How to Best Protect Your Business from Disaster

business

marketing planPrepare your business for the worst to ensure that in a disaster situation your operations and data are protected

Disasters can strike at any time and cause severe struggles with your business that may seem impossible to overcome. Thankfully, there are many ways you can overcome this problem and minimize the impact natural disasters have on your facility.

These simple tips will help give you the best chance of thriving.

Keep Your Facility Up to Date

When was the last time you did a full safety inspection and upgraded your facility to protect against natural disasters? Remember this fact: under the NFPA25 Code, all of your fire protection systems must get regular visual inspections and functional tests to ensure they are working correctly.

Typically, you’ll need to get these tests every month, quarter, and even semi-annually, annually. Some might even get them every 5-10 years. And that’s just your fire systems! Other elements of your facility likely need to be tested to keep them operating and safe against natural disaster situations. Consider employing the help of organization design consulting experts like Navalent who can dig past surface-level issues to identify barriers to your success at the source.

Protect Your Data

Your business likely has a lot of data that it relies on every day to operate. Unfortunately, much of this data could easily be lost during a natural disaster if you aren’t careful. That’s why it is crucial to consider various types of backup systems that help you here, including:

  • Multiple off-site backup hard drives in a protected and safe environment
  • Burned discs or physical copies of your information stored in a sealed safe
  • Cloud-based storage uses many types of protection methods to minimize data loss
  • Redundant cloud-storage options in case your other ultimately fails on you

These steps are essential for your operation because they can help to mitigate the dangers of data loss and give you the chance to protect your company in various ways. It also enables you to get back into operation after your natural disaster by allowing your workers to work from home.

Consider Debt Relief Or Insurance

When a natural disaster impacts you and your debt skyrockets, it might be time to consider debt relief or insurance seriously. These professionals can help you if you’re struggling and give you the best chance of overcoming this situation. Since around 20% of claims are due to water damage, there are many agencies that have experience in these situations. Some federal programs may even provide debt relief for natural disaster recovery. Apply for these types of grants, and you may be able to get help without getting into a debt-repayment cycle.

As for debts people owe you, it is probably best to get help. Typically, you’ll need an attorney for debts over $5,000. However, a debt collection agency is perhaps best for money below that. Remember, though, that a legal approach may also increase your chances of scaring your customers into paying their overdue bills, though you may avoid this step if they’ve also been impacted by natural disasters.

Prepare for the Worst

While many natural disasters likely won’t affect you too adversely, there is always the real chance that you could end up getting heavily impacted and need help managing this situation. Therefore, it is vital to prepare for the worst by following these simple steps:

  • Be ready to shift your operation to an at-home situation if your facility gets destroyed
  • Understand how to quickly shut down all of your information and electronics in a disaster
  • Train your workers to find safety during natural disasters, if they occur during business hours
  • Create emergency warning systems to alert your workers and customers online
  • Be willing to help others out during these disasters

Natural disasters can impact more than just your business. Often, they can spread quickly to multiple areas of your region and cause long-lasting troubles. Therefore, you must prepare for the worst and work with your community to get through this situation together.

As you can see, there are many ways to protect your business and minimize your potential loss in this situation. Though it may be challenging for you to get total relief without taking all of these steps, doing so will make it easier for you to understand your options and to find a way to protect yourself.

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Valerie M.

Contributor at Small Business Marketing Tools
Valerie M. is a writer from Upstate New York. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from The State University of New York at Fredonia in 2016 and is currently working at a digital marketing agency where she writes blog posts for a variety of small businesses all over the country. Valerie enjoys writing about music, animals, nature, and traveling.