Blog - Brock Henderson Marketing Guru

If disaster should strike your business do you have a contingency plan?

There are all sorts of things that can go wrong when you have a business, are you prepared?  Do you know what you will do?

If you or one of your key employees is hospitalized for an extended period of time is there someone who can fill in?

What if a natural disaster such as earthquake, fire, or flood should destroy your facility and equipment?  Do you have the insurance to replace everything?  How quickly can you get back on your feet?  How will you keep your customers satisfied until you do recover?

Are your accounting and electronic records backed up at an off-site location incase your hard drives are destroyed?  Don’t just back up your records at your office, a fire could easily destroy your copies, and you’d be left with nothing.

While this may not fall under the typical definition of “disaster”, it feels that way when it happens:  losing your biggest client.  Do you have enough clients to minimize the loss of one huge account?

What happens to you if your main, (or only), supplier has a disaster and can’t deliver?  Do you have alternate sources you can turn to in order to keep your orders filled?

You should have contingency plans for every possible disaster … even if they aren’t likely.
Take the time to plan for every possible negative event and have at least one, though I would prefer two, courses of action lined up.

Keep in mind that with certain disasters, such as a flood or earthquake, relying on local back-up might be impossible because those sources would be just as devastated as you and wouldn’t be able to help.

Be sure key individuals in the company know what to do in case of disaster, you might be out of town or hospitalized.

Your plan should be printed and everyone should know where it is kept so that it can be immediately accessed and your recovery plans quickly initiated.

Disasters happen and you should know exactly what you are going to do; not trying to come up with viable solutions when you are stressed out.  Sit down with staff, (Don't try and figure it out alone, your staff might have some creative ideas), and come up with solutions and work-arounds for every conceivable thing that could go wrong.

I hope you never have to utilize the disaster plans, but it is always better to be safe than sorry.