Disaster-Avoidance Insurance Tips From Hurricane Isaac

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” In the medical sense, eating right, wearing the proper clothing for the weather, exercise and a good mental attitude (prevention) are worth the time and effort. Prevention can avoid trips to the doctor, expensive health care bills, time off from work and the misery of treating and enduring a cold, the flu or other illnesses (the cure). It also makes sense for small businesses who want to avoid the cost and hassle of dealing with the effects of a natural disaster on their business and ability to serve customers. 

Tornadoes are one natural disaster that don’t give much warning. But hurricanes can be tracked from the first blip on the radar screen until they make landfall or wear themselves out in the ocean somewhere. A recent article in Inc. Magazine, “Small Business Owners Brace for Hurricane Isaac,” gave small business owners some suggestions on how to keep working through a hurricane and its aftermath by taking a few preventive measures worth considering even when the sun is shining. 

1. Update your insurance coverage. Business and flood insurance are the first line of defense against catastrophic loss. Whether you have a regular office or work from home, you have to protect your hardware, equipment and supplies. What about the warehouse that stores product and shipping operations? Be sure your insurance is up to date with sufficient coverage for a quick recovery.
    
2. Protect your data. You may be able to dry out paper files floating away in a metal file cabinet, but if your laptop’s hard drive with all your client, accounting and product data goes floating out the door, you could lose your data forever. Go to the cloud. Saving your files to Google or using a website like DropBox not only keeps your data and files dry in the “cloud,” it makes data accessible anywhere. If you have to evacuate your home location in advance of a hurricane or other storm, you can set up business anywhere with a laptop and internet access. What’s more, remote business locations or staff out of harm’s way can experience business as usual.
    
3. Backup, backup, backup. Even with the cloud, it’s best to backup data on a CD or flash drive. With the electricity out or servers down, you can still work off a generator and flash drive and continue to be productive.
    
4. Double-check warranties, travel insurance and provider liability. What happens if your laptop is stolen or suffers damage in a shelter? What if a power serge blows out your hard drive at a hotel? Know what your options are and what additional coverage you may need to replace equipment to get started after the threat is over.
    
5. Diversify your communications options. One business owner had three cell phones with three different providers. If one provider’s system was down, she had two other options to stay connected. With communications, a couple of eggs in different baskets can help you keep your business running.

While these suggestions work well for disaster planning, they are just good sense planning for everyday blips on the business-services screen. A cup of coffee spilled on a laptop keyboard can put you out of business the same as losing it in a flood. Both are disasters that need a backup plan. Putting some of these tips into practice will help avoid or recover from disasters of any size.

Image courtesy of NOAA.