Why Your Business Needs a Detailed Emergency Plan
As a business owner, it’s your duty to ensure you and your team members are prepared for potential emergency situations. For example, emergency preparedness can include plans for what to do in a fire, an earthquake, or even an active shooter situation. However, there are non-life-threatening emergencies to prepare for as well. Still, many business owners don’t take emergency preparedness seriously, and often fail to prepare their teams for serious potentials.
If you run a business, here’s why you need a detailed emergency plan that covers a variety of potential scenarios beyond just fires and earthquakes.
“It can’t happen here” is a myth
If you haven’t included training, drills, and plans for serious potentials like a robbery or shooting, plans for these situations should be high on your to-do list. If you talk to people who have experienced these so-called “rare” incidents, you’ll notice they all say they never thought it could happen to them. There are thousands of examples of incidents nobody thought could or would happen to them. The truth is, you can’t predict these events and since they happen when and where people least expect, you need to be prepared.
Sometimes machinery can’t be replaced quickly
When an unexpected emergency situation strikes and brings equipment or machinery down, you need a recovery plan to get back up and running quickly. If you choose not to prepare because you think you can just go out and buy a replacement on a whim, you might be surprised when things don’t work out that way.
For example, if your electrical transformer fails, it could take a couple of years to get a replacement. There is currently a transformer shortage and the lead time for getting a new unit is about 1-2 years. However, a backup plan can help you get around this. For instance, you could document the names and phone numbers for a few different manufacturers who offer emergency replacement transformers so you don’t have to scramble at the last minute.
There might not be a way to recover your data
When dealing with computers, without a plan, there’s a chance you may not be able to recover your data after an incident, like a physical accident or cyberattack. Since cybercrime is constantly on the rise, and small businesses are big targets for hackers, nobody is immune.
Contrary to what it may look like, you can’t rely on simple cloud backup storage or external hard drives. If the cyberattack involves stolen account credentials, your cloud storage account could get wiped out. If you get hit with ransomware, it could hit your external drives, too. Plus, some types of data can’t be stored on any hard drive because it needs to be saved in a way that makes it easily recoverable.
It’s not enough to just load up a drive full of data. That data needs to be in a recoverable format. For example, say your company owns 20 websites. You can download the databases, files, and configuration for every website, but then you’ll need to manually reinstate each website. If you have Web Host Manager (WHM) and all your websites are hosted on the same account, there’s a way to create a backup file that will allow you to restore all of your websites to a new server with a few clicks.
Additionally, you can save your databases in a variety of formats, and how you save it should depend on how you plan to restore it in the future. You also need to make sure your files aren’t corrupt, which requires testing your restoration process.
Unlikely scenarios can become reality fast
In addition to seemingly unlikely situations, like an active shooter or robbery, there are non-life-threatening situations that can become your reality without warning. For example, you might get sued. Don’t think you can’t get sued unless you do something wrong, because guilt or innocence is for the court to determine. Anyone can sue for anything, and it doesn’t matter if the lawsuit is bogus – you’ll still be forced to respond and show up in court.
If you don’t have a plan for how you’ll protect your business from lawsuits, you need one now. For example, keeping copies of contracts, employee records, and tax documentation is essential. It’s also wise to keep a record of all software licenses along with where those licenses are being used, who they have been issued to, and anything else that requires a license to use.
How thorough is your preparedness plan?
Don’t get caught off guard by a serious situation that can negatively impact your business. If you’re missing any important potentials, start filling in the gaps. Preparedness is the key to handling the unexpected.
