Some of the main reason that people start their own business is to make money and so make their life's easier as they get older, another reason is that wish to take pride in their work and obtain a good name in the market place. However there are still some businesses that are just in the market to make a quick profit, often doing work badly (or not at all) and with no regard to the health and safety of the people that are working around them, these 'cowboys' have to be stopped.

Each year thousands of construction workers are unable to attend their work due to broken bones, Musculoskeletal Disorders and even stress due to bad health and safety issues. We all know that accidents do happen however, it is down to everyone to try and prevent accidents from happening in the workplace. Good practice in health and safety is good for your business, if you have workers that are not there then your company will be losing production time and may-be even compensation claim.

As an employer there are several actions that you can do to prevent accidents from happening in your workplace:

• listening to your workers, this can often be one of the best ways in preventing accidents, your workers are often the first to see all the hazards associated with the workplace.

• Doing a proper Risk Assessment, these are very important in protecting the health and safety of your workers. These don't have to be a long documents, they should identify the hazards, work out who could be harmed and how, write down procedures to protect not only your workers but anyone that will be entering your work area.

• Improve, once you have finished consulting with your employees for a while, and given each other time to adjust to the processes you have set in place, you can start thinking about improving over time.

Making your business more Health and Safety conscious not only makes good business sense it is law.