Please note that this post – Is Your Business Disaster Proof? How To Protect Your Company – Has been written by an outside source and I have received payment for publishing. As always, I hope you find this information really useful.
Floods, hurricanes, tornados or wildfires. There are plenty of ways that nature can surprise us and overturn our lives. It is usually a question of when and not if a natural disaster will strike.
Is your business ready for it? Do you have a plan for when nature decides to strike? If not then, you need to make disaster preparedness part of your strategy as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter if your business is manufacturing or if you are a service based company.
For your business to survive, you need to have a plan.
In this article, I will outline some of the things your business can do to be ready for anything nature can throw at it.
Emergency operating plan
If disaster strikes, how will you keep the lights on? Will a blackout affect the safety of your employees or even cause damage to your operation?
You’ll need to be able to keep the lights on as the first order of business in case of a disaster. AMP-TRAK Controls Ltd. is a company that provides backup power to commercial buildings. You’ll need to find a similar business in your area to provide a backup to keep operating.
Once you have the lights working, then the second part of any contingency plan needs to take place. Have a safety meeting well in advance with standard protocols laid out so you already know what to do after you get the electricity running from generators.
Backup your data
Before a disaster hits, you need to have all of your data, in every form, backed up and safe. If you have paper documents, then have an offsite storage facility to store any copies of your documents. Have one copy where you need it to complete your work like in the office and another area offsite so if one gets hit, you always have a copy.
For digital data, you should be uploading to the cloud every few minutes so that everything is saved as it happens. You never know when you may lose power and that can lose valuable data. And if you need to move locations, you will be able to access your data from anywhere.
Have a communications protocol
To make sure things go smoothly after a disaster, you need to be able to communicate with employees, clients and customers.
Information is extremely important during a crisis so you’ll need to have a way to get information out.
If cell phone communication is not possible, then have a central point of information that people can access. Set up a fixed phone number that people can call to listen to important messages.
If mobile coverage is possible, then send out a message blast to every employee with relevant and important information like the next steps that people need to follow.
Next, let clients and customers know what you are dealing with and the steps you will be taking to get through the crisis. People need to know what to expect.
