Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been directly affected by Hurricane Harvey. 

We have been watching the news, along with the entire nation, as Hurricane Harvey has effected mass destruction on a large swath of the population in Texas. As Texans ourselves, this story hits home and hits hard. This disaster highlights the effects of disaster on a person’s personal life; at its worst, loss of life, followed by loss of property, loss of safety, loss of stability, and the overwhelming prospect of rebuilding.

While dealing with these personal losses and challenges, business owners must also contend with another set of long term ramifications such as loss of inventory, loss of machinery, employee instability, and lost revenues.  These issues can be overwhelming and can feel insurmountable… unless you have a plan.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

Creating a Business Continuity Plan is something every business owner should consider a necessity. This should be a document provided to any key employees which provides a step by step guide on what to do during a range of disasters such as:

• Fire
• Flood
• Death of a key employee
• Long term power outage

Things to consider as you develop your plan:

• How will your technology fare if your location is a total loss? Do you have backups in place on a cloud server? How would you obtain important client contact information offsite? Do you have paper records which are vital to the running of your business which would be destroyed? (Consider an cloud based document management system)
• How will you communicate with clients and your staff? Consider creating template emails to be sent in the event of an emergency providing alternate contact information as well as communication regarding expectations. Set up a default back up location such as your home or an alternate office location which would be available at a moments notice.
• What does your business insurance cover and who would you contact to make a claim? Do you have sufficient coverage?
• Does your business have any regulatory concerns which you should consider?

The above information is not a comprehensive list but is a good start as you venture down the road in creating a plan specifically for your situation.  Please find below additional links to free resources provided by the government and FEMA for businesses looking to create a Business Continuity Plan.

US Government

https://www.ready.gov/business

FEMA

https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/89506