There are many things that you can prevent. You can prevent poor hires with a thorough recruiting process. You can prevent over/under-ordering with effective inventory management. You can do everything in the world to stop a disaster from happening. But disaster will happen. There are some things that you just can’t stop from happening, and these major disasters can be devastating to your business.
These disasters can come in a myriad of different ways. When a disaster strikes, 25% of businesses will have to close temporarily or permanently. They can be things like hardware failure, fires, cyber-attacks, tornados, hurricanes, power outages, and more. Here are keys to surviving in case of a disaster.
Have a Plan: Just like how you plan for things you can prevent, you should plan for the things you can’t prevent. You won’t be able to stop a tornado from coming in the path of your business. (Unless you’re Superman.) So make sure you know where your employees, customer, and self should go. Make sure you know the procedure for if there’s a fire. If some piece of equipment blows up, you should be able to spring into action and know what to do, who to call, and where to go first.
Have insurance: Insurance is the transference of risk, and the risk of a disaster is not something you want to bear the brunt of. Let’s say you run a construction company in Los Angeles when an earthquake rocks the city. Your building is fine, but the wiring gets messed up. A fire is sparked a week later, and you might be stuck with the bill. What would you rather do? Pay the monthly fire and disaster premium, or the $500,000 in damage?
3. Organize Cash Flow: Disaster means expenses. Even if you have insurance for disasters (which you should) you’ll have a deductible to pay. If a piece of equipment fails, you might have a warranty, but you need a new piece of equipment now. Are you going to be able to wait for the replacement, or will you buy a replacement and file for reimbursement instead?
4. Have Back Ups: All the money in the world won’t be able to replace important documents. If a flood were to rip through your business, what would you do? Would you be able to get all your customer’s information? Would you have all the contracts and billing statements? 70% of businesses would fail if they lost their documents. Would that be you? Get your documents digital and prevent this from happening to you.
5. Apply for Government Aid: Sometimes you are going to need help. There is no shame in saying “My business needs help after it was ripped in half by a category 4 hurricane, I need assistance.” There are several different avenues that you can go to for government aid which you can find on the Small Business Administration’s website.
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naturalForms is an innovative software company based in Dayton, Ohio USA and is the leader in natural input technologies and provides an end-to-end mobile data capture platform that automates the collection of natural input (such as handwriting, photos, notes, drawings, and signatures) instantly at the point of entry. Information captured with tablets or other mobile devices is immediately converted to digital data and seamlessly integrated to backend systems. Straight-through processing eliminates cycle time delays and human data entry errors, creating unsurpassed workflow optimization and significant cost savings. naturalForms’ solutions are used around the world, delivering value in multiple industries. To learn more, visit http://www.naturalforms.com.