ATTENTION: Small business owners

Hiring Without a Background Check Puts Your Business At Risk.

It's a dangerous world out there for a small business owner. I would know - my wife and I owned and operated a small dance studio. When it came time in the fall of 2011 to hire our first employee, we didn't know where to look. We put an ad in our local paper, and got over two dozen applicants.

After reviewing the to candidates, we settled on our three top choices. They seemed equally qualified, well-suited to the position, and professional. We did some simple due diligence before making a decision - we Googled each of them. We looked at their public Facebook profiles, Flickr accounts, posts they had made on forums under their own names... and then we up popped something truly shocking...

One of them was a convicted sex offender.

After we let this sink in for a moment, we realized just how close we had come to opening up our dance studio to all kinds of potential issues. The wellbeing of our students is of course our first priority, and having a convicted sex offender as an office manager - in our opinion - exposed them to an unnecessary risk. Even with that considered, there was also the potential loss of business when our studio's parents found out. Like most small businesses, we operate on a razor thin margin - we simply couldn't sustain the kind of losses this could bring.

Obviously, we didn't hire this person. Still, it really opened our eyes to just how easy it could be for the past actions of an employee to negatively impact our business. Before we hired, we did a complete background check on the candidate. We shopped around, and the best service - in terms of price, features, and speed - was Intelius.

Hiring An Employee Exposes You To Risk.

While my wife and I operated a business dealing primarily with children, all businesses run similar risks with hiring. Wouldn't you want to know if the person you're about to hire was convicted of stealing from their last boss? Calling them may not help - in today's litigious society, businesses will likely not be willing to tell you why an employee was terminated - or even if they were terminated. This leaves the criminal background check as the most important tool at your business's disposal in determining a person's past.

Woman admits embezzling from company; previously convicted of similar crime

A woman who was convicted of embezzling nearly $46,000 while employed by the Macon County Auditor's Office pleaded guilty Thursday in circuit court to one count of theft of more than $10,000 for embezzling from Pope Construction Services LLC.

Tammy L. Henderson, 37, was serving four years of probation for stealing the county's funds at the time Kent Pope hired her in March 2008 to issue checks, handle payroll and conduct other business transactions for his construction firm.

From the Herald-Review

Can your business sustain a $46,000 loss? I cannot speak on behalf of Pope Construction Services LLC - this story is one of many I found when researching this issues - but I can say from my own personal experience that a background check from Intelius may very well have prevented this from ever occuring.

As an entrepreneur, you understand that success in business depends upon your ability to manage risk. Order your background check today and sleep soundly tonight.