Is Your Business Prepared For Disasters

Disasters, whether natural or otherwise, can cause a lot of problems for businesses. For small businesses, if the damage is monumental, it can spell the demise of the company. For bigger businesses, it may not shut them down but it can cost a lot of money for them. Either way, a disaster is not something businesses want to encounter. For a business to survive any calamity, preparedness is the key.

How can you ascertain if your business is prepared to face a disaster and survive afterwards? How can you ensure that you and your employees are safe if and when a calamity strikes and you are in office? What should you do to ensure that aside from being safe, you and your employees are covered after such an event occurs?

Anything can happen – hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, floods, and earthquakes. To make sure that you are indeed prepared for any of these, here is a checklist you can use to check for preparedness:

• Prepare an emergency response plan and disseminate this to all – an emergency response plan can save lives and should be shared with everyone. Higher-ups should know what their roles are in case of emergencies, when evacuation is needed, what to do during various occurrences, and who to contact. People should also know what their roles are in case of such emergencies. This is to ensure that everyone is indeed safe and does what they can to reduce if not prevent any casualties.
• Prepare survival and emergency packs – you will never know when a sudden flood occurs, when an earthquake happens, or when a freak storm keeps all of you in the office for a certain length of time. In order for you and your employees to survive, emergency supplies should always be on hand. Such packs should contain disaster survival items like water, flashlights, blankets, emergency food, maps, and first aid kits. You should also have enough of these packs around for everyone and these should be in areas that people can access during these emergencies.
• Make sure your insurance policies cover everything – this is to help ensure that you and your employees land on your feet after a disaster strikes. Worker’s comp, business insurance, and so on should be up-to-date and should have enough coverage to help you recover fairly quickly after these emergencies occur.
• Back up all your records and data – one of the things that some companies fail to realize when they create a disaster readiness plan is that their company data should also be protected in case these get damaged during such happenings. Have these stored in the cloud, or have a backup server with all your files in them ready should you lose the data you currently have at your office to such calamities.
• Hold drills and a disaster-preparedness run through – having a plan for when disaster strikes is a good thing, knowing what to do because of practice is better. Hold a drill at least twice a year so that your people know what to do, where to go, where to find emergency supplies, and other emergency tasks they need to do.

When a disaster strikes, it pays to be prepared since not only will you be able to save lives, but your business will also have a fighting chance of starting over again. If your company has been in a recent disaster, and you need help getting back on your feet with repairs, cleanup and renovations, you should get in touch with a restoration company like LMS Restoration. Whether you need wind damage repairs, flood and storm damage cleanup, or fire & smoke damage repairs, we have the personnel, the tools, and the knowledge you need. Contact us today at 903-689-0460, or get in touch with us via our contact page.