05/04/2025
Business owners, let’s talk.
Flawless Elegance is trending because one of their new staff stole over 100 million naira worth of goods; in just two months of her stay with the organization.
Two months?! This smells like a planned inside job.
Wait! I will explain what I meant by that sentence.
As someone who works with businesses to manage inventory and prevent losses, I’ve seen how things like this happen.
There is usually any of these leaks or loopholes:
❌The staff gets hired without proper background checks
Before you hire anyone or approve any employment, do a proper background check, either at the last place worked at, or environment lived in.
❌They’re given too much control (maybe they manage the store, stock, and records alone without check)
Only one person shouldn't be in charge of the stock or sales. Maintain a double-check system of recording, preferably one internal and one external staff. Note, this external staff has to an independent contractor.
❌There’s no regular auditing or surprise stock checks
Sometimes, as a business owner, you could just do some random checks secretly, and ask the staff the quantity of item left in the store. This should give you a clue as to what's going on.
❌No one’s checking camera footage or monitoring the inventory in real time
Don't be overly confident about a physical CCTV that is well seen and physical, you should have at least one invisible CCTV that no staff knows about.
I have a client that doesn't take his eyes off his monitor system for close to 5 minutes. A smartphone monitor that will give you real time notification of movement in your store whether you're there or not is the best.
❌There’s no system for reporting suspicious behavior
Always create a whistle blowing system such that anyone can raise alarm of any suspicious movement of either inventory or cash.
These things make it easy for theft to go unnoticed; until it’s too late to curb and the deed has been done.
If you run a business, please:
✅Always run a background check
✅Use inventory systems that notify you of changes
✅Separate roles and review performance regularly
✅Do regular and surprise stock audits
✅Encourage team members to report red flags
Trust is good, but structure is better. Don’t let one person’s action crash everything you’ve built.
Let’s learn from this.
©️Itunu R. Adeosi- Your Business Growth Bestie 🚀📈🤝
