Disaster can strike at any time, but it doesn’t have to wipe you out. Whether it’s a flood, a hurricane, or an earthquake, there are thousands of businesses that manage to get back on their feet quickly and can then in turn support their local community, all because they have a solid disaster plan.
Here are a few precautions every small business owner should take to plan for unforeseen circumstances:
Back Up Your Data
Your data should be backed up to an offsite location. Your backup should be recent enough that if something physically happened to your systems, you would be able to use that backup to get back online relatively quickly. One popular solution is online backup. Provided the backup company has a good infrastructure, online backup will allow you to store your data in a safe place without worrying about it getting corrupted or damaged. You can also use an offsite storage facility; you back up your hard drives, mail it to an offsite company and they will store the data.
Backup List of Services and Vendors
Let’s say you are in the business of selling fishing rods on eBay. If something puts your wholesaler out of commission for two weeks, you should have a backup ready to go immediately. You may have to pay a bit more and you might not have as good payment terms, but at least your whole business won’t be interrupted. Have backup suppliers for everything crucial in your business. In this example, not only do you want to have backup suppliers for your fishing rods, but also for your boxes and packaging materials.
You should also have a backup host, with all your data and websites mirrored that you can switch over to at a moment’s notice. The same goes for having a backup merchant account that you can switch payments over to if your primary account should get frozen for any reason.
Have Proper Insurance
Insure yourself against disaster by investing in the appropriate types of insurance. Start considering insurance when the cost of insurance becomes negligible compared to what you would lose if disaster should strike. Disaster doesn’t just come in the form of the forces of nature. It could come in the form of a lawsuit, a stock market meltdown, an employee who gets injured, a missed bill causing a cut-off of supply, and any number of other things. Look through the different insurance plans you can choose from, from general liability to malpractice to disaster insurance, and choose those most appropriate for your business.
Don’t be caught unaware by disaster. Although it is unlikely to happen, if it should, you will want to know exactly how to respond to minimize the damage to your business.