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Smart planning is essential to prepare your business for a natural disaster. When a natural disaster occurs, many businesses do not recover. This is why it is important to take preventative steps so that your business recovers quickly. Today we will discuss the five best steps to prepare your business for any natural disaster.
Develop a Communication Plan
Keep your employees, vendors, and stakeholders up to date with information in real-time is critical during an emergency. That is why risk management experts recommend that you have hard copies of your primary service contacts and your employee’s contact information. Also, consider making status updates on your business’ social media platforms or purchasing a company text alert system.
Protect Your Data and Records
Invest in a cloud-based storage system that will automate back up data to ensure that your files and important documents are protected. Also make sure that every once in a while, you test your backups to ensure they are working properly.
Virtual backups, like cloud storage, will remain safe through a disaster because they are stored remotely. These virtual backups can be accessed from anywhere that has an internet connection. Choose a reputable, established data backup company so your documents remain secure. Most cloud servers can be configured to periodically and automatically back up, so you can ensure your information stays up to date.
Assist Your Staff
Your employees are your lifeblood which is why you will need to give your employees enough time to recuperate from a disaster. Rather than pushing them to quickly pick up the slack, find out ways to help where you can. This includes access to mental health providers who specialize in emotional assistance after a disaster or advances on paychecks.
Conduct Training Sessions
Training is essential to familiarize your employees with protective actions for their safety. This includes fire and lockdown drills, knowledge about safety, security, and information prevention programs. For an emergency response team to define what their roles and responsibilities are during a disaster.
Create a Continuity Business Plan
In the event that your business is affected by a disaster, you need to develop a continuity business plan to get your business back on track. You will need the following to create a business continuity plan:
- Conduct a business continuity impact analysis: to prevent as many losses as possible, identify the business operations that if disrupted would have the strongest negative financial impact on your business. They should be prioritized for restoration once identified.
- Develop a recovery strategy: after calculating the resources and costs to recover your business operations, start exploring recovery strategies for your team. For example, if a piece of equipment has been lost or damaged, consider contracting machines at another facility until your business is up and running again.
In addition, you will want the following on your list:
- Important phone numbers
- Insurance-related information
- When and how to document damage
- When and how to salvage items
- The locations of essential documents and electronic files and how to retrieve them
Emergency Savings
It is advisable for businesses to save 20% of their profit per month into an emergency savings account. This money can reduce the burden of loss of assets on your business.
Identify Critical Tools and Relationships
Small business owners should communicate their emergency procedures to key vendors and make sure everyone is kept informed during a disaster. In addition to having your insurance information in order, be aware of resources that could help speed your recovery, such as a disaster assistance from the Small Business Administration (SBA).
The Bottom Line
Although you might not be able to prevent the natural disaster, your thorough business plan can at least help minimize the damage and you will be prepared to reopen your business as quickly as possible.
