Negosentro.com | 5 Ways To Keep Your Business Safe From Looters | If you’re a business owner that works out of a physical office or workspace, at some point you may experience looting. There are many situations that can encourage looters, so it’s a good idea to be prepared for various circumstances and to have a plan in place well before there’s any danger. If you take the time to plan now, it should be easier to act when it’s time to protect your property. If you’re not sure where to begin, here are five ways to keep your business safe from looters.
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Assess Your Business
The first step in your anti-looting plan should be to assess your business. Consider the things about your business that could make your property a target for looters. Assess your surroundings thoroughly. You may have a parking lot next door that makes it easy to bring a truck right up to the back door. The alley to the left of your business may not be covered by security cameras. Do you work with valuable machines or materials? Do you have a lot of product in stock that would be easy to sweep from the shelves? How is your security? Find your weak spots and decide how you’ll strengthen or protect them later on.
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Protect Valuables
Make a plan to protect your valuable assets. If there’s a hurricane coming and the area is being evacuated, what will you do with your valuables? You may want to consider removing them from the property if at all possible. If you have time, post signs saying you’ve removed everything of value. Looters may still break in, but at least there won’t be anything to take. Make sure your cash is well hidden, and if you use a safe for your valuables, make sure it’s bolted down or too heavy to be carried out. If you feel comfortable owning and operating a gun, you may want to consider an easily accessible gun safe.
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Get Outside Help
In some instances, you may know ahead of time that your business would make a prime target for looters. For example, if your building has experienced storm damage and no one will be in the building for long stretches of time, looters may consider snooping around. You can call your local police, and they may send a patrol car to drive by every so often, but there’s no guarantee they’ll have the resources to spare. In this case, you may want to consider upgrading your security system or hiring outside help to keep an eye on things when you can’t be there. Sometimes just the presence of a security system is enough to deter criminals looking for an easy target.
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Block Potential Entrances
In times of crisis, it can be easy to hastily board up the windows and call it a day. This may be enough to protect your property, but you could also be missing weaknesses in the building you aren’t aware of. This is especially important if there has been recent damage and you haven’t had a chance to survey everything. There could be gaps or weak spots that go unnoticed by you, but are basically neon signs to others. Don’t forget to lock everything and check that the locking mechanisms are secure.
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Do Not Approach
In the event that you are looted, do not approach the looters. If you hired security guards, they should have the right training to deescalate the situation. Involving yourself without the necessary skills could end with further injury or danger to you and your property. This could also result in legal troubles for you even if you’re the one being robbed.
No business is perfectly safe from looters, but you can certainly do your best to deter criminals. When you take the time to survey your company and protect it carefully, you should be better prepared to deal with dangerous situations well before they arise.
