I found this at HispanicBusiness.com:
Does Your Business Have a Disaster Plan?
Here’s the short version:
Follow these tips from the U.S. Small Business Administration in Richmond and Victoria Parham, president and chief technology officer of Virtual Support Services LLC, an Internet-based training and services business in Emporia:
- Establish relationships with vendors outside your locality. During a disaster, they can deliver products and services to your clients, Parham said.
- Establish an online billing, invoicing and payment system. Your revenue will continue to flow as clients pay by credit card and check, Parham said.
- Invest in off-site backup storage of your mission-critical data. Even in a national emergency, you will have access to the information you need to continue your business operations, she said. What’s mission critical? How about your payroll, tax, accounting and production records, for starters?
- Find an off-site physical storage facility. Try to be sure it is in an area that’s not vulnerable to the same disaster as your facility, the SBA advised.
- Think globally.
- Identify what your company can’t survive without. Is it computers? Production machinery? Custom-made parts? Power? Your building? Figure out how not to be without those things, the SBA advised. If it’s your building that’s critical, consider making upgrades now that might avert or minimize extensive damage during a disaster.
- Prepare employees to work remotely. Provide laptops, cell phones and backup dial-up providers that employees need to communicate with each other and clients from dispersed locations, Parham urged.
- Invest in a backup generator. In a power failure, it might save your refrigeration, lighting, security systems and computer control, the SBA said.
- Keep this number handy: (800) 659-2955, the SBA Disaster Customer Service Center.
Read the story for the complete details.
