We all know the saying that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It is one old saying that is absolutely correct. It is always better to prevent a disaster than have to deal with the fallout. On the same side of the coin, it is also better to be prepared for an emergency so that you can react appropriately, even if you can’t completely prevent it.
If you own a business, an emergency can cause serious financial harm. You may have to close your business, you might lose employees to injury or illness, and you could even face lawsuits based on your reaction to the emergency. There are so many different types of emergencies, and you need to be prepared to face any of them. Here are some ways that you can prepare your business for an emergency.
Have a Plan
Emergencies should be a part of your health and safety plan. Since emergencies can come in any form, you should have a plan for how to react in any number of different situations. For example, in case of fire, you should have clearly marked exits and a meeting point well away from the building. An evacuation plan like this will help to get your team outside to safety as quickly as possible to keep injuries to a minimum. You should have a health and safety committee represented by every department who are responsible for creating your plan and communicating it to everyone else.
Identify Your Risks
It’s important to identify what risks you have on the premises that could contribute to creating an emergency or making one worse. Do you have hazardous materials in or around your building? Is your area more prone to earthquakes, or are you near a forest that could catch fire? All of these factors will play into how to prepare for emergencies. Make sure that you include uncommon but still possible emergencies such as cyber attacks and active shooters. The more risks you have identified, the easier it will be to react appropriately when the time comes.
Get Your Insurance Up To Date
After you’ve identified your risks, you will need to make sure that your insurance covers you for those risks as well as possible. Will insurance prevent the damage from occurring? No, but it will protect you from the financial fallout. You could end up having to close your building, which will disrupt your business operations. Or, you may have staff who are injured and not able to work. You may also need to repair or rebuild, which can sometimes cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Make sure that your coverage not just covers the risks you have identified for emergencies, but also risks that are specific to your type of business. You Can purchase restaurant insurance, yoga teacher insurance, or construction insurance online that is tailored to your type of business.
Make Sure Everyone Knows Their Responsibilities
When an incident occurs, everything will happen very fast. You need to know that your team members will do what is needed to keep everyone safe. Providing responsibilities well ahead of time will ensure that they are prepared, and they will carry out those responsibilities when needed. You may need to provide regular training and rehearsals for emergency events, especially when you have new staff come on board. The more people that understand their responsibilities, the more effective your response will be.
Have Easy Access to Emergency Numbers
You should keep a hard copy of emergency numbers on site in an easily accessible place. It should have contacts for EMT services, such as ambulance, fire, and police, as well as the emergency contacts of everyone on staff. You can store them in your phone, but if there is no power and phones die, then you will need the hard copy. You can also keep one off site nearby if possible.
Emergency Essentials
The whole thing about emergencies is that they can strike at any time, and you don’t know what type of emergency it will be. You should keep a kit of emergency supplies handy so that you can be prepared no matter what happens. Your kid can have radios for hearing important news updates, walkie-talkies, flashlights, batteries, some food and water, and anything else you think might be useful. Keep it in an accessible place in an easy-to-carry container, such as a strong gym back or box.
Protect Your Business Files
If you have most of your data backed up to a cloud server, then it is fortunately protected against a physical emergency. However, if you have hard copies, or files saved locally on a hard drive, you need to do backups on a regular basis and keep a copy off site. That way, if you lose data, you will only have lost as much as had been entered since the last backup.
Plus, in some cases, the emergency could be a cyber threat. Oftentimes, a hacker will hold data for ransom. If you already have a backed up copy of your data, then you are better protected against such an attack and their ransom demands. You can hopefully get back up and running relatively quickly with as little disruption as possible.
Have a Plan to Keep Your Business Running
It may be that a disaster has made it impossible or unsafe to enter your building and conduct your normal operations. You should have a plan well in advance as to how you will proceed if that were to happen. You can have your staff work remotely, for example. If you have work that must be done on site, have a contract done up with another local building to provide you with space if there is an emergency. That way you can get things going again with as little loss of business revenue as possible.
Emergencies can be devastating, but it’s up to you as a business owner to do your best to prevent them and to avoid as much harm as possible. By having your team prepared for anything, you will keep people and your business protected.