09 Jan Emergency Planning for Entrepreneurs

Emergency Planning for Entrepreneurs

If you stay in business long enough, the question isn’t necessarily if a crisis will happen, but when. From natural disasters to pandemics to cyber security threats, emergencies happen, and businesses that aren’t prepared for them are at serious risk. This is especially the case for small businesses or startups, which often have limited resources and fewer staff. According to the US Small Business Administration, around 25% of businesses don’t recover after a disaster. 

However, an emergency doesn’t have to be a death sentence for your small business. With some emergency planning and preparation, you can set yourself up to weather any storm (whether literal or metaphorical) and continue doing business on the other side. Here’s how to implement emergency planning:

Assess Your Risk

The first step in emergency planning for your business is identifying potential threats. Examples include:

• Natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, wildfires, and more
• Theft
• Technology or power failure
• Cyber attacks
• Illness or absence of key personnel
• Violence

Make a Plan 

Having a response plan is essential not only for ensuring your business survives the crisis, but also for helping it rebuild afterward. Create a step-by-step guide to how you’ll respond to each of the different threats you identified previously. Outlining your response ahead of time, when you’re able to think clearly, can save you from making a panicked decision in the moment (or worse, doing nothing at all).

If you’re new to the world of emergency preparedness, consider working with a mentor who can guide you through the process of how to write an emergency plan for a small business.

Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst 

In addition to making a plan for what you’ll do when a crisis arises, you’ll also need to take steps to protect crucial resources, information, and infrastructure ahead of time. This might include:

• Insuring your business and/or facilities
• Repairing or working on your building to reduce the risk of fire or theft
• Investing in data security software
• Making duplicate copies of important documents and backing up computer data
• Setting money aside