With the many tasks business owners must daily carry out just to keep the business running, security issues are apt to take a back seat in the owner's preoccupation. Yet security problems, including employee theft of trade secrets and other intellectual property, shoplifting and burglaries, among other threats, pose a serious, and growing, hazard to business profitability--and even to survival.

Deterring Theft:

Even when you have good physical security for your premises, theft can still be a problem because most business theft is carried out by people authorized to be on your premises -- customers and employees. And it's estimated that theft takes 10% out of each sales dollar nationwide.

Theft causes more than just financial harm to a business. It can also have serious emotional repercussions inside the workplace. When personal items begin to disappear in an office or workplace, employees become distrustful of one another -- which can hurt morale and productivity.

Actions You Can Take:

• Check with your local police department to see if it has a property identification program. In some communities, police agencies provide microtags or I.D. engraving for identifying valuable property. By prominently posting a notice at your place of business that you are participating in a property identification program sponsored, you can deter a theft that might otherwise occur.

• Consider purchasing asset tags from a security vendor. The unique advantage of asset tags is that they leave a permanent indelible "tattoo" bonded to a piece of equipment, with the owner's address and a number for contacting the police. Thieves cannot remove the bonded tattoo, which reduces the good's attractiveness to whomever the thief planned to sell it to.

• Review your insurance policy to make sure that you have adequate coverage for stolen inventory and equipment. Keep receipts to document the purchase of expensive new equipment in the event you need to justify a claim.

• Be aggressive about educating employees as to the dangers of theft--how the costs mount, and eventually erode the company's ability to provide top pay and benefits.

• If you have a retail business, you should consider training shopkeepers on how to spot suspected shoplifting -- but with clear policies on how to approach suspects and question them.

• Before you launch a training program or draft a policy for handling shoplifters, you should seek advice from a professional consultant familiar with the law, and who can also advise you on how to avoid the negative public relations and liability exposure you can face should one of your employees falsely accuse a customer or, worse, try to detain him against his will.

• For computers and other expensive office equipment, especially in heavily trafficked, publicly accessible areas, you should consider purchasing interlocking steel plates anchored to desks -- which will prevent theft by amateur thieves during working hours and potentially impede even professional after-hour burglars.

By taking the preventive actions that deter theft, you spare yourself the emotional wear and tear of worrying about your employees' trustworthiness. Also, good deterrent measures that prevent theft can help reduce insurance premiums.