There are vast numbers of tips circulating regarding how to deter shoplifting. With over 20 years' experience as a shoplifter, I know which are effective, and which are a waste of time. Here are a few battle-tested and inexpensive things you can do to minimize shoplifting in your store.

1. FIX YOUR FIXTURES In most cases, shoplifters require privacy in order to conceal merchandise. This is especially true with small specialty shops that arrangement of fixtures creates many areas for shoplifter to be hidden from sight.

Determine where your staff spends majority of their time. For many small stores this is near cash register. For others, it might be near phone, or office.

Arrange you fixtures with goal of minimizing "blind spots" on sales floor. From their usual vantage point, your staff should be able to look down almost every aisle.

Once you have maximized visibility by arranging fixtures, consider installing a large convex mirror to view any unavoidable hiding places.

Next time you are in a convenience store, take note of layout. Most allow direct visibility of sales floor to a lone clerk, and mirrors expose remaining areas.

2. ALTERNATE CLOTHING HANGER DIRECTIONS One way shoplifters can steal a tremendous amount of clothing is to quickly grab as much clothing from a display as they can carry, and run out of store into a waiting car, before your staff can react.

A simple way to thwart this is to alternate direction of each hanger on display, especially on those near store exit. This makes it impossible to take an entire armful of clothing off of a circular rack at once, and makes it difficult on a tree rack. Make it part of opening or closing duties to have an employee "Set Hangers".

3.REQUIRE A RECEIPT FOR ALL RETURNS Many shoplifters steal with express intent of returning merchandise to store, same or another branch, for a cash refund.

This can be addressed by requiring a purchase receipt for all returns. This creates some conflict, however, with interest in delivering quality customer service.

A compromise policy is to require a receipt for cash refunds and general store credits, and to allow same-item-only exchanges without one. This way, legitimate customer with a defective product, or with wrong size or color, is accommodated, but thief is not.

4.LOCK UP SHOPLIFTER-ATTRACTIVE MERCHANDISE As a general rule, smaller and more valuable an item is, more attractive it is to a shoplifter; particularly to those who steal with intent to either sell merchandise themselves, or return it for a refund.

Keep small, expensive items behind counter or locked in a display case. If display case has a lock, lock it; do not assume that case alone will dissuade a shoplifter. Legitimate customers will understand this as a necessary evil and won't object, shoplifters will go elsewhere.

5.BE SMART ABOUT E.A.S. TAG PLACEMENT Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) is a system in which merchandise has a small "tag" affixed to it which is either removed or deactivated when item is purchased. If not removed or deactivated, it triggers an alarm as it passes sensors near store exit

EAS systems are expensive, but fairly effective. If you have one in place, affix your alarm tags carefully. Hide tags beneath seams and labels, or on an internal page of books and magazines.

If you can't hide tag, try to make it less noticeable by aligning it with physical aspects of, or graphic design on packaging.

© 2002 Elena Fawkner

Email, sales letters, email, phone calls, J.O.B., email, kids, conference calls, mentoring and sponsoring, errands, personal time, email, website updating, writing articles, email, search engine positioning, ezine publishing, advertising, email. Oh, and sleep. And did I mention email? Sounds like your day, right? Yours and everyone else's who runs a business part-time around their REAL life.

There's always so much to do and so little time. Or so it seems. But is that really true? You may be surprised to find what you can really accomplish in a day if you were to take time to get organized. What do I mean by organized? Simply knowing how many hours a day you have available and allocating that time efficiently.

How many hours a day do you have available to you? Well, let's say you sleep for 8 hours. That leaves 16, right? OK, how do you make best use of those 16 hours? By managing your time effectively. Here's how.

This is your Sunday night activity. Start with a grid (for those of you who are computer nerds, by all means use an Excel spreadsheet). Your grid is eight columns across and 30 rows down. Label your eight columns like this:

TimeMon. Tues. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. Sun.

Then, in rows under "Time" heading, enter half hour blocks of time starting at 6:00 am and ending at 10:00 pm (or whatever your "awake" time is). Your grid should look like this:

TimeMon. Tues. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. Sun.

6:00 - 6:30 am 6:30 - 7:00 am ... 9:00 - 9:30 pm 9:30 - 10:00 pm

Decide on a code for your grid - whether color-coding, letters, whatever, so you can see at a glance where your time is going.

Now, using your code, block off unavailable, non-discretionary time. This is time you spend working at your J.O.B., time you spend getting ready for work in morning, commuting in morning and evening, taking kids to and from school/daycare, participating in conference calls hosted by your network marketing company, etc. This is any time that you have *no choice* about. Although you have to run errands, for example, you do have a choice about when to do them so this doesn't go in here.

All white space is time that you have available to you for discretionary activities. By "discretionary" I don't necessarily mean stuff you don't have to do at all if you don't want to, I mean stuff that you can schedule for a time of your choosing. For example, we must all shop for groceries and put gas in our cars once a week, but we have a choice when we do so.

Make a list of your discretionary activities. This includes weekly errands and chores, time you need to spend keeping your web site up to date, writing articles, search engine positioning, reading and responding to email, mentoring and sponsoring your downline, publishing your ezine, writing ads, etc. And don't forget to schedule recreation/family time and time for yourself to do what you want (even if that's absolutely nothing).

OK, now that you know what you have to do, and time you have available to do it in, when is your peak concentration time? Are you an early morning person or a night owl?