Category: General Article Page 2 of 19

As a small business entrepreneur, you may feel that you must control every aspect of your operations. This may be especially true if you view your company as your offspring. Stories of hostile takeovers or companies that changed dramatically post-merger may lead you to believe that your organization has to perform every aspect related to your operations. With so many plates to keep spinning, outsourcing some of your operations to other business entities can free up your resources for the things that really matter, such as growth and building market share. Here are things to consider.

The Nitty Gritty on Outsourcing

Outsourcing refers to an agreement or contract where one company provides particular services to another. The term is a shortening of the phrase “outside resourcing.” Imagine running a firm that provides construction management services. In addition to providing construction oversight services on multiple projects, other parts of your operations may include IT services, bookkeeping/accounting, sales and marketing, human resources and legal services, among others. You could hire knowledgeable staff to perform all those activities in-house. You would also need to commit resources to equip those roles with the tools and support staff necessary.

How Outsourcing Can Help

You have limited resources and energy to make the best out of your business. Outsourcing can offer several benefits to your organization:

• It can reduce your costs, freeing up funds for your most critical needs.
• It allows you to focus on your core work product, and not peripheral operations.
• It gives you

You’ve heard all these words before, and general public knowledge lumps them all into one category — theft. However, did you know that there are pretty significant differences between the three? Here are the facts about the various types of stealing:

Larceny

As any criminal law firm in Columbia MD may tell you, larceny is the most basic crime and considered to be “common theft.” Some states use the term interchangeably with general theft, and in others, it can be a separate charge from other forms of stealing like robbery. Larceny includes the following four elements:

• Unlawful taking and carrying away of property
• The property belongs to someone else
• The owner did not give consent
• No intention to return the property

Once these are proven, you have a case for larceny.

Embezzlement

The theory of embezzlement was developed because the legal definitions of most kinds of stealing included an unauthorized entry or trespass. So, how could the law define a theft committed by a person who belongs in a building or entity, like an employee? The primary component of embezzlement is that the property is used or taken without authorization. Such an example could be a worker who steals money from a cash register that he or she is allowed to use for ringing up customers.

Robbery

Robbery is theft by threats or acts of violence. While the thief doesn’t have to use an excessive amount of force, there is a minimum standard. For example, if someone grabs another person’s