Even if your business is decked out from to bottom with the best security measures, you can never be too sure that criminals won’t target your premises. Aside from having necessary security equipment installed, such as CCTV cameras, alarms, and lock systems, it’s also imperative that your place of business has proper and adequate lighting.
Why is lighting so important for security, you may ask? Lighting functions as a deterrent to potential thieves and robbers. When they see a well-lit store, they are more likely to turn away and find an easier target. Hence, keeping your business safe and secure has a lot to do with proper lighting. Without it, you may not only put your business at risk of theft, but you may also put your employees at risk for accidents.
That said, here are some important tips on keeping your business secure with proper and adequate lighting:
1. Ensure you have enough outdoor illumination
Proper outdoor lighting deters criminals from your business premises since they have little to no place to hide. Moreover, they will be easily seen by people passing by and can be quickly identified to the authorities. That said, ensure that you have adequate outdoor lighting. Install pathway lights, floodlights, and motion-detecting lights as needed. If your business has an outdoor seating area, you may also want to install LED garden bollard lights for efficient lighting throughout the night.
Ensure that your parking area is also well-illuminated. A significant portion of aggressive crimes occurs in the parking lot, so installing enough lights near and around this particular area will help protect customers, employees, as well as yourself when getting in and out of your car at night. For areas that don’t receive a lot of foot traffic, such as near the garbage area or in the alley, install motion-detecting lights to illuminate as needed.
2. Keep the inside of the store well lit
The principle of illuminating the inside of your business is the same; when your store is well-illuminated indoors, criminals won’t be tempted to steal or rob you in fear of getting caught or identified. This is especially important if your business operates well into the night or round the clock.
Apart from that, having adequate illumination inside your store helps employees see what they are doing easily, which reduces the risks of accidents in the workplace. However, you must be careful not to install too many lights to avoid causing eye strain, glare, and other problems brought about by excessive brightness.
3. Ensure proper distribution of lighting
Poor distribution of lighting causes some areas to be dark while others are bright. This can cause safety issues that can lead to accidents and injuries in the workplace while also increasing the risk of eye strain and discomfort. Furthermore, the unequal distribution of lighting can encourage criminals to steal in darker places since these areas have poor visibility. They can get an item from one area and then stuff it into their pockets in the darker areas without your employees noticing.
To avoid this, ensure that your store has uniform lighting throughout the premises. If your business operates 24/7, avoid turning off lights in some areas of the store during slack hours for the sake of saving energy. Doing this can attract opportunistic thieves to your business, and it’s not worth saving a few dollars off your utility bill to have your goods stolen.
4. Clean your light fixtures
If your lights are looking a little dim, they might need a bit of cleaning to return to full brightness. Make it a part of your regular maintenance schedule to clean your light fixtures and bulbs, especially in outdoor areas where dust accumulates a lot. In this way, you can keep your business premises well and evenly illuminated to scare off potential criminals.
If cleaning doesn’t fix the dimness, that’s the time you should consider replacing your bulbs.
5. Protect your lights
More dedicated criminals can resort to breaking your light bulbs to give themselves some cover. You can prevent this from happening by mounting light fixtures in high places or inside ceilings so that they won’t be easily broken. It’s also a good idea to install plastic panels or mesh wire to block objects from breaking the bulbs inside, especially for fixtures within reach from the ground.
Few things are worse than having your small business burglarised or robbed. Before anything happens to your business, ensure that you make the proper precautions against theft and robbery. Start by following these strategies to have proper and adequate lighting both inside and outside your business premises. Over time, look out for other ways you can improve your security not only through lighting–but through other measures as well.