whistleblower claims often end up strikingly similar to financial statement fraud allegations brought against companies in securities litigation cases. Therefore, it would be wise to require that any whistleblower allegation be brought not only to the attention of management but also to others. Specifically corporate counsel, audit committees, and boards of directors should be informed of these allegations.
What's to be done?
Empowering the spirit of GAAP
Strengthening the principle of substance over form and establishing rules and procedures for vigorously reviewing any whistle-blower allegations would provide some strong first measures to prevent companies from bypassing the spirit of GAAP. Shareholders and the investing public deserve and expect this of public companies and their auditors.
Alice Hilton is the President of A B Hilton & Associates LLC, a financial services firm helping clients navigate an array of financial tranactions, litigation, forensic accounting and fraud investigations.
Sitting in the Los Angeles Staples Center at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner 
Conference a few weeks ago, we and fifteen thousand other attendees listened to Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Group) discuss business and his ideas for Microsoft Partner business owners.
A few comments in particular stood out which I think are very applicable for any small business, Microsoft Partners included. Following are some notable quotes and comments.
I'm a great believer that small is beautiful.
“And so, when we had our record company division, we actually had 20 separate record companies, and 20 separate buildings with 20 different brand names. The people who are running those companies could feel if they were doing well, they could feel that it was their success; and if they were doing badly, okay, they had to do a bit better. I think you can become a big corporation, but you ought to be made up of lots of small corporations, and that's the best way of getting there.”
Stop trying to do it all by yourself
“If you're a managing director of the full corporation, don't try to cling on and do everything yourself too long. The sooner you can try to find somebody who is better than you to run it on a day-to-day basis, and then step back and start thinking about the next venture, or the next entrepreneurial thing you can do, the better. It will free you up for better family life, but it will also just mean that you'll free yourself up to think about the bigger picture.“
Have fun and be flexible with employees
“90 percent of your time you spend at work should be fun. And it's up to the people running companies to make sure it is fun.“
“I think a lot of us need to be a lot more flexible in how we treat our staff. I mean, should somebody wants to go on unpaid leave for a while, welcome it, don't sort of frown on it. If somebody wants to work from home on Fridays or Mondays, let them work from home Fridays and Mondays. If people want to job share, don't think of them as being lazy, or if they want to go part-time, don't think of them as being lazy. The great thing about job sharing or going part-time is that will create more jobs, which will actually help the economy. And actually it's very good for the company, because people are then doing the things they want to do.”
Forgive your enemies, the world is too small
It's much better in life to befriend your enemies than leave them out there as enemies. And I think the same applies in your personal life. If you have a divorce, or you've had a bad fallout with somebody, they might find it quite strange, but ring them up, have them over for lunch or dinner and befriend them. And it will good for you, it will good for them, and it will definitely be good for the children."
On entrepreneurship and making a difference
“I never thought of myself as being a business person, and I think most successful people in life do not set out to become business people. They set out to create things…. I think the most successful people in this room will be people who think, how can I make a real difference in other people's lives, and we'll worry about whether the bills add up at the end of the year.”
Reputation and brand are important
“Your reputation is all you have in life. So, your personal reputation, and the reputation of your brand. And, you know, if you do anything, anything that damages that reputation, you can destroy your company.”
Our Takeaway
The audience loved his presentation and many commented on how some of his points really resonated with them. The real key is to take great ideas and make them actionable. That’s where we come in.
If you enjoy discussing current business thinking, best practices and learning from others walking the same walk you are walking, consider joining one of KnowledgeCircles Peer Groups for Microsoft Partners or one of our General Small Business Groups.
We discuss ideas and use the collective experience of the group to evaluate what works and what hasn’t worked. We help our clients take these ideas, turn them into action and use the sounding board of our Peer Advisory Groups to make actions successful and meaningful.
Click here to learn more about our Peer Groups For Microsoft Partners
Whether you are just starting out or have had your business for years, every business owner should focus on developing recurring revenue streams. Few things have as much impact across so many elements of your business as this.
Recurring revenues streams are the portions of a company’s total revenue which are stable, very likely to continue and can be counted on with a high degree of certainty.
Predictable revenues produce stability, operational efficiencies and enable you to focus your time and energies on growing your business. Not every business can have one, but if you don’t, you should try really really hard to fix that.
Examples of businesses with recurring revenue streams
Examples of recurring revenues are gym memberships, insurance policies, maintenance and support services, telephone, internet and other services. There are many other types of businesses which not only enjoy this type of revenue but which are actually designed and built on this model.
There is a distinct trend right now, particularly with web based businesses to offer services under a subscription model rather than a traditional one time sale and licensing model. In addition to software services being delivered in this manner, most Managed Services Providers of IT services (MSP’s) are setup on a recurring revenue basis.
Benefits of recurring revenues
- Predictable cash flows
- Loyal repeat customers
- Lower sales costs
- More effective sales processes to develop new customers
- More effective sales processes to grow business with existing customers
- Increased revenues
- Increased profitability
- More effective use of everyone’s time
- Business stability
- Enhanced ability to plan, invest, develop, grow, and manage your business
Frequency of recurrence
Revenues can reoccur with any kind of frequency - annually, bi-annually quarterly, monthly or at other regular intervals. Some are longer – others shorter. The key is to evaluate what makes most sense for your business and particular goals and objectives.
Developing recurring revenues
For businesses which don’t currently have recurring revenue streams it is well worth the time and effort to develop these. To do so may take getting several heads in the game to identify areas of your business which can be offered in this manner. It’s very likely that your sales and service staff have ideas about additional services you can provide. It’s also worth asking key customers about services they would like and would consider buying.
Once candidate services have been identified you can evaluate the difficulty of implementation compared against the value of the opportunity of offering these. Weather you choose to implement a new service offering or modify the way in which you sell a current offering, you need to consider how you will sell, service and bill for these services.
In all cases the enhanced revenues and cash flows should easily justify the effort of implementation. The resulting business strength and stability is a bonus your business will enjoy hopefully for years to come.
Business fraud is on the rise
It’s been increasing for a few years and is expected to do so. This often happens during periods of economic turmoil.
Smaller businesses are much more susceptible to fraud than larger ones. The largest and fastest growing source of fraud comes from inside the four walls of your business. This is called Occupational Fraud.
Smaller businesses are overall more susceptible to insider theft and occupational fraud because they generally don’t have as many people in place to separate job functions and meaningful controls in place. The culture is usually open and trusting.
Even companies who have put controls and measures in place are facing an increased threat, as layoffs and not replacing people to fill existing jobs vacancies have caused new holes and weaknesses to exist. Potential fraudsters may find plenty of opportunities to launch their schemes if they are so inclined.
To get a sense of how big of a threat occupational fraud could be to a small business, a few statistics may help. According to a recent study by ACFE – The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners:
- The typical organization loses 5% of its annual revenue to fraud
- The median occupational fraud loss was $160,000
- Nearly one-quarter of the frauds involved losses of at least $1 million
- The frauds lasted a median of 18 months before being detected
Ask some of your business associates. See if they have been victimized. There's a good chance they have been.
To better understand this threat, it’s worth examining the ways in which small business occupational fraud occurs.
Top 10 ways occupational fraud occurs
- Skimming cash receipts
- Falsifying expense reports
- Forging or tampering with company checks
- Falsifying payroll records
- Falsifying bills and invoices
- Stealing cash
- Stealing other physical assets
- Sealing intellectual assets and information
- Corruption
- Financial statement fraud
The most common frauds are not the most costly
90% of occupational frauds involve Asset misappropriation. These cause median losses of $135,000.
Financial statement fraud schemes on the other hand make up less than 5% of the frauds, but cause a median loss of more than $4 million — by far the most costly category.
Corruption schemes fall in the middle, comprising just under one-third of cases and causing a median loss of $250,000.
All Anti-fraud measures are not equal
Anti-fraud controls help reduce the cost and duration of occupational fraud schemes. They significantly lower the losses, time-to-detection and thus the duration and financial impact of frauds.
While many small business owners believe they have adequate measures and good people in place to prevent fraud in their companies, it may be this very sense of trust that allows fraudulent activity to occur and flourish. Even the most trustworthy employees may have a need, then see and use an opportunity to commit fraud. The first step in combating this potential for fraud is creating an anti-fraud (zero tolerance) business culture.
Beyond this first step, there are many other anti-fraud control measures a business owner can put in place to reduce, discourage and prevent fraud. Some are easier to implement than others, while some are particularly more (or less) effective.
For example internal or external audits, while completely logical and worthy, are fairly ineffective in detecting frauds. On the other hand, adopting a policy whereby everyone must take their vacation (and someone else covers that job in their absence) is effective.
How can small business owners determine the most effective controls for their businesses?
Managers and owners of small businesses should focus their anti-fraud control efforts on the most cost-effective mechanisms. This involves learning where the business is most susceptible to fraud and what types of controls are most effective to deter these fraud risks.
Learn More:
One great way for small business owners and managers, attorneys and accountants to learn about how to deter fraud is to attend this webinar:
How Exposed Are You to Insider Theft? Occupational Fraud – Causes and Prevention
You will learn about the most effective and cost effective anti-fraud measures and how to calculate the ROI of implementing these measures in your business.
Another way to craft an anti-fraud program is to hire a professional organization which provides fraud risk assessment services, such as A B Hilton & Associates.
Using an outside professional has the added advantage of providing an unbiased view of the business to the owner.
They evaluate the risk and recommend appropriate anti-fraud measures for their clients. They also conduct educational events to help small business owners learn about the causes, prevention and actions they should take to protect their business.