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3 Financial Benefits of Properly Securing Your Business

It’s not sure if the world is becoming a scarier place or we’re just hearing about all the horrible acts more because of the Internet and social media. Either way, home security sales are at an all-time high with Smart phone automation and monitoring becoming the norm. There’s no doubt you want to protect your personal belongings and loved ones – but are you falling behind with this approach in regards to security for your business?

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Most of business security is a reactive process. After criminals break in at night and either do damage or steal items, we can check the CCTV to hopefully get a physical description that will hopefully lead to a recouping of money and merchandise down the line. Instead of doing a scramble to put pieces back together after the fact, perhaps it’s time to beef up the security gate of your business to prevent crime in the first place. Here are some of the financial benefits you can recoup:

  1. Security Gates are a Crime Deterrent

Unless you’re talking about an elaborate, detailed heist like Ocean’s 11, thieves and other criminals are notoriously lazy. These crooks want the easy score like breaking out a window or taking a bolt-cutters to a padlock. A prominent security gate tells those with bad intent to look elsewhere. The criminals know they’ll not only have to work harder to gain access to your building, but also that you put a value on security which means that you’ve likely got backup methods in place such as cameras, alarms, or a pack of guard dogs. When they see a security gate, they’ll keep moving.

So how does a seemingly simple gate drive these criminals away from the supposed big score? For starters, the majority of thieves are known as “smash and grab.” They break a window when nobody is around and scurry around grabbing items, leaving before authorities have a chance to respond to the alarm. To be honest gates are not impenetrable. Still the thieves need to disarm any electrical sensors with the gate, compromise the lock, and then gain access to the doors or windows behind the gate all without being seen by passersby or your security camera and while dealing with blaring alarms. Before all this goes down, the crooks need to evaluate the risk/reward and determine if it’s really worth tackling this security gate.

  1. Security Gates Lower Your Insurance Premiums

One of the things that makes dealing with shoplifting and damage to property more manageable is the fact that your commercial business insurance will likely cover some of the costs. Of course, your premiums will then go up which might actually cost you more than the original crime in the long run. When insurance companies know that you have a high-tech, durable security gate limiting access to your property they’ll understand that you value security. They know that your risks of incidents are lower so theoretically your premiums should be as well.

Installing a gate should be just a part of the overall security upgrade that will see significant drops in your business insurance premiums:

  • Security gates on doors.
  • Bars on windows
  • Heavy-durty locks on doors.
  • Motion lights
  • Alarm system
  • Closed caption camera security

The best part about many of these features is that they can now be hooked up to Wi-Fi and synced with your Smart phone. You’ll get a notification when a motion light trips for example and you can actually log on to the camera feed right from your phone. When insurance companies see all these measures put into place they should give you the lowest premiums possible.

  1. Security Gates Help You Monitor Employees Coming and Going

Security gates can be outfitted with key card scanners that employees must use to gain access. This not only ensures that only authorized personnel are entering your property, it helps you track the hours and duration of those that do the scan. Security gates can actually cut down on employees taking long lunches, billing you for hours they aren’t working, or making trips back to the shop in the middle of the night for who knows what.

Employees being chronically late or absent from work really is costly. An employee making $60,000 per year who is 15 minutes late every day will cost the company $4,692 per year according to Creative Business Resources. Combine that with being 15 minutes late back from lunch or leaving 15 minutes early and those numbers really add up – especially when you multiply it by 4 or 5 employees. A key card security gate not only keeps your business financially secure from outside threats – it protects from internal money drains as well.

Costs of Security Gate Installations

Despite all the security and the peace of mind that upgrading to a heavy-duty gate can bring, some business owners might still have a hard time justifying the financial investment. Maybe your building is located in a relatively safe area or you have the type of company (office, restaurant) that doesn’t necessarily invite thieves and criminals. The truth is, it only takes one break-in to bring you intense financial devastation while also possibly shutting down your business for a couple days costing you even more money.

Plus, the return on investment of a security gate can recoup itself rather quickly. First off how do you put a price tag on peace of mind, knowing each night that when you go home your business, property, and belongings are secure and fortified? Depending on material and features the average gate cost with installation might price around $1,200. It’s not like gates “go bad” so you could feasibly expect to have it installed without problems for 10 years. You’re going to spend about $120 a year ($10 per month) to add extra security to your property – that’s a no-brainer. And this doesn’t even take into account the lower insurance premiums so theoretically installing a gate could actually make you money.

One thing to remember is that a security gate doesn’t have to be a huge eyesore that takes away from the exterior aesthetics of your company. In fact, elaborate designs can actually emulate the look of a decorative fence. A security gate can actually add curb appeal to the exterior of your property while providing great contrast with the front of your building.

There are unmeasurable mental benefits of installing security gates on your business property. Not only can you sleep soundly at night knowing your building has extra security – depending on how you use it the gate can provide benefits during the day. Guests who are visiting your premises will have an extra sense of security knowing that access to your building is somewhat limited. Employees can work more comfortably knowing that random people off the street can’t just walk in and out of your building unsecured.

How you specifically benefit from the gate will depend a lot upon your exact commercial purposes. Either way, one thing is for certain – for all these things that a security gate provides, not having one promotes all the opposite.

Having issues with your garage door? Get in touch with New York Gates at 718-614-0616.