A Guide: What to Do When an Employee Steals from You

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article|Employee Theft|A Guide: What to Do When an Employee Steals from YouIt’s every business owner’s worst nightmare: employee theft. The financial ramifications of embezzlement, which is its official title, alone are enough to cause vast amounts of stress and worry. Throw in the fact that trust is broken and genuine friendships are ruined as a result of it, and everything about this kind of plight becomes hard to stomach.

You might not be able to repair the relationship that you once shared with the member of your workforce that stole from you, but you can protect your business from further harm as a result of the situation. In order to protect the financial welfare and reputation of your company, you have to take action as soon as you are aware of the fact that a staff member is stealing from you.

Read on to find out what you need to do in the aftermath of employee theft.

Gather all the facts

Before you go in all guns blazing, you need to ensure that you’ve gathered all the facts pertaining to the employee theft that has befallen your business. By not doing so, you could very well end up accusing an employee that has actually done nothing wrong. If this were to happen, you would not only sour the relationship that you share with that particular staff member, but you would also force the rest of your workforce to reconsider their trust in you. How could you expect them to trust you going forward if they believe you are going to accuse them whenever money goes missing?

You also need to gather all the facts so that you have evidence to fall back on should you push forward with court proceedings. This means making copies of invoices and receipts, locating and locking away vital video recordings, and keeping transcriptions of any interviews that you conduct on the matter.

Get yourself a lawyer

You need to deal with your case of employee theft in as swift and effective a manner as possible. If you allow it to linger, people will begin to question how seriously you are taking the situation, and other employees may even slip their hands in your tills if they know that they can get away with it.

To deal with your matter of embezzlement quickly, you need to align yourself with a lawyer that specializes in this field right away. As soon as you possibly can, you should get in touch with a law firm such as thefishmanfirm.com, inform them about everything that has transpired, and provide them with the evidence that you managed to gather about the situation. They will then set about the task of ensuring that your business is reimbursed in full and possibly even compensated for its involvement in the ordeal.

Employee theft is not nice, but it happens. If this problem does, in fact, ever happen to befall you, you need to take action against it right away. If you don’t, not only could you lose a boatload of cash, but you could also end up doing serious damage to your reputation. How are customers and clients going to be able to trust you with their interests if you are unable to deal with people stealing from you right under your nose?

Take the above advice, and don’t take embezzlement lying down.

What is Plastic Extrusion?

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article, What is Plastic Extrusion?Simply put, plastic extrusion is a manufacturing process, often complex, which involves a solid plastic mass being manipulated into a shape, which can then be made into other usable products, or even as first produced.

Usage and market

Despite how useful plastic extrusion may sound, you may be shocked to discover that many businesses out there are still quite blind to the benefits it can bring with it.

However, it would seem that many companies could soon learn about the benefits of plastic extrusion with the industry expected to experience huge growth by 2025.

Whether you’re a large, medium or small business, this can be used to create a wide number of products, and below, you’ll find a guide outlining everything you need to know.

Components

The key piece of equipment here is a plastic extruder, which is made up of four main components, which are:

  • A hopper, which can be manual or vacuum, which holds and feeds the raw plastic through
  • A long barrel that often features a screw-like mechanism, which is used to push plastic through the barrel to the second stage
  • An external heater, or more, which helps to keep the temperatures within the barrel at the required level
  • A die, which is the plastic’s main profile as it’s being manufactured

Process

How this works is quite simple overall. Firstly, the raw plastic is placed inside the hopper, which may require different applications, such as colorants, UV inhibitors or anti-oxidants, depending on the product being created, which will also need to be added to the hopper.

The raw plastic will then be gravity-fed through the ‘feed throat’ into the extruder’s barrel. Once inside, the long, rotating screw inside will direct the raw plastic to the die. As it progresses, it will begin to melt, due to the high temperature, which ranges from 200 to 275 degrees.

As the plastic is now molten, once it reaches the end of the barrel, it’ll then be squeezed through a screen pack and into a feed pipe. Ultimately, it will end up at the die. Contaminates at this stage are removed if there are any at all.

Once in the die cavity, the product will cool and harden.

Shapes

As there are many shapes that you can end up with at the end of plastic extrusion, this will ultimately all depend on your industry, and what you’re looking to achieve. Therefore, it is often decided on before the extrusion.

Benefits

The biggest benefit is that it can completely change the way your business manufactures plastic.

As it is continuous, it’ll allow you to establish a high volume of output, which is excellent news for anyone with a high demand for products. They’re also extremely helpful for when you need parts consistent with wall thickness, or profiles longer and wider than can be created by most forms of plastic manufacturing.

Now you can see how it works, and the benefits that come with it, if you have a plastic business with huge growth plans, or you’re growing at an alarming rate, this could be the answer to all your problems.

6 Ways To Create Exceptional Content In Your Business

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, 6 Ways To Create Exceptional Content In Your BusinessContent is king in today’s digital age, and every brand needs to consider ways in which they can make exceptional content that will help them to stand out from the crowd and impress their target customer. This is easier said than done, particularly in a time where every company is creating a steady stream of content, but there are a few ways that you can make sure that all of your content is of the highest standard. Many brands make the mistake of believing that it is a case of quantity over quality, but you need to make sure that your content is engaging, valuable, and entertaining.

1. Consider Your Target Audience

You should always keep your target audience in mind when creating any kind of content. Consider what the audience’s wants, needs, and interests are and find ways to solve common problems that they might face in their life. The content should be thought-provoking while providing them with helpful knowledge.

2. Create Original Content

A lot of businesses simply steal ideas from their competitors and rework it, but this will not achieve the desired results and could negatively impact your SEO. Instead, try to come up with original ideas for your content, which will stand out from the crowd.

3. Use A Variety Of Media

People are bombarded with text and image content consistently throughout the day. While this is still a worthwhile form of content, you also need to make sure that you are looking into other forms of media to engage your target audience. Video is the most effective as this is highly engaging and can make it easy for you to communicate your desired message. You need to make sure that you are producing high-quality films with cameras from Choosist.com and professional-standard video editing software.

4. Create Strong Headlines

You will never get hits or communicate your message to your target audience without a strong headline. The headline should catch their attention, evoke emotion, and make them want to know more. Take time when crafting a headline and try a few different options until you find one which will engage the audience.

5. Keep It Concise

People these days have a short attention span, so you need to keep all content concise, pointed, and valuable. Eliminate all fluff and get to the point quickly. People will not spend their time skimming through an enormous blog post when they are looking for information.

6. Add Personality

Nobody wants to consume content which is bland and faceless. Try to get your personality across in the content, whether this is by using humor, sharing a personal story, and/or by using the first-person language. Although you should get your personality across, you must avoid being informal and unprofessional and never post anything which could be divisive or considered offensive.

Most businesses understand the importance of creating content, yet not many know how to create exceptional content that will get them noticed. The above are a few strategies to try and should deliver immediate results and help you to engage your target audience.

7. Hire a Content Writer

As a business owner, you will soon find yourself on the hamster wheel of content creation. Although you may be able to handle this task for a certain amount of time, you may want to outsource it to a professional who can get you the results you’re looking for. With managed marketing solutions you can seek help with content marketing and social media solutions, so that you can put more time and focus into other areas of your business. Expanding your horizons when it comes to creating content will drive more traffic to your business and will help you to build your credentials as an industry leader more quickly.

How to Minimize Loss of Profits

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article|Loss of Profits|How to Minimize Loss of ProfitsIf a business is to grow, it needs to make a profit, and it needs to make more profit all the time. Losing profits is a sure way to damage your business, and eventually, if it keeps happening, the business will have to fold – you cannot sustain losses year on year and not be affected by it. Here are some simple but effective ways to minimize the loss of profits to help you stay on track and continue to grow as much as possible.

Don’t Launch Too Soon

In order to make more profits, every business needs to innovate and come up with new and exciting ideas. However, launching those ideas too soon can be a disaster; if the product is not ready, if there are problems with it, if no one is actually going to buy it, or if it is simply not cost-effective then you will waste money and not make any profits.

This is why testing your products with Digivante is important. When you do this, you will receive feedback that you can act on and ensure you make the necessary changes to help your product sell. You will also be able to fix any issues before launching to the general public.

Make Use Of Technology

They say that time is money in business, and therefore if there is anything that can be done to save time, you are likely to be saving money too. Using the latest technology to help complete tasks more quickly and effectively is a great way to stop losses from occurring. If you or your team are able to save time by using a machine or computer program, for example, you can use that time to be more effective elsewhere, maximizing your chances of selling.

Not only that, but you won’t need so many staff if a lot of your important tasks can be automated or done more quickly, and again this will help to save you money. Quite often, staff costs are the most expensive part of running a business.

Price Correctly

It may seem a simple concept, but pricing your products and services correctly will stop you from making a loss when it comes to your profits. If you haven’t calculated the prices properly, you run the risk of not making a profit at all, and therefore losing money.

This is why you need a budget before choosing to sell any kind of product or service. You must know what your bottom line is and what you are spending if you are going to be able to price your products in such a way as to make a profit but not alienate your customers. This can be a difficult balancing act, but it is well worth the effort to make sales and minimize losses.

Take It Seriously

Many people run their new businesses as a sideline while working a full or part-time job. This can mean that it is not taken as seriously as it should be, and you might not be pushing the business as hard as you would if you were running it full time.

In order to minimize losses, you need to take your business seriously, whether it is your full-time concern or not.

The 3 Most Important Responsibilities of a Manager

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StrategyDriven Management and Leadership Article |Responsibilities of Manager |The 3 Most Important Responsibilities of a ManagerWhen starting out in their careers, many employees will want to ascend their company’s hierarchy with the aim of taking on more managerial roles in the future. However, to become an effective leader, there are a number of elements that you need to consider in order to both lead your employees and run the business to its maximum potential.

Business Growth

As a manager, you will be expected to focus on the best ways to improve the business and make large profits during your tenure by finding new ways to increase your margins. One of the best ways that you can do this as a manager is to cut the running costs of the business. There are many ways to do this in the steed of the business owner, and these include suggesting that you switch energy suppliers to cut down on your energy bills. If this sounds like the best option for your workplace, Utility Bidder allows you to compare business energy prices from multiple companies to find the right provider for your workplace.

You can also encourage business growth by managing the marketing team and finding new ways to boost sales. This can include holding competitions and promotional deals if you have a retail store, or utilizing social media and SEO to improve your digital marketing technique.

You can also make the business more efficient by replacing old machinery and equipment and by looking into the best modern machinery and technological office supplies.

How to Lead Employees

The most important role that you will have is to manage the employees under your leadership in an efficient way. There are many ways that you can boost employee productivity in a positive manner, and this includes methods such as offering rewards schemes and incentives such as pay rises, which you can agree with the business owner, and offering regular praise to employees. You can also help to boost morale by organizing payrolls and employee holidays efficiently, as well as making sure that there are always enough staff members to run the business efficiently on any one day.

You should also offer employees regular training days to ensure that they are able to hone their skills during their tenure and be reminded of some of the key processes of your business. It is also important that you are able to lead your employees by dealing with any problems. You can do this by holding an annual review meeting for every employee where you can discuss these issues and set targets for the future, which they will be able to work towards.

However, you should always remember to delegate responsibility to employees to make them feel valued and ensure that there is only a limited amount of pressure placed upon yourself.

Communication With Clientele

As a manager, you will also be on the frontline between your workforce and your customers, and so it is important that you are able to have customer communication techniques in place to help you deal with any issues. For instance, it is vital that you ensure that customers return to the business, and you can do this by sorting problems by offering promotions and discounts, as well as feedback and good complaints methods, to those who have had issues with your business.

You should also communicate with clients by using social media and e-mail marketing to tell clients new information about the business and make sure that they are aware of any offers that may be available.