Five effective ways to minimize your workers' thievery

A while back, I visited a friend who is building a family home in the city. My friend and her husband decided they wanted to move into their home on the husband's 32nd birthday – and they are actually moving in this December, six months before the magic birthday.

They have done well for themselves by living and achieving their goals earlier than the expected time. While the couple's home-making journey is captivating, the financial part of their dream is also an experience to learn from.

After working hand in hand to put up their home, they say, they can teach those aspiring to build ways to save money. This is because they realised that the cost of building can hit the sky if you do not have stringent systems to seal loopholes and check unnecessary wastage.

 "Even if you keep your eyes open throughout the process, the fundis will find a way to pillage your material or exaggerate the costs to their benefit," my friend's husband says authoritatively.

In the course of discussion, we concluded that when you are fueling anything – greenhouse farming, construction, transport business, everything – the people you have employed to guard your interests will steal from you. The matatu driver swears that your matatu 'must give birth' to his own matatu. Therefore, he will come up with excuses to ensure he and his conductor keep a bigger chunk of the daily income.

This thieving thrives at every level. The village posho mill attendant will mill flour free for friends. You will pay the bills including electricity but you will be disappointed that while the posho mill is not performing as per your projections and the attendant is fattening.

A greenhouse farmer at a recent financial management training complained how his workers, including a trusted brother, ripped him off. "Yet they did this within the compound where I live. I thought I was keen; checking the progress of my harvest every day, entering data, but they were smarter than I," he said pensively.

However, it is not all gloomy. There are people who have succeeded in enterprises they have founded and today, let's look at varied principles these successful entrepreneurs employed to make it. It is important to point out that you can only manage to reduce the theft but you cannot stop it. The fact is; your workers will steal from you even when you are present.

· You cannot run a business by remote control.

 You must be a hands-on person. When the workers know that you will just make a telephone call to find out how everything is going, they will go out of control.

My friends said that there was a time that the trusted workers sold ten bags of cement to a neighbor who was also putting up a home. Luckily, that day they were on site and discovered the anomaly, followed it up and recovered the stolen items.

· You must be unpredictable.

 The workers should not know your schedule. Get to the business site any time of the day but not at the same time every day. The shop attendant should not be certain that you can only pop in at noon.

Get there as they prepare lunch for your customers. If you are doing irrigation, surprise them with a visit even at 6pm when the drips are supposed to run.

· Keep records.

Get basic book keeping knowledge. Record the litres of milk your cows give, how much the workers consume and the amount they sell daily. In fact, if your farm or business is big, employ a manager who is on a good salary and whips everyone into line.

 With this professional on board, you will see yields unexpectedly increasing. This is because it is not possible to be physically present at every business enterprise you are nurturing. If you must be there, then it means you are not expanding.

· Relatives are a no-go in your business.

Familiarity breeds contempt, they say. Again, relatives have that feeling of entitlement and sometimes jealousy crops in. So instead of safeguarding your interests, they are the ones who lead in decimating it. Assist your relatives when you can but they should never be involved in your business unless they are shareholders.

· Be professional.

 Motivate your workers when they have outdone themselves but make sure that your dealings with them is professional – they do the work, they get paid for the deliverables. When you don't do it this way, they take advantage of your generosity by coming up with excuses to evade job.