Creating Your Small Business Disaster Plan
I'm a recent Hurricane Rita evacuee and
survived the evacuation and the ensuing hurricane. Running
from a hurricane isn't something I've ever had to do before,
nor is it something I'd ever like to do again. However, as
a solo business owner, I'm quite thankful that I have a
virtual business. The fact that I'm virtual and can operate
from anywhere that there's electricity and phone service was
of great help to me in this disaster and helped me reopen my
business a scant 4 days after the landfall of Hurricane
Rita.
I've now returned to my home in Beaumont, TX, which was one
of the cities devastated by the storm, and there are brick
and mortar businesses that are still closed almost 4 weeks
after the hurricane struck. Many are closed because of the
damage to their buildings and they are gutting and repairing
their buildings currently. Others are partially open and
are serving limited menus (restaurants) or have limited
items for sale, as they haven't been able to restock, or
have imposed limited operating hours because their employees
have not yet returned from the evacuation (or have been lost
to another employer). Others simply appear to be closed,
with no apparent reason or rationale for the closure.
As a solopreneur, what can you do to make your business
disaster-proof? It seems that we have an increasing number
of hurricanes making landfall in the coastal states, and add
to that an increased number of other types of natural
disasters like tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires, mud
slides, ice storms, blizzards, etc. makes me think that
there is no ideal location in which to operate a business.
Now accepting that natural disasters are here to stay,
here's what I learned from my hurricane evacuation that
helped me get my business back up and running quickly:
1. Know the location of your vital papers.
You should be able to quickly put into a folder the
following for you and your family: your marriage license,
birth certificate, social security card, driver's license or
state ID card, car title/mortgage info and insurance contact
info, house deed/mortgage info and insurance contact info,
employee ID card, and apartment lease or copy of a utility
bill. In a disaster, you'll be asked to prove where you live
and that you are who you claim you are, especially when
applying for disaster assistance.
2. Have an online backup of all of your computer data.
I back up my computer in two ways--to an external portable
hard drive as well as to an online backup service. I use
both because my files are my livelihood -- I would be dead
in the water without them -- so I want to leave absolutely
no room to lose my data. For my external backup, I use a 30
GB portable drive made by Iomega,
www.iomega.com, and for my online backup, I have 10 GB
of space that I pay for at XDrive,
www.xdrive.com.
3. Create a file with vital contact information.
I copied a file with all of my usernames and passcodes for
websites, bank accounts, etc. to my USB flash drive (a key
chain-like device with 512 MB or 1 GB of memory -- I use one
from Lexar,
www.lexar.com) as well as the physical and email
addresses and all phone numbers of friends, clients and
family members -- anyone I needed to contact during the
evacuation period. You'll also want to take along your
children's school contact info to be able to check on the
current operating status of your child's school, as well as
local media website info. My lifeline in getting current
information about my home city was through the websites of
Beaumont's newspapers and television and radio stations. If
you keep your contact info in Outlook and have a Yahoo
account, Yahoo offers a synchronization feature in which you
can synchronize all of your info in Outlook to your Yahoo
account. Find out more here:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/intsync. All you need to
access your info in Yahoo is a computer and to know your
username and password. To manage my usernames and passwords,
I use Roboform, found at
www.roboform.com
4. Know the primary office/computer
equipment that will be required to get your business up and
running. I had operated with a minimal amount of my
office equipment recently due to my being a house sitter for
a friend for 2 months. So, upon receiving the mandatory
evacuation order, I knew in relatively short order that to
run my business, I needed my desktop PC, flat panel monitor,
wireless mouse and keyboard, speakers, modem and associated
cords, backup portable external hard drive, office telephone
and associated cords, laptop computer, printer, box of
software, and scanner. It sounds like a great deal of
equipment, but I packed it all into 2 boxes from U-Haul (1
small and 1 medium box). I knew I could work for at least 2
months comfortably with just this equipment.
5. Know the location of your primary paper files for
your clients/business. I have 2 sets of files --
ones for the immediate short-term that I use frequently and
my lateral file drawer files that are primarily reference
files. I grabbed the contents of the two drawers of my
2-drawer file cabinet (which hold my immediate short-term
files), all of which fit into one small U-Haul box.
6. Have a backup telephone plan. I wasn't
sure what I was going to do for phone service for my
business, as all of my clients are scattered across the US
and in Canada. Just to be safe, I upgraded my cell phone
plan, and had a prepaid calling card (purchased an AT&T
calling card at Sam's,
www.samsclub.com) at my disposal if I needed it. As
luck would have it, my hotel offered an unlimited Internet
access/long distance plan for an additional $1.88 per day,
so I happily signed up for that, saving myself a fortune in
phone calls and Internet service fees.
7. Have a backup Internet access plan. Since
power restoration to my home was estimated at 2-8 weeks, I
had to find temporary lodging. I looked for a hotel that
offered high speed Internet access and was able to use their
system for my Internet access. However, once I found the
hotel, I also called the tech support of my DSL ISP and
found the local dial-up numbers for the area in which the
hotel is located. I never had to use the dial-up service,
but it was good info to have. If you have cable or DSL
Internet service, now is the time to discover alternate
Internet access plans to be able to get online should your
DSL or cable access be out-of-service. You should also know
how to access your email online through your ISP if you
don't have access to your computer. If your ISP doesn't
offer a version of webmail, you can use this service
free-of-charge, Mail2Web,
www.mail2web.com.
8. Bring along adequate office supplies for a month.
I threw in pens, pencils, post-it notes, a calculator,
stamps, envelopes, tape, stapler, paper clips, note pads,
etc. that would last me at least a month while I was out of
my office. I used a portable plastic file case in which to
carry these items.
9. Outline your office procedures to help you operate
independently or be able to delegate tasks. I carry
much of my info in my head to run my office, or have what I
need stored in various files across my computer. What makes
more sense for the future is to document all of my office
procedures, as well as computer and client info, so that
everything I need is in one document. I can then upload
this doc to my Yahoo account, my backup files, or carry it
with my on my USB flash drive. My colleague, Jean Hanson,
has designed a great template that asks you to note and
record everything you (or someone else) would need to know
to get your business back up and running. It's the Home
Office Procedures Manual, available for purchase here:
http://tinyurl.com/bagxs
10. Bring a digital camera to record the event
and/or record damages to personal property. I wish
I'd had a digital camera to record all that I witnessed
during my evacuation from Hurricane Rita. My sister took
tons of pics, but I would've loved to have had the same
opportunity. More importantly, however, is the need for a
digital camera to record damage to your home and property.
In a wide-spread disaster, it can be at least a month before
your insurance adjuster will be able to assess damages to
your property. In the meantime, however, you need to start
repairs, like placing a tarp on your roof, boarding up
broken windows, removing downed trees from your house or
yard, or cleaning your refrigerator of spoiled food. In
many cases, your insurance will cover the repairs or food
replacement, but you need to carefully document the "before"
scenario in order to receive compensation for your loss.
Don't let a natural disaster destroy your business. Take
some time now to prepare your disaster-readiness plan, and
get back into business as soon as you can!
(c) 2009 Donna Gunter
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