Open For Business or the Victim of Disaster? Are You Prepared?

Filed under: Asset Education, Photo Asset Archival, Protecting by Lizz @ 2:59 pm on June 14, 2008

The IBHS, Institute for Business & Home Safety, website states that, “At least one-fourth of all businesses that close because of a disaster never reopen.” Because natural disasters often strike with little warning, the small business owner is especially vulnerable to losses from which they cannot recover without the proper insurance and business plan in place. In fact, your business may be severely impacted or disrupted altogether by a disaster hundreds or thousands of miles away. If your suppliers are put out of business by an earthquake, flood, wildfire, tornado, or hurricane, you may find yourself in the same boat without a contingency plan in place.
While the loss of even one business to a disaster is tragic, consider the negative impact to the local and/or regional economy when many businesses are severely impacted or shut-down altogether by a disaster. If businesses do not have adequate insurance to recover and rebuild, historically the community as a whole suffers. Not only has the community lost service providers, manufacturers, and/or employers, but the community has lost sales tax and property tax revenue. When one or more businesses fail to re-open, the community is a loser whether you frequent that business or not. If the business owner and employees lose their source of income, they are at risk to not only lose their homes and cars, but resign from health and golf clubs, cease dining out, and discontinue using other local businesses such as dry cleaners and retail stores. Be accountable to yourself, your employees, your suppliers, and your community by having the proper insurance and protective measures in place to ensure your business’ continuity and viability.
Disasters are a fact of life and they happen with regularity in the United States as well as all over globe. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina brought New Orleans and other Gulf Coast towns to their knees and they are still struggling three years later to recover. Florida has yet to fully recover from the 2004 onslaught of four major hurricanes. Rebuilding is slow at Lake Tahoe where a devastating wildfire in 2007 burned 3100 acres and destroyed 325 homes and businesses. The Midwest has experienced earthquakes, tornadoes and flooding at unprecedented levels in 2008, damaging homes and businesses, and destroying whole towns’ altogether.
The Institute for Business & Home Safety has a valuable and empowering website that every business owner should visit: http://www.disastersafety.org. On the Home Page click on programs; then click on Open For Business® and download the Open For Business® Toolkit. The toolkit focuses on taking a business self-assessment and then preparing a property protection plan and business continuity plan, which evaluates protection objectives for your human resources, physical resources, and business operation. Page fourteen of the Open For Business® Toolkit recommends the following: “Keep your inventory list current and make a photographic or videotaped record of your inventory.” If you are unsure about how to proceed check-out my book, Got Back=Up?sm How to Back=Up Your Life With A Personal Asset Inventory.

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