Could Your Business Survive a Disaster – Smart Ways to Protect Yourself
You might not want to think about it, but your business is at risk of disaster every day. From fires and floods to earthquakes and hurricanes, disasters strike residential and commercial properties every day.
If you have not made the right disaster preparations, your business might never reopen should the worst happen. No matter how busy you are, the time to prepare your business for disaster is now. Here are some tips to get you started.
Take Advantage of Cloud Storage or Offsite Backups
Backing up your data is certainly important, but if all your backups are local your data could be at risk. Whether you rely on tape backups, external hard drives, thumb drives or a combination of local strategies, a fire or flood could take out not only your servers but your backups as well.
That is why it is important for businesses of all sizes to backup their data online or store it in the cloud. There are a number of cloud storage and online backup services, making it easy to choose the right solution for your needs.
Don’t Overlook Flood Risk
You do not have to live near the water to be at risk from flooding. Even businesses located miles from the nearest body of water can suffer flood damage when summer storms roll in.
Even if your business is not located in a flood plain, it is important to take some common-sense precautions. From waterproofing the basement or lower level of your property to maintaining proper flood insurance, it is important to protect yourself as much as possible.
If your location is at risk of flooding, implementing an offsite backup solution is even more important. You can still make local backups if you wish, but make sure your data is backed up to the cloud or an online storage location several times a day.
Have a Disaster Plan in Place
In a perfect world no business would ever face a disaster, but we do not live in a perfect world. In the real world, business owners need to prepare for the worst even as they hope for the best, and that means having a comprehensive disaster plan in place.
Having a written disaster plan in place will make it easier to stay open and serve your customers even as you start to pick up the pieces and put things back together. Your employees should know whom to call and where to go should disaster strike, and as the owner you need to communicate that information clearly.
A telephone tree can be a big help in the event of a disaster. If your company is hit with an earthquake, fire or flood, you cannot rely on email to communicate. Having a phone number for your key employees will make communication easier and give you one less thing to worry about.
No business owner wants to think about disaster, but being prepared will give you real peace of mind. You hope that nothing will ever go wrong, but preparing yourself and your employees for the worst is a critical part of running your business.