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Disaster-proofing
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June 6, 2000: 10:19 a.m. ET
Prepare your business to withstand and recover from natural disasters
By Jane Applegate
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Dear Jane: With all these hurricanes and tornadoes wreaking havoc around the country, what can I do to protect my business from harm?
Before disaster strikes, spend some time figuring out how to protect your business records and computer data. The first step is to make sure your customer database, payroll records, bank records and tax information are all copied and safely stored off site.
Next, draft a detailed disaster recovery plan. Start the planning process by asking yourself these questions:
- Where would we work if the office lost all power or was damaged by fire or flood?
- Can we arrange to share space temporarily with another business?
- Do we have copies of all our essential business records in case our computer systems are damaged?
- How would we keep in touch with our customers, clients and suppliers if the office was closed?
- How would we keep in touch with each other?
Since every business is different, your mission is to create a disaster plan that makes sense for your particular kind of business. If you run a retail store and it's hit by a hurricane, you probably will just close up shop until the storm passes.
No matter what kind of business you operate, arrange for key business records to be kept by your attorney or accountant. If they don't have the space, keep one set of records at home or in a secure, waterproof storage facility.
Before the end of each day, require everyone on your staff to back up their work on floppy disks as well as on magnetic tape or a Zip drive once a week. While it seems like a hassle, getting in the habit of backing up data on a daily basis is critical in case of emergency.
Collect home phone numbers and assign a team of employees to keep in touch with everyone else. You might also want to add remote call forwarding to your list of telephone services. With it, you can forward calls from your office line to anywhere without actually going into the office. You might also buy a cellular phone if you don't already have one.
Ask a few key employees to serve on your disaster recovery committee. Rely on them to do the research and draft a comprehensive disaster recovery plan for your approval.
Finally, don't forget to carefully review and update all your business insurance coverage. Look into buying business interruption insurance as well as liability insurance. A good independent insurance agent will be able to put together a comprehensive policy designed to protect your business no matter what disaster befalls you.
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