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  • Niches Lead to Riches

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    It doesn’t matter WHAT your niche is.

    It only matters THAT you have one.

    AFTER ALL: Niches lead to riches.

    Now, there are two potential types of niches you can leverage:

    1. Niche Expertise

    2. Niche Market

    Having a Niche Expertise means you know a LOT about a SPECIFIC TOPIC that applies to a WIDE AUDIENCE.

    So, it’s the answer to the question:

    1. What, specifically, are you known FOR?

    2. What word do you want to OWN?

    FOR EXAMPLE: Let’s say you’re a consultant whose expertise is on how to handle angry, pissed off or difficult customers.

    Fantastic! That’s what you’re known FOR.

    And the good news is, entrepreneurs with Niche Expertise have several advantages:

    They become a big fish in a big pond.

    They apply their knowledge cross industrial.

    They open wide doors for expanding their businesses.

    They diversify their client base, which leads to new business.

    They become the obvious expert sought out by the mainstream media.

    They allow new markets to add multiple dimensions to their single topic.

    Dave Jackson is a good example of this. He’s “The Angry Customer Guy.”

    That’s Niche Expertise.

    On the other hand, having a Niche Market means you know a LOT about a SPECIFIC GROUP OF PEOPLE to whom you apply MANY TOPICS.

    So, it’s the answer to the questions:

    1. Whom, specifically, are you known BY?

    2. What industry do you want to DOMINATE?

    FOR EXAMPLE: Let’s say you’re a consultant who works solely in the Jewelry Retail Industry.

    Awesome! That’s whom you’re known BY.

    And the good news is, entrepreneurs with a Niche Market have several advantages:

    They become a big fish in a small pond.

    They apply their knowledge cross-topical.

    They open deep doors for expanding their businesses.

    They specialize their client base, which leads to repeat business.

    They become the obvious expert sought out by industry and trade media.

    They allow industry trends to add multiple dimensions to their various topics.

    Shane Decker is a good example of this. He’s “The Jewelry Store Guy.”

    That’s a Niche Market.

    Now, occasionally you will run into entrepreneurs that have both a Niche Topic AND a Niche Market.

    FOR EXAMPLE: How to handle angry, pissed off or difficult customers … who shop at retail jewelry stores.

    That’s a SUPER Niche!

    And although it’s rare, if you can pull it off … good on ya!

    You get the best of both worlds.

    Either way, you MUST remember this process:

    1. Focus first; THEN spray. Either covering your topic or your industry.

    2. Develop specialized knowledge. Either about your topic or about your industry.

    3. Pick a lane. Either the topic lane or the industry lane.

    4. Go with gusto! Either about your topic or about your industry.

    5. Become That Guy. Either “for” the topic or “by” the market.

    REMEMBER: People prefer specialists.

    Turn your niches into riches.

    LET ME ASK YA THIS…

    Are you niching?

    LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

    For the list called, “46 Marketing Mistakes Your Company Is (Probably) Making,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you the list for free!

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    Source by Scott Ginsberg

    Views: 0

  • MLM Business Plan: How Can You Use One To Profit ASAP?

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    Although getting a plan together is a genuine necessity, you’ll be pleased to know it’s actually rather simple to put one together or to make a few changes to your existing plan.

    Many online marketers understand that getting a plan together is a genuine necessity, you’ll be pleased to know it’s actually rather simple to put one together or to make a few changes to your existing plan.

    Although it is easy to create an MLM business plan when you know what your goals are, creating a profitable one is a different story altogether. To create these type of plans to actually turn a profit in your business, the main focus needs to be on how effective your marketing strategy is when it comes to generating commissions and sign ups in your downline.

    There are two main ways in which you can advertise online to turn a profit:

    1) Free marketing: social networking or content marketing are king here, basically any user generated content or anywhere in which you can interact one on one with another person within your circle of friends (or associates).

    This is a fun way to incorporate marketing into your MLM business plan, but it can be time consuming and without a large amount of people following your content, you have no real leverage and therefore no immediate profit.

    2) Paid marketing: this is an obvious one, but basically anywhere you pay to post an advert. For online marketing, adverts on other people’s blogs or sending solo ads to other marketer’s email lists are the most cost effective although there are more popular paid marketing methods such as Facebook advertising.

    These get immediate and targeted traffic, but without the proper education on paid methods you will certainly break the bank before you profit. With this option, you must also understand that this is an investment and there are times when you may even lose money, especially if you promote your offer to the wrong target market.

    Finally, you must analyse what you’re spending in your business. Is the product, service or event you’re about to invest in something that can be monetised, for example what will you learn in the training you purchase that will cover the cost of your investment? Or can you become an affiliate for what you’ve just purchased and sell copies of it to earn commissions?

    In conclusion, when you’re piecing together your MLM business plan you’re going to need to take a common sense approach. Forget cutting corners to save money, make sure the focus is on providing value to your potential customers in your marketing efforts whilst making your advertising cost effective.

    Lastly, ensure that the amount of advertising you will be implementing reflect on your goals e.g. number of sales a month so that you stay consistent with both your goals and marketing to avoid getting overwhelmed in your business, especially if you’re new to the MLM industry. Now that you have a basic understanding on how to profit quickly with an effective MLM business plan, what are you going to incorporate into your plan?

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    Source by Seb Brantigan

    Views: 0

  • MLM Forced Matrix Network Marketing System Gains Momentum

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    A forced matrix network marketing system is the quickest and most efficient way to prosper in the business field of Multi-Level marketing. MLM entrepreneurs that are new comers and those who are experienced are finding out that a forced matrix system is one of the best ways to grow in the networking arena. Starting an online Internet business in the field of multi-level marketing could be very beneficial for someone struggling in their current employment position.

    The reason a forced matrix system works better is because it allows spillover from your upline to come into your matrix even if you did not personally recruit them. A forced matrix is a system that puts a limit to the number of referrals a person can make on your first level. Any more referrals you make will be placed on the second level and so on. The more referrals you have the more your down line will grow and this will benefit the other people in your MLM program. The down lines on forced matrix systems fill up very quickly which means you make your money much faster.

    Good forced matrix systems will offer a low investment of $15.00 or less as a one-time payment or a monthly payment. The best forced MLM matrix systems are the one-time low payment investment plans because more people are apt to sign-up quickly when they see that there is no further financial commitment. Some MLM plans allow you to start immediately and make money within a week. You can find a great MLM Company and matrix plan on the Internet without doing much searching.

    Network marketing plans are really very simple to learn and can be promoted by almost anyone who has below high school education. Most MLM plans especially the new matrix system plans require only about 2 or 3 referrals to kick start the business. Most people start with recruiting family and friends before venturing off to people you do not know. The secret is really in the matrix plan. If you have a really good matrix plan then many people will want to join and promote it to others. Look for simple networking plans that are easy to explain to others so that your recruits will be able to promote the program more efficiently.

    What to look for in a great MLM forced matrix plan? The first thing to look for is a one-time low payment of $15.00 or less business investment. The next thing to look for is a small matrix system that will fill up fast like a 2×2 matrix. This system will not take long to accomplish and you will have financial profit sooner. If you can get paid weekly verses monthly then this will encourage you more because you will be receiving commission checks more often and you will receive more than your investment back within a week or so. Many of these matrix plans will allow you to work another matrix after you complete one and you will be able to continue this process many times. Look for a successful sponsor and you will do well.

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    Source by Bill Naugle

    Views: 0

  • MLM As a Business Tool

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    Multi-level marketing or MLM for short is one of the fastest -rising star in business. It is easy to set up, fast to do and not very difficult to manage as long as you manage a tight ship and create a structure without the holes. These reasons, however, are also the ones that made multi-level marketing as a business tool notorious. People who are out to rob other people of their hard-earned money, used the business structure to create scams. I am sure you have heard of the pyramid scams. The models they used are similar to multi-level marketing except that they are not legitimate business with no legitimate products.

    As a business tool, MLM is ingenious. Instead of creating stores and distributing through the usual channels, MLM makes use of ordinary people and their wide range of contacts. It actually takes advantage of the fact that communication now is so much better than before. This means that people you have not even seen in decades can easily be contacted. And the more contacts you have, the better for multi-level marketing because in essence, you will be using their contacts too.

    To make you understand MLM much better, here is how it goes. A company with products recruits distributors that will help them sell their products to people. Usually what big companies do is look for big companies who can put their products in the market. The same concept is applied to multi-level marketing except that people act as distributors and not companies. It’s the marriage of distributorship and the legendary Avon way of selling, direct to consumers. This actually gets the best of both worlds.

    With this business tool, multi-level marketing companies recruits people who can directly distribute their products to consumers. These people however do not just sell the products, they can also recruit people who can help them sell their products. Thus, increasing their total sales. When a lot of people are already part of one person, this is already considered as a group and group sales are often rewarded with commissions. In fact, the more people you have, the bigger sales you will naturally have. This is the principle of multilevel marketing.

    The beauty of this business tool is the fact that products are sold directly to people and yet you have people under you to help you do it. To earn a commission, you don’t need to actually sell the products yourself. You can recruit people to do it for you and then have them do the work. This is ideal for people who have a lot of contacts and network that they can use. Some people do not even have to meet in person to strike a business deal. This is especially true if the MLM company has offices in different states and countries.

    One word of caution though when thinking of joining a company that engages in multi-level marketing is to see if they have legitimate products that they can actually sell. You should also see if the company is also a legitimate one. This means it needs to have some manufacturing plant and a main office and business structure to qualify as legitimate. This separates companies that uses it as a business tool and companies that are out to just scam people. Knowing the difference can make save you a lot of effort and of course hard-earned money.

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    Source by Terez Dunn

    Views: 0

  • Affiliate Marketing Tips – How to Earn Your First Dollar With Affiliate Marketing!

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    Do you want to know how to earn $10 to $20 per month with affiliate marketing? The very first thing you want to do is to make your first dollar. It seems obvious, but many beginners try to make thousands of dollars at their first try.

    It doesn’t really work like this. Do you know that those who are earning several thousands per month started from scratch? Most of them have spent month to build their business. So what you should do when you are just getting started? There are many ways to get started, but all you need to do is start somewhere.

    You can write articles and submit them to directories. Why would you write articles and submit them for free? Good question. In fact, you should do this to drive traffic to your site and build a list of subscribers. Many beginners think that it is better to send the potential buyer to the merchant site, but this is not the way to do it because when you do this, you will never have another chance to promote your affiliate product to this prospect. When he leaves your site, he is gone for good. But look at this scenario now. When you build a list of prospects and send them valuable information, they will start to trust you and later on, they may buy from you.

    So if you want to make your first dollar online, write articles, and add a link in your bio box for visitors to go straight to your own website.

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    Source by Jamian Surenjav

    Views: 0

  • How to Build a Structured Sales Pipeline

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    Following on from my earlier article “Developing a structured pipeline – The Issues” this article describes how to build the all too elusive, structured sales pipeline.

    So to recap: what should a structured pipeline report aim to achieve?

    Firstly, it should enable you to view each sale in a consistent manner.

    Second, it should clearly identify if a sales opportunity has progressed or stagnated.

    Thirdly, it should contained a factoring index which will more accurately reflect the true value of the pipeline

    Fourthly, it should provide sales and/or company management with a consistent and reliable prediction of business that should be closed in the forthcoming period.

    Fifth, it should be simple and relatively easy to complete (salespeople as a breed are poor at filling in reports).

    Sixth, it should be focused on numbers rather than opinion.

    To build a consistent view of each sales opportunity take the sales cycle in your business and break it down into discrete milestones.

    So for example,

    – Milestone 1 is a lead or an enquiry who has identified desire to purchase your product or service.

    – Milestone 2 to progress the sale you need to demonstrate the product

    – Milestone 3 they have the budget to pay for your product

    – Milestone 4 you have submitted a proposal

    – Milestone 5 you’re on the shortlist

    – Milestone 6 you have a verbal order

    – Milestone 7 you have a written order.

    The next step is to put percentages against these milestones for example,

    1) 5%,

    2) 10%,

    3) 20%,

    4) 25%,

    5) 50%,

    6) 90%,

    7) 100%.

    This approach allows you to build a factored pipeline i.e. the value of the opportunity time the percentage milestone. Don’t get hung up about whether the percentages should be this or that number what we are building is something that will give you a consistent view across all your sales opportunities and not something which reflects the precise chance of winning per opportunity. The progress of the sale can be shown in any way you like; this could be as a table, a graph, or a set of traffic light colours going from red to green as you move along the sales process. Other information you need is simple the prospect name, if it is a new or existing customer, the value of the opportunity and a projected win date.

    By constructing what I have described you’ve gone a long way to getting a grip on your sales performance, you’ve now turned sales reporting into a set of numbers which over time you can analyse. For example you’ll see which sales have stagnated because they wont have moved along the pipeline for a period of time, you’ll be able to identify how overoptimistic you sales force are by comparing the projected win date with the actual win date. Most commonly this is between 3-6 months.

    Now that you have a factored pipeline you can start to build up metrics on the relationship between the size of your pipeline and your monthly sales. It also now enables you to look forward because as your factored pipeline rises and falls to will your sales, thus you can act early as soon as you see your pipeline numbers dip.

    You’re now at last starting to get some sensible numbers to enable you to plan your business and you have moved from a jolly nice chat to a shorter focused and more effective sales meeting. As the Meerkat would say “simples.”

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    Source by Laurence Ainsworth

    Views: 0

  • Pat Meseti – Millionaire Mindset

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    Pat Meseti describes himself as a gnome on steroids. If you have heard him speak you would think he is much more than this. I was gifted tickets to an event that Pat recently spoke at and I was hooked.

    The following weekend Pat held a seminar on the Gold Coast and I changed my schedule to be able to attend. Falling ill meant I did not reach the end of the three-day seminar, but as I lay in bed, I read the Millionaire Mindset and it changed my thoughts.

    The main thing to hit me was when Pat explained that you should not take financial advise from people who are poor. Wow! Who doesn't listen to family and friends about money? Are those friends wealthy? No, of course not, but we still listen to them. It is seriously worth thinking about. We must emulate those who have been successful before us.

    The other message that hit home was to keep learning. As a massive fan of Anthony Robbins (also known as Tony Robbins), I understand this and it is great to hear the same amazing information from someone else. It brings home the fact that you are already on the right track.

    You can learn from those who have walked before you or those from another path. I work in real estate, however I feel I can learn a lot from those who work in other professions. I have recently spent time with trainers, speakers as well as a marriage guide, and I learned something new from everyone. It is amazing what you can take away if you are truly willing.

    Looking to some of the world's entrepreneurs will guide the way for those who choose this path, but Pat's words are not just for those in business for themselves. If you choose to work for others, for whatever reason, you can take these teachings to your workplace with you. If you want to be the best at whatever you do, look to those who were great before you. Simple stuff right?

    The last thing that I will share, without ruining the whole book is that we all have a different view on success and wealth. I might think that to earn $ 200,000 a year is success. You might feel that working just enough to be comfortable, but able to get to soccer practice with the kids is success. Whatever you choose is really up to you. Remember to enjoy the ride and celebrate your success, however that looks to you.

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    Source by Brenda Lee Mitchell

    Views: 0

  • Stopping Employee Theft in Your Coffee Business

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    Regardless to how good of an employer you are, and even if you treat your employees well, understand that employee theft is a reality, and you need to control it. While it may only be a very small percentage of your staff that might steal from you, it can have a significant financial impact on your coffee business. If it goes unnoticed, employees will usually become even more brazen in their activities.

    When it comes to theft, your employees are likely to fall into one of the following four categories:

    Mr./Ms. honest – these are people who would never think of taking anything if it doesn’t belong to them. If they happen to go home with one of your ballpoint pens, they’ll bring it back the next day, and feel guilty that they took it home, even though it was unintentional.

    Incidental theft – these are people that will take home your pen by accident, and will keep it. And, they may scarf a piece of cheesecake occasionally when you aren’t looking, even though they know they shouldn’t. Because these items have minimal value, they have no great sense of guilt related to their activities.

    Theft because of need and opportunity – this is when you have an employee who is perhaps living on the edge financially, and because they have the need, and because your security may be lax, they’ll take advantage of an opportune situation to take something.

    Compulsive theft – this is the person who is always looking for something to steal, and they have absolutely no conscience about it. They typically rationalize the theft in their own mind. They consider you to be the rich, fat cat, and feel that they are over worked and under paid, so stealing from you is justified.

    Employee theft probably exists to some extent within your operation, whether you are aware of it or not. You can most likely live with incidental theft, provided it doesn’t get out of control. Theft related to need and opportunity is, in reality, your fault. These people would probably not steal from you normally, but a lack of security procedures has created the temptation and means for them to do so. Compulsive theft must be discovered, stopped, and you must eliminate the person(s) responsible.

    Losing product due to theft:

    Your employees may have no desire or need for a sleeve of 12oz. paper cups, Java Jackets, or a roll of toilet paper… but they might like a frozen cake, gallon of chocolate sauce, 6-pack of beer, or a bottle of wine.

    There are some simple things you can do to greatly reduce the chance of being ripped-off. First, don’t allow your employees to store their jackets, backpacks, and purses near where you store products. This makes it incredibly simple for someone to slide something into their bag or jacket pocket when no one is watching. I always had my employees store their personal belongings in the cabinet under the cash register (where someone would always be watching), or in my office, under lock & and key.

    Second, keep the back door of your store locked with a key at all times (you or your supervisor being the only ones having a key). If customers regularly enter through your back door, this may not be an option. If your back door is an emergency fire exit (and it probably is), you’ll need to install an alarmed breaker-bar. The whole point is that you don’t want your employees to be able to flow in and out of the back door without you knowing about it. Carrying product out the back door to their car, a hiding place for later pick-up, or an awaiting friend, is one of the most common ways products will exit your store.

    Once you have made it more difficult to stash things in their personal belongings, or carry them out the back door, employees may resort to hiding items in the trashcan. Of course you will unlock the back door to let them take out the trash. If they have hidden something in the trashcan, a dumpster-diving expedition will certainly be planned for after-hours to recover their treasure.

    Periodic trashcan checks should eliminate this problem, or make it a far less appealing option to anyone considering this method to smuggle things out of your store. Buy a long handle 3-prong garden rake. When employees ask to take out the trash, accompany them, and have them hold the can up on the edge of the dumpster while you rake out the trashcan contents. What you are looking for are things that might have been hidden in the trash, but you can tell your employees that you are merely making sure that small wares aren’t being accidentally thrown away. During the 15-years I owned and managed restaurants, I discovered everything from six-packs of beer, bottles of wine, and packages of steaks hidden in the trash!

    Another situation that will create an ideal opportunity for employees to steal from you is having only one person working in your store. If your baker comes in each morning a hour before you or the next employee, or if one person is left to clean and lock-up the place at the end of the day, opportunities for theft abound. As the old saying goes: when the cat’s away…

    Always try to have at least two people in your store at all times. If there is not justification for having a second employee on the clock, then you will need to be that second person. If this requires you going from a 60-hour workweek to 80-hours, then this may not be a tolerable option. If this is the case, then at least invest a couple of hours more each day for a week or two to do some detective work.

    During those times of day when only one employee is working, park at the far end of the parking lot, or across the street, so that you will reduce the chance of being noticed by your employee. If they are familiar with your vehicle, use your spouse’s or friend’s vehicle for a few days. Watch carefully (with binoculars if necessary). I know this all sounds a little CSI – like, but better to rest-easy, feeling fairly assured that your employee isn’t carrying away your store when you’re not watching. If I had the time, I could tell you countless stories of my experiences in catching employees red handed, loading the trunks of their cars.

    If you suspect that theft of product might be occurring, but you’ve seen no direct evidence of it, then conducting a daily key item inventory may shed some light on the situation. Write down a list of 15 to 20 products that you think would be most appealing for someone to steal. In your coffee business, this might include items such as coffee, syrups and sauces, smoothie puree, biscotti, cookies, and desserts, sandwich meats & cheeses, and of course beer & wine (if you serve those from your operation). Then take an inventory of these items every day. Your employees don’t need to know what you are doing, and if they ask, simply tell them you are taking an inventory for ordering purposes.

    What you are looking for are anomalies in usage. For example, let’s say that from your daily inventories you assess that you use about half a gallon of chocolate sauce per day. Then, one day you notice you used 1 1/2 gallons of chocolate the previous day. This should send up a red flag! Why did you go through an extra gallon of chocolate? Were you significantly busier yesterday, or did you featuring several drink specials which contained chocolate sauce? A quick review of individual item sales from yesterday’s cash register report should provide you with the answer. If you average one ounce of chocolate per beverage, then using 1 1/2 gallons means you should have sold approximately 192 beverages containing chocolate (128 oz. per gal. x 1.5 = 192). If this was the case, no problem. But, if you discover that you only sold 64 beverages containing chocolate, then 128 oz. (or 1 gallon) is unaccounted for and missing! A good indication that it probably walked out the door. If this happens, keep track of who was working on the day of the shortage. If this happens continually, eventually you will discover that the same person or persons were working every time.

    Theft of money by employees:

    Hopefully, none of your employees will have the desire to steal products from you, but some will be tempted by the lure of cold, hard, cash. Everyone could use an extra $20 a day. Employees who steal money from you will definitely hurt your bottom line, and must be eliminated.

    The first way to reduce cash theft is to have a cash handling policy in place that will discourage theft. If multiple employees are using the cash register, and no one person is responsible, then I can almost guarantee that your cash drawer will keep coming up short on a regular basis. The fact that no one person can be held responsible for the shortages, will make grabbing a bill or two easy and appealing.

    Implement a policy that one, and only one person is responsible for the cash register for the entire shift. They should count the drawer at the beginning of their shift to verify that they are starting with the designated change bank. Then, they should be the only person to ring up sales and make change. Even you, the owner/manger, should keep your hands out of their cash drawer. Finally, at the end of their shift, they should set aside the amount they started with in the change drawer, and total all the remaining cash, checks, and charges, and balance against what was rung up on the register. If they started with the right amount of money in the cash drawer, rang everything up, took all the money, counted back all the change, and they end up short… who’s fault is it? It can only be theirs. By implementing this simple policy, I once took an operation that was coming up $100 a day ($3,000 a month) cash short, and reduced it to $3 a day, in just 30 days! That’s over a $2,900 bottom line improvement, (in case you didn’t do the math)!

    The other common method that a cashier might use to steal money from you is by using a method called, building a bank. This is the process of not ringing up items on the cash register, while still taking money from the customers, and then pocketing that money. Typically, they will obscure the view of the cash register display on the customer’s side with something like a flower, retail merchandise, or by turning the display so that it cannot be easily seen. Then, they will pretend to ring up an item, but will hit the no sale key instead, popping the drawer open so they can take the cash and make change, but in reality, they haven’t rung up anything. The other thing they might do when it is busy is to just not shut the drawer between transactions. They simply convey verbally the cost of items ordered by customers and take the cash, but once again, nothing has been rung up.

    A cash register that prints out the order on a remote receipt printer to the person who will be preparing the item, can eliminate this problem. Quite simply, if the item isn’t rung-up, it won’t print out. If your barista or cook won’t prepare anything without a receipt (and they shouldn’t!), it will force your cashier to ring everything up.

    If you observe that the cash register’s display has been blocked from the customer’s view, or there are an excessive number of no sale indications on your cash register’s detail tape, or notice that your cashier is not shutting the drawer between transactions, beware! While these may not be indisputable proof that your cashier is stealing from you, they should certainly heighten your vigilance to find out if something is going on.

    If your coffee business only warrants having one employee working at a time, perhaps because you own a cart, kiosk, or low volume drive-through operation, then how do you go about keeping your employee from building a bank and stealing from you? The best solution I’ve seen is to turn your customers in to watchdogs. Affix a sign to the front of your cash register, in plain sight of the customer, that reads: If you don’t receive a receipt with your order, it’s FREE! This will force your cashier to hand each customer a receipt for their purchase. If they are building a bank, this means they will have to hand the customer a receipt that says – NO SALE; something they probably won’t fell comfortable doing!

    The financial impact of theft of money can be extremely damaging, for example: Let’s say you have a cashier who is skimming off $20 a day by not ringing things up, and then pocketing the money. Not only did you loose the stolen $20, but the $7 of ingredients that were probably used to produce the ordered products; ($20 x 35% ingredient cost = $7.00). So in reality, you lost $27, and it will take an additional $41.54 in sales, to recover this loss; ($41.54 x 65% gross profit = $27). $27 a day lost to theft, X 21 days worked by the employee = $567 lost cash & product per month; $872 extra sales required to offset this loss. (Annual loss, $6,804; $10,468 in additional income required to offset loss.) You must stop theft of money!

    Theft of money management:

    If you have a manger running your operation for you, this can really create an opportunity for cash theft. Just about anyone who has ever run a food service operation (self included), probably felt that they were over-worked and under-paid. Some are tempted to grant themselves an unapproved raise. Your manger has the control key to the cash register, which means they have the ability to back off items that were sold. You would be wise to check your cash register detail tapes on a regular basis. If you see multiple items backed off in groups, or more worrisome yet, all backed off at the very end of the shift, beware!

    A good way to keep this from happening is to establish a policy that no over-rings are to be backed off of sales on the cash register with the management control key. Instead, when the cashier makes an over-ring, they should take the receipt, write over-ring on it, sign it, and put it in the cash drawer. At the end of the shift, the total of all over-rings should be manually backed off of the sales total indicated on the cash register report.

    Many years ago I had a manager that was stealing money from me in another creative way. This manager, who opened the store each day, would reset the cash register by Z-ing it out after the first half hour of business. He would then pocket the proceeds earned during that first half hour. Because additional sales were generated during the second half hour, the cash register hourly sales report would always show sales for the first hour of operation, thus eliminating any suspicion that something might be going on.

    It wasn’t until I was doing a routine audit of cash register Z tapes that I noticed something wasn’t right. When you run a Z report, which resets the cash register at the end of each day, a multi-digit number will usually be printed somewhere on that tape. The next time you Z the register, that number will advance by one digit. I noticed that even though the tapes were sequential in date, every other number was missing. This tipped me off that the register was being Z-ed twice a day! When I confronted my manager with the tapes, his look of panic spoke volumes.

    If you are doubting the honesty of any of your employees or managers, one way you can verify or eliminate your suspicion is by baiting the cash drawer. Slip an extra $20 bill in the drawer sometime during the day when they aren’t watching. If they don’t end up reporting at the end of their shift that they were $20 cash-over, I’ll do it a second time (just to make sure). If they don’t report it a second time, you should have no doubts that they are indeed, dishonest.

    NEVER accuse an employee or manger of stealing unless you catch them red-handed (actually stuffing money into their pockets). Even though the circumstantial evidence may be overwhelming, unless you actually catch them in the act, they are likely to deny your accusations, and will probably file a complaint against you with the department of labor! The brief moment of satisfaction you will gain from letting them know you are aware of what they’ve been doing, will be quickly overwhelmed by the legal predicament you will find yourself in. You will be far better off to not make accusations. Simply terminate their employment. In many states, you do not need to provide a reason as to why you are letting them go. When they ask for an explanation as to why you are firing them, simply say: I don’t need to give you a reason, I’m just letting you go, goodbye!

    Finally, don’t over look technology to help you with security. Surveillance cameras linked to a DVR (digital video recorder) can provide you with peace of mind, or evidence of theft. These systems have become very affordable, and many are easy to install. The value of these cameras go beyond having a video record of operations. The mere fact that employees understand that their activities are being video recorded, will usually discourage them from doing things that they might not think twice about, if no one was watching.

    I think it’s important to not be paranoid about employee theft. Certainly, you don’t want to be constantly obsessed with the suspicion that everyone is stealing from you. In reality, the majority of your employees are probably honest people. But, you would be wise to establish some simple safeguards, and maintain a watchful eye.

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    Source by Ed Arvidson

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