As a small business owner, it’s imperative to give some thought to the types of natural disasters you may be subjected to depending on where you live, and how that may affect your business and your customers’ ability to use your solutions and communicate with you.
Some of the things you may need to deal with and think about are:
* Flooding
* Hurricanes
* Fires
* Weather Issues
* Earthquakes
You could be dealing with many problems as a result of any of these natural disasters.
For example, if you experience flooding or fires where you live, you may lose your place to do business for a while as you clean up and rebuild. For almost any issue you may lose electricity, which can damage your ability to communicate with or accept payment from your customers.
You may end up shut down entirely for days, weeks, or months. As you consider each type of natural disaster you could be faced with, how prepared are you? Do you have flood insurance, fire insurance, and so forth? What about a backup method that you can employ if needed?
Here are some scenarios with suggestions on how to deal with them.
* I have no electricity: I have a backup generator. I will go to the local coffee shop. I can evacuate to my friend’s house.
* I must evacuate my area: I will evacuate to my colleague’s house by plane. I will use my fifth wheel to get out of town to a safe place.
* My server burned up: I have a backup server, so it’s all going to be okay as soon as we enter the right information, or it’s automatic, so this will not be an issue.
* My computer is damaged in a storm: I have insurance so I can buy a replacement right away. I back up everything in the cloud.
* I can’t do business for two or three weeks: I have savings and insurance that will help me. I have processes in place that will allow someone else to service my customers.
* I lost everything in a fire: I have insurance that will pay for everything, and I have savings that enable me to purchase backups.
Know what type of insurance you have, as well as the humans that can help you, by keeping the phone numbers handy. Make it even better by having redundant backup systems for your technology that enable you to keep on going when needed.
Understand that the main thing that is going to protect you and your business is pre-planning. Consider the types of natural disasters that you may need to deal with. Don’t discount environmental disasters either, such as oil spills. These affect people just like natural disasters since they’re usually so sudden.