Running a successful business is no easy feat. Planning and projecting will only get you so far, and after a while, you’ll need to grow, learn and adapt in order to achieve continued success. In my years of starting and running a business, working with small business owners across the country, I’ve noticed a few things most successful business owners have in common.

Review Business Plan and Budget

Your business is ever changing, and your business plan and budget should flex along with your business’ growing needs. To successfully launch a business, a business plan and budget together make a great starting point for planning the way your business will grow and flourish. However, even the most fastidiously planned businesses will run into some surprises along the way.

Reviewing your business plan and budget at the end of each year serves as a great way to evaluate the successes and failures your business may have experienced that calendar year. Honestly ask yourself if you are still on your planned trajectory, or if you need to make some modifications in order to see better returns in the years to come. Reallocating funds and efforts in order to increase profits after conducting a business review will be necessary at times, and successful business owners don’t shy away from making these changes.

Embrace Software and Technology

Some business owners are stagnant – doing things the way they’ve always been done. This can include bookkeeping in stacks upon stacks of notebooks, writing paper receipts, sending out old-fashioned mailers and relying on word-of-mouth to sell your service or product. What may have worked 15-20 years ago isn’t likely going to cut it these days.

Embracing technology will not only bring your business into the 21^st century, but it will also help your business become more efficient and more profitable. Rely on accounting and bookkeeping software to replace paper balance sheets, keep a website up-to-date and timely, and take advantage of the vast array of marketing tools available to small businesses on the web.

Delegate Job Tasks and Responsibilities

I think it’s part of the entrepreneurial mindset to believe that we can do it all, but the truth is, if you try to do it all, you’ll run yourself mad (or worse). Shouldering all of the responsibilities and tasks needed to grow a successful business yourself will simply burn you out and exhaust you. A tired and disgruntled business owner is not a successful one.

Learn to delegate responsibilities and trust that your team can carry out important tasks in order to grow the business in a responsible way. After all, you hired employees to help you, so let them do their job so that you can focus on more important, higher-level tasks.

Know Your Financials

A business owner that doesn’t know his or her financials is likely headed down the wrong road. Knowing where your business stands in terms of profits and losses is the only way you can make informed choices for your business in the future.

Unfortunately, I regularly deal with business owners seeking financing for their companies who are not current on their financials. It puzzles me that a business owner would seek borrowed money when they aren’t even sure where the money they had gone. A successful and responsible business owner will be current with their financials within the past two weeks and be able to intelligently discuss the financial state of their business.

If you struggle with balancing finances on your own, consider hiring an accounting or a part-time bookkeeper that can help you keep things in order. 

Take Calculated Risks

Chances are, if you own your own business, you are a risk-taker by nature. A huge part of becoming an entrepreneur and running a successful business is risk tolerance. Successful business owners strive to see progress every day and are willing to take some calculated risks in order to achieve that goal.

A big part of the willingness to take risks is an entrepreneur’s own personality, the support system that exists around him or her. Your tenacious nature, creativity and intuition for growing your business may only get you so far. You should also build a network of mentors and advisors who will help guide you through important decisions, and also lean on your friends and family for bits of advice when times get tough.

On the face of it, giving someone else your keys seems counter-intuitive to keeping your property safe. However, a security company’s keyholding service involves doing just that and is an ideal way to keep your business’ building safe. There are a number of benefits to opting for a keyholding service; some are obvious, some are less so.

Decreased Personal Risk

If the alarm goes off at your property during the hours you’re not at work (i.e. the middle of the night), investigating the problem yourself puts you at risk of harm. You will be walking into a potentially dangerous situation without any training. Veritech Systems security company takes the risk away from you; our trained professionals will enter the property using the keys and deal with the situation. Our staff are highly trained in de-escalating situations.

24/7 Service, 365 Days a Year

When you opt for keyholding from a security company, we won’t just work 9-5 Monday to Friday. Rather, when an incident triggers the alarm, it’s far more likely to not be during office hours. Criminals don’t take breaks, so neither do we – we’ll enter your property any time there’s an emergency, regardless of the time or day.

Find out more about keyholding services! 

Protection When It Matters

One of the key worries for business owners is the possibility that an alarm will go off for hours before anyone has a chance to get to the building. Intruders could have been on your property for hours, causing untold amounts of damage. Your security company will get to your building as soon as the alarm is triggered; our control room is always manned, so we will be aware as soon as an incident occurs. If the problem’s dealt with quickly, there’s less potential for costly damages.

Take a Break!

You and your staff are only human and need to take breaks. If you’re on a vacation, keyholding services provide you with peace of mind. You can enjoy your break with the knowledge that a security company has your building covered.

Additionally, if your alarm goes off on a Friday night, there’s a possibility that you’ll have had a few drinks. Driving over the limit is never acceptable, and with keyholding services, there’s not an excuse! Finally, keyholding services also take the pressure off of your staff; staff work better in an environment where they feel safe. Keyholding services stop your staff being at risk and allow them to get on with their tasks in peace.

For more information about keyholding services, get in touch today! Veritech is a security company with solutions that work for you and your business; contact us today and we’ll provide you with a free site check.

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There are a number of benefits that come with using a CCTV system at your business, or even your home. CCTV systems have a broad variety of uses that go beyond simply being used to monitor the exterior or interior of a property. Veritech, a Southampton security company, details the main benefits of using CCTV.

Deter Criminals

One of the most recognised benefits of CCTV is its ability to deter criminals. A criminal that spots a CCTV camera is less likely to take the risk and burgle your premises. One security company has noted that criminals are typically disorganised and will consider CCTV to be an indication that a property is not fit to intrude.

Find out more about CCTV

Peace of Mind

One of the most important, but often overlooked advantages of CCTV is its potential for peace of mind. As so many modern cameras turn to wireless, you can check in on your property from your mobile phone. This allows you to get on with your life, knowing that you can check in at a moment’s notice and that your property is safe in the hands of your security company.

Insurance Rates

Insurance companies are more likely to reduce property insurance costs for owners that take proper steps in protecting their property. Your insurance company will note that you’ve installed CCTV and may reduce your premiums as a result. Additionally, if your property is broken into, CCTV gives you that all important evidence you need to support your insurance claim. This makes your insurance company far more likely to reimburse you for any losses.

Contact your security company for more information about CCTV

If you’re worried about the security of your business premises, contact your security company today. At Veritech, we’re always happy to hear from you and will conduct a full site survey to ensure that your place of operations is adequately secure.

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There are a number of challenges for a business owner in Southampton. One of the foremost of these is security. An access control system is vital for keeping unwanted visitors out of your premises but how do you let your security company know which access control system is right for you? Access control is important for the safety of your employees and for the assets you keep in your workplace.

As such, at Veritech, we’re here to help you do your research before you make a decision. Here are the key things you need to think about when deciding on an access control system.

Your budget

There is a wide range of access control solutions available, which means that you can expect to see differences in pricing. In order to cater to small and large businesses alike, a security company will likely offer a number of access control systems that will drastically vary in price. As such, you will need to decide how much of a budget you want to allow for your access control system.

The size of your business

The size of your business will determine the scope of the access control system you require from your security company. You need to narrow down your search to suit the number of employees you have at your business. If your business only has 10 employees, it would be a waste of your funds to buy an extremely robust access control system.

Find out more about access control! 

How many doors need to be protected?

It’s important that your access control system is designed to protect your entire building. This means that you need to select a system that will cover all of the doors to your premises. If you have unprotected doors, it means that there’s essentially no point to the rest of your access control system. You can also decide if certain doors are for employees only, and some are for contractors and vendors. It’s important to decide how your business’ access privileges should work.

Different types of access control systems

With so many access control systems on the market, businesses have a lot of choices. You can choose the level of technology you want to install. For example, do you want a system that works by security cards, biometrics or key-fobs? All of these are great, secure choices, but some are much more high-tech than others. Other things to consider include:

• How many layers of security needed?
• What backup processes need to be in place?
• Do you need remote access?
• Should your systems accommodate regular visitors?

A security company for access control

Choosing the right access control for you can be tricky; as we’ve explored, there are a lot of variables to take into account. For help choosing the right access control system for your business, get in touch today. We offer a free survey of your business space so that we can tell you precisely the security solutions you need.

Contact us for access control solutions! 

As a security company in Southampton, we’re always keeping an eye on the statistics available when it comes to our security solutions. So this week, we decided to take a look at the statistics surrounding CCTV systems and the ways that they’re used in Southampton and across the UK in general.

The UK is the most surveilled country in the world

Beginning in the 1980s, the British government launched an initiative to increase the amount of CCTV surveillance across the country. The result is that now there are 1.85 million CCTV cameras operating across the UK (this figure takes into account privately operated cameras owned by a security company, as well as those owned by the government). Naturally, London is one of the places with the highest levels of surveillance (in the UK and world in general!), and the average Londoner is caught on CCTV more than 300 times a day.

The number of privately owned (security company) CCTV cameras surpasses those owned by the police

The number of CCTV cameras owned either by citizens or by a private security company outweighs the number of cameras owned by the police by a ratio of around 7:1. CCTV from a private security company is largely rented or bought by a private citizen to deter criminals from trespassing on private property. Private property includes homes and businesses.

Find out more about CCTV in Southampton! 

Public spending on CCTV has decreased

Due to government cuts, we are currently seeing a decrease in public spending on CCTV cameras in the UK. Between 1999 and 2012, the number of cameras installed in public places by local authorities increased from 21,000 to over 51,000. More recently, much less public money has been spent on maintaining and installing security cameras. This doesn’t mean that CCTV is falling out of favour; rather it means that cameras from a private security company are more commonly being bought or rented by members of the public.

CCTV technology is always improving

In 2018, we’re seeing huge technological leaps on a nearly day-to-day basis. If people in the 1980s could see the work that’s being done with CCTV cameras now, it would be mind-blowing. Newer technology such as HD cameras and wireless cameras are continuing to change the ways in which we use CCTV. We’re now making much more use of technology such as cloud storage to collect big data and provide real-time footage. There’s no doubt that we’re on the cusp of the next exciting technical innovation for CCTV.

CCTV does prevent crime

CCTV isn’t just used as a way to catch criminals in the act. Rather, it’s used by both the police and by a security company to deter criminals from entering a property altogether. Criminals, naturally, are less likely to commit a crime if they believe that there’s a high risk of them getting caught. Adding CCTV to a property means that most criminals will be far less likely to take the risk.

If you’re worried about the security of your property, get in touch today. At Veritech, we’re dedicated to providing top of the range security solutions to keep your business safe from criminal activity.

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Whether you’re a private or commercial company with maritime assets, you will need a security company that can keep an eye on your vessels for you. Maritime vessels are notoriously expensive, and as such are a prime target for thieves and other criminals. Let’s take a look at the ways in which Veritech can protect your assets.

CCTV Surveillance from your security company

At Veritech, we offer CCTV systems that are built specifically to handle the, often severe, conditions on docks. These CCTV systems feature anti-corrosive housings to combat the damage caused by salt spray and cold air. They also feature pan, tilt and zoom, and sensor technology to counteract smoke, heat and water ingress.

Find out more about our CCTV systems! 

Our CCTV system has been developed for use on commercial vessels, passenger ships and offshore platforms. As a security company, we promise 24-hour network-based recordings to ensure that camera footage can be saved digitally and in real time.

A Human Presence

In addition to CCTV, you may choose to invest in a human presence from your security company. Hourly manned patrols and security inspections act as a great deterrent for the majority of criminals. The unpredictable nature of manned guarding means that criminals cannot study the guards’ patterns to find out when your property is not being guarded.

For extra security for your assets, you can opt for dog handlers. Dog handlers are particularly useful for sites with high levels of potential criminal activity, such as the docks. Dogs are particularly good at sensing presences on the site that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Contact us for manned guarding! 

Contact Us For A Maritime Security Company

If you’re concerned about criminal activity or theft of your maritime assets, get in touch today. We have a number of security solutions that can be tailored to meet your needs. For a free site survey, simply contact us today.

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A construction site alarm system is essential for preventing trespassers or vandals from damaging your property and delaying the completion of your project. Often these alarm systems are wireless and offer advanced features in order to allow for the deterring, alarming and response against criminals. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of construction site security systems.

Deter with a construction site alarm system

First and foremostly, an alarm system for your construction site acts as a great deterrent for vandals and trespassers. Trespassers, vandals or thieves can set your project back considerably. An alarm system in plain sight allows you to deter criminals from entering your property in the first place.

Alarm with a construction site alarm system

As many alarm systems are battery powered, they resist being tampered with by would-be criminals. This also means that even if the electricity and phone lines are turned off on the site, the alarm system will still sound.

When the alarm does sound, signals will be sent to Veritech, the keyholder, and the site owner. These alarms are often silent to not disturb neighbours and also the criminals before they can be caught.

Learn more about alarm systems!

React and respond quickly with construction site alarm system

A wireless alarm system is easily coupled with a CCTV system and other professional monitoring solutions, to ensure a quick presence on-site from security guards or police. It also means that your security solutions are operational 24 hours a day, so no matter when your construction site’s security is compromised, your security company will be taking care of it.

With all of these security systems combined, your site stays safe and your project doesn’t experience any setbacks. For more information about a construction site alarm system or any of our other security solutions, get in touch. We’d be happy to hear from you for a free site security survey.

Key holding is when a business allows a security company the keys to its premises. This means that if the alarm sounds or there’s an emergency of any kind, out-of-hours, a licensed security company will be on hand to deal with the problem quickly before it has a chance to escalate. We’ve compiled some of the benefits of using key holding services to protect your business.

Cost-effective

Key holding is incredibly cost-effective. Compared to having manned security staff on-site out of hours and when you’re away, key holding is extremely affordable.  You can ensure that your business can immediately be accessed by a team of security professionals, without having to pay for on-site security.

Learn more about key holding services!

Fast response even when you’re away

As the keys are kept in an agreed upon location and the security company are given the codes, your business can be kept secure even if you’re away. Imagine, for example, you’re on holiday and there’s an emergency at your place of work. The worst case scenario would mean cutting your holiday short to go and deal with the security issue. When you opt for key holding, security companies can take care of your building when you’re not on the premises, so you can take a much-needed break.

Situation-handling courtesy of the experts

If there’s an emergency at your business site – a break in or a theft, for example – a security team knows how to deal with the threat. This means that you’re obviating the risk that comes with yourself or an employee trying to handle this kind of issue.

False alarms

False alarms can be a highly irritating and inconvenient issue to deal with – especially after hours! As the security team will respond to the alarm being triggered, future false alarms won’t be detrimental to you.

Key Holding Services For Your Peace of Mind

Finally, maybe most importantly, key holding services offers incredible peace of mind for you and your employees. Feeling safe and secure offers a huge increase in morale for your staff. When you opt for a key holding service, you are assuring your customers that if the alarm is triggered or there’s a burglary, a security company is on hand to deal with the situation.

Contact Us To Protect Your Business