Business Mentoring Mentoring is a critical job and is important for the one providing it as well as the party seeking it. The business parties seeking mentoring are normally those that are beginners and they wish to avoid problems by seeking expert advice. On the other hand the mentor's credibility and business experience is proved when he offers mentoring and advice. Theft and fraud are two most common issues faced by the starting businesses. The paper discusses what advice can be offered to beginners to avoid theft and fraud in business.

What advice can be offered to beginners to avoid theft and fraud in business?

Mentor

Mentoring is an advisory job and should be backed by proper knowledge and experience. Based on the three decades of business experience, it can be said that fraud and theft are most common in business however only a little more carefulness can help avoid fraud and theft. The two problems are interrelated but committed in different manners. There are some advices given here to guide the new businessmen about how to avoid theft and fraud.

Employee Theft and Fraud in Business

The most common cases of theft and fraud take place at the cash handling sites of a business. Initially it is easier to maintain the records of incoming and outgoing cash because there are only a few people involved and the people in business are highly trusted (Matthews, 2002). However, growing businesses face the challenge since a large amount of cash inflows and outflows...

The business can avoid theft in cash by:
i. Assigning job of cash collection to a different person than the person recording the cash. Thus one person will not be solely responsible to handle cash and theft probabilities can be reduced.

ii. The recording of cash can be made real time and computerized. Computerized recording is easier and faster.

iii. The party paying or receiving cash should be given a receipt so that records can be matched if required (Nobel, 2010).

The fraud in business is more likely when new people join the team. Some steps can really help avoid frauds for example:

i. Run a detailed background analysis of the new people joining the team. Make sure that they have never been to jail and were never accused of cheating or fraud (Epstein, 2013).

ii. A family man is more reliable than the independent sole. This is because responsibility makes a person much more disciplined.

iii. Try to induct new people on the basis of referrals. The referrals do not only save the time for background checks but the people also are more responsible and behave honestly when they know that their relationship credibility is at stake.

The internal controls play a big role in controlling theft and frauds. The internal controls mean that the employees should not find gaps in the system to leak finances or information. The business spokesperson to the suppliers and the clients should be a highly trusted team rather…