7 Critical Steps to Protect Your Business and Keep It Operating

Having a plan for emergencies is the key to getting back to business with the minimum disruptions. All businesses, large or small, should develop a disaster preparedness plan. Having a disaster plan in place will make the difference between a business being down for a few days or possibly suffering severe financial loss. Start planning now to improve the likelihood that your company will survive and recover.

Step 1: Determine your risk

Check with your local building official, city engineer, or planning and zoning administrator to determine whether your business is at risk from natural hazards such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, wildfires or tornadoes. Other forms of "disasters" include:

• hazardous material incident
  
• winter storm


• communications failure


• radiological accident


• civil disturbance

Step 2: Assess the potential business impact

Consider the potential loss of market share. Assess the impact of:

• business interruption


• employees unable to report to work


• customers unable to reach facility


• company in violation of contractual agreements


• imposition of fines and penalties or legal costs


• interruption of critical supplies


• interruption of product distribution

Step 3: Identify critical products, services and operations

You'll need this information to assess the impact of potential emergencies and to determine the need for backup systems. Areas to review include:

• company products and services and facilities/equipment needed to produce them


• products/services provided by suppliers, esp. sole source vendors


• lifeline services such as electrical power, water, sewer, gas, telecommunications and transportation


• operations, equipment and personnel vital to the continued functioning of the facility

Step 4: Do an insurance review

Most companies discover that they are not properly insured only after they have suffered a loss. Lack of appropriate insurance can be financially devastating.

Step 5: Continuity of operations plan

Plan what you will do if your building, plant or store is not accessible. This type of planning is often referred to as a continuity of operations plan, or COOP, and includes all facets of your business.

• consider if you can run the business from a different location or from your home


• develop relationships with other companies to use their facilities in case of disaster


• make contractual arrangements with vendors for post-emergency services such as maintaining payroll records, equipment repair, or providing customer service

Step 6: Protect business records and inventory

The loss of essential records and files during a disaster is commonplace and can not only add to your damage costs, but also delay your return to normal operations. To reduce your vulnerability, determine which files are most important and take steps to protect them.

• store vital documents (plans, legal papers, etc.) in a secure, off-site location


• regularly back up vital electronic files and store back-up copies in a secure, off-site location

Step 7: Install a document management system

Document management systems allow businesses to back up important paper documents/files electronically and store safely off-site in case of a disaster. The benefits of a document management system include:

• scan large volumes of paper documents and store on off-site servers


• access files from anywhere there is an Internet connection: laptop, satellite office, home


• documents can be emailed, faxed, printed -- so your business can keep running


• index, search, retrieve large volumes of documents electronically


• systems are available that can be customized to any size business -- large or small