I have often been asked, "Why should I hire a security consultant to tell me what security measures my business needs?"? I guess the biggest reason is if you know little to nothing about security, then you need to hire someone that does know the ins and outs to get the most benefit!

There is a lot more than just looking at your doors, windows and locks or alarm systems to figuring out what security measures are need to protect your entire business. The main goal is to look at all your liabilities on security issues and reduce or eliminate them. This saves you time and money in the long run and keeps you out of a possible court situation in the future.

To this end, you need to do a physical site security survey. This will identify the most pressing of your security issues that can get you in trouble. By looking at the entire company, those issues can be identified, measures to protect you implemented and your liabilities reduced!

There are measures that only need to have policies and procedures changed or implemented that will reduce your liabilities. There are other measures that you will need to put in place to protect your hiring process that can save you from a lawsuit. Then there may be other measures that contain a security presence on site or after hours that will protect you.

The thing with competent security consultants is, they know what to look for when identifying security issues and they know how to deal with them with cost effective reductions/eliminations. They know what does and does not work for a variety of business types and your particular area of location.

Security measures do not mean that it has to be a major expense outlay every time. But, it can come to a major expense if you do not have the proper security measures and wind up in a court situation being sued for that reason. You may have insurance to cover it and they may not cover you if found negligent.

Then there is the bad publicity, the court time, the lawyers fees and on and on. You can see it can be very traumatic for a business owner! Especially if you lose the case and very expensive too!

So it makes sense to use a security consultant to get the best benefits you can, think of the expense as an investment for the future. It will keep you out of court, it could save you on your insurance, it will keep you out of the bad publicity limelight and it will give you piece of mind.

It is better to be prepared and not need it than to not be prepared and need it. This is true for any type of business! Stop looking at security as just an expense and look at it for what it is, an investment to protect your future!

Consultants can help you with the following issues:

Negligent Hiring/Retention Premises Liability Negligent Security Hiring Contract Security Services Physical Site Security Surveys Business Espionage Fraud and Internal Thefts Disaster recovery Risk Analysis

There are many ways a consultant can protect your business. You are looking at reducing your liabilities and protecting your self, employees, assets and the facility you have. After all you have worked for a while to get where you are, would it not be silly to lose it all because you thought it was an unnecessary expense?

Publishing Guidelines: You are welcome to publish this article in its entirety, electronically, or in print, free of charge, as long as you include my full signature file for Ezine's. Please send a courtesy link or email where you publish to secuone@aol.com Thank you.

"Why Hire a Security Consultant"? 2004 By Gary L. Cunningham, C.P.O. C&M Consulting Services ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE