How to Prepare Your Small Business to Weather a Storm
By: Allstate
Does your small business have an emergency storm-preparedness plan? You may think you don’t have the time or resources to create one. But businesses of all sizes can—and really should—create a simple list of important “to-dos” in case a natural disaster or other emergency interrupts your normal course of operation. The good news is that you don’t need a big budget or a background in emergency planning to get this done. Here are key recommendations from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS):
By identifying and prioritizing your core business functions, you can develop workarounds that can enable your business to better respond to a major disruption. If you run a graphic design business, for instance, break down your work into discrete tasks: Website design, electronic client proofs, printing, web image uploads, etc. Then consider each task: Could it be completed from another location (with a laptop or tablet, for instance) or by a vendor if your office suffered a power outage? Could you temporarily subcontract to a colleague in another town?
Plan for crisis communications.
IBHS recommends keeping an updated list of employees’ key tasks and your respective workarounds, along with client and employee home and cell phone numbers, email addresses, and emergency contact numbers. Be sure you can access this information outside of your office—perhaps from an encrypted, cloud-based server. Do the same for key customers and vendors. Consider also storing this information on paper (in case computers and the Internet are down) in a fireproof home safe or an offsite safe deposit box. Social media can also help: Consider using Twitter, Facebook, text messaging or website announcements to stay in touch with customers and employees.
Create a backup tech plan.
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