Minor mishaps can be a major catastrophe

An award winning marketing professional, Lorraine Ball and her team at Roundpeg help small business owners become big business owners. A business owner herself, Lorraine provides expertise in writing business plans and related business services. She knows the importance of protecting your assets and being able to recover from a theft, fire or natural disaster. As our guest blogger today, she shares her tips to be sure you can remain in business no matter what interruption you suffer.

Accidents happen! But even minor mishaps can be major catastrophes for small business owners. Every year, thousands of companies are unprepared for the interruption caused by a minor fire, flood, and burglary or computer meltdown.

According to a NFIB National Small Business Poll, man-made disasters affect 10% of small businesses, and natural disasters have impacted more than 30% of all small businesses in the USA.

For many small business owners, the computer is the heart and soul of the business. Unfortunately computers crash, virus' attack, natural disasters occur and every user makes mistakes from time to time. The consequences can be disastrous. Rebuilding financial information, contact lists, E-mail records or project files can be time-consuming, expensive and sometimes impossible.

Important information should be copied to some type of external media such as a zip disks, CDs or DVDs, tape back-up or external hard drive, then stored off-site. Many business owners diligently copy all key files, and store the CDs or external hard drive, right next to their computer. A flood or fire will damage both.

An on-line backup provides a simpler, more secure, and less time consuming disaster recovery solution. For a nominal fee, on-line back-up solutions allow you to store information on a secure, encrypted server. The program runs overnight, in the background, as long as you leave your computer on. The cost will vary depending on the amount of data to be stored.

Operation Continuity - More than Just Data
Having access to your information is a key starting point, but surviving a crisis requires more than just data recovery. Your disaster recovery plan should also include:

• Where you will operate if your office is damaged or destroyed.
• How you will finance equipment replacement. Do you have adequate insurance to replace office furniture, equipment, inventory and other assets?
• How you will cover business expenses. Continuity insurance provides additional insurance to cover expenses such as moving, or damages caused by missed deadlines.
• Documentation of everything you own. Even if you have adequate coverage, most policies require a detailed list of what was lost, damaged or stolen.
• Who will take care of your customers if you can't. In the event you can not complete a project or meet a deadline because of the business interruption, do you have a relationship with someone else can serve your customers on a short term basis?

According to the Financial Planning Association, of the businesses which suffer a disaster, 40% fail to reopen. An additional 25% of those which reopen never recover from the losses and setbacks and close within a year.

Disaster may never strike, and you may never need to execute your plan. But if something does happen, a well thought out plan will help you through the transition, and increase the odds that a temporary business interruption does not become a permanent one.