Natural disasters are never far away. Fortunately, this guide will help to protect your business from them, no matter your location.
Many small and medium-sized businesses are experiencing financial hardships during these economic times. Of course, this means that any natural disaster could potentially send them under if it was to strike.
Knowing this, it’s important to protect your business from flooding and other natural disasters. Take the US, for example, where wildfires are becoming more common by the day. If your business premises were to be set on fire (causing all of your stock to burn), then this would be a nightmare for everyone involved!
So, what’s the solution? Simple – just follow the information and tips inside this guide that will help to protect your business and prevent any natural disasters from causing major financial damage to you.
When you’re ready, grab a notepad and read ahead.
What are the Most Common Natural Disaster That Impact Businesses?
There’s a wide variety of natural disasters that can negatively affect businesses. Let’s look at some of the biggest examples.
Flooding
Flooding is one of the most frequent natural disasters around the world.
In the US alone, floods have cost US taxpayers more than $850 billion – yep, billion – since 2000.
Unsurprisingly, floods can lead to all kinds of problems, from loss of inventory to damaged company vehicles. Essentially, the list is endless.
For additional information, here’s a guide on how flooding happens.
Earthquakes
Earthquakes are never nice.
Fortunately, they don’t often happen in America – and when they do, it’s usually in California or Alaska.
When earthquakes are particularly bad, they can lead to business offices and buildings becoming completely destroyed.
Wildfires
As mentioned earlier, wildfires are a major problem right now in the US.
If you didn’t already know, wildfires spread incredibly quickly and are tough to get under control. Because of this, it’s easy for them to cause damage to businesses and homes in a short amount of time.
Thankfully, due to the nature of wildfires, word gets out quickly, and people can evacuate their buildings. However, the contents inside the building – such as business documents – usually get destroyed.
Top Tips to Protect Your Business
So, with that covered, it’s time to provide you with some top tips to protect your business from floods and other natural disasters. For any business owner, these tips are essential – even if you operate in an area that’s deemed relatively safe.
1. Take out insurance
Before anything else, it’s important that you take out insurance to protect your business and its inventory.
By doing this, even if you experience financial damages, you get to experience peace of mind knowing that all (or most of it) is going to be covered by your insurance company.
Nowadays, you don’t need to spend tons of money per month on insurance when it comes to catastrophes. The key is to find a find that suits your business and existing budget. For example, if your local town has a known flooding problem, then you can get your business insured for flooding but no other natural disasters.
2. Avoid renting on the ground floor
When it comes to flooding (as well as other disasters), the ground floor usually takes the biggest amount of water damage. Therefore, if you’re looking for a new business office to lease, then you should avoid the ground floor. Instead, choose somewhere higher up so that you know you’re better protected and less at risk.
3. Create an emergency flood kit
If you haven’t already, it’s highly recommended that you put together an emergency flood kit.
This should include:
- Insurance documents (as well as other important business documents)
- First aid kit
- Property keys
- Lights
- Food and drink supplies
You will only ever need to use your emergency kit if a disaster strikes quickly while you and your employees get stuck in the office. Fingers-crossed, this won’t happen.
4. Have an emergency plan in place
In the wake of a natural disaster, your business operations will likely be disrupted.
For example, if the disaster has caused problems with local roads, it might mean that you and none of your employees can travel to the office like you normally would. Therefore, you need a plan ready.
This should involve instructing your employees to work from home. However, it’s not as simple as telling them to turn on their laptops and work as usual, as they might not have access to the documents they need.
This is why you should transition your team into cloud computing, where all of their documents and files can be accessed via internet-based apps, such as Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.
If you decide not to create an emergency plan, this can lead to major problems that impact your customers – something you obviously won’t want to happen!
5. Maintain communication with employees
During the period of any natural disaster, you need to keep your employees in the loop. This way, there’s no confusion or miscommunication, such as people traveling to the office when they aren’t supposed to.
It’s highly recommended that you communicate with your employees in the build-up to a potential disaster, too.
Let’s say that the weather forecast has predicted extreme snow. Rather than ignore the forecast, you should take action by instructing your employees to work from home on the forecasted days. Even if the snow never comes, it’s always best to be safe, especially if your employees have to travel far to get to you.
Soon, it’s predicted that mega floods will damage California. If you operate in California, this is something important to bear in mind.
Guide summary
Thanks for reading this guide on how to protect your business from flooding and other natural disasters.
Hopefully, you won’t encounter one any time soon. However, if you do, you now know exactly what steps to follow.
Remember, natural disasters usually impact business at some point in time. As long as you remain calm, plan efficiently, and make smart decisions, then you’ll be fine. Most importantly, you’ll also avoid financial damages!