It amazes me how many small businesses put no precautions in place to protect their business from fraud. Embezzlement is the most common form of fraud in small business. Yet most owners I talk to (usually after it has happened), completely trusted the person who stole from them.
Why do we think we would be immune from fraud when Jesus wasn’t? John 12:6 says “He (Judas Iscariot) did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief: as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put in it.” I believe that Jesus knew this was happening, and possibly some of the other disciples suspected it, but Jesus had a reason for not confronting him. It needed to be established that this person would eventually betray Him, and the betrayal had already been happening. If Judas had not been subtly betraying Jesus all along, Judas may not have had the courage to go through with it when it came to selling Jesus to the Pharisees.
The problem is that small business owners must put their trust in who they hire, including friends and family members without Devine knowledge of who is and is not trustworthy. Even though there are precautions that business owners can take to prevent fraud, most owners do not put these precautions in place because they do not want to offend their employees. What most people don’t realize is that by putting procedures in place to prevent fraud, you are not only protecting the business – and possibly your livelihood – but you are also protecting your employees from being accused of something they did not do, and it takes the temptation away in the first place.
Jesus knew the precautions that could have been taken, including having more than one person in charge of the money purse. He chose not to because he already knew the outcome. The small business owner though, needs to take these precautions. Although someone who is determined to do wrong will find a way no matter how many precautions are put in place; the one a business owner needs to be watchful for is the employee that normally would not even think of breaking the speed limit let alone stealing money. It is them you are taking the temptation away from.
I have a great resource for you, her name is Julie Aydlott from Business Fraud Prevention, LLC. She is a Certified Fraud Examiner. Julie has created a system for small business owners, that includes templates and other checklists that the larger corporations use, but on a scale that any small business can use. If you have even one employee, consider putting Julie’s tools to use. http://www.thevitalicsystem.com/