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Tools for business survival
Preparedness can make the difference between going broke or profiting and helping the community recover by providing a service
By MARY BURRELL
Article published on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 |
PINELLAS COUNTY – More than 40 percent of all companies that experience a disaster never reopen.
More than 25 percent of the remaining companies close within two years.
Those estimates from the U.S. Department of Labor are used to introduce a tool being circulated throughout the state to help the business community prepare for disaster.
“It is financially sound for the businesses themselves to limit the damage to their businesses and allow themselves to get back in business,” said Douglas Meyer, the county’s emergency management coordinator.
But disaster planning is not only important for the business itself, Meyer said. The economic survival of a business means the continuity of economic development – the business survives, people keep jobs and the community is able to rely on the service.
Disaster preparedness is a must for every size and type of business.
“Being able to recover over a long period of time may be difficult” for the smaller businesses, Meyer said, and small business is what makes up much of the economic base for Pinellas County.
But if a business can keep the business in one piece, and keep the roof on and be able to at least open up and conduct business, they are able to recover and they help the community recover.
The “Florida Business Disaster Survival Kit” is a CD-ROM developed for businesses to help owners and managers formulate a specific plan to protect the business and its employees and to more easily carry the business through recovery.
The kit includes worksheets that the manager uses to identify the jobs of the employees during and after a disaster, inventory forms, including details on computers, key customers and supplier contact information and other documentation a manager might not otherwise consider.
The kit goes through a list of emergency supplies that should be stored at the business, much as they are at home, since employees could end up staying at the facility if their own homes are destroyed.
Basic hurricane information also is included to distribute to employees to help them with their personal disaster plans.
Once a business is prepared, the material states, it can profit: “A business that has the capability to then respond with needed goods and services in a time of crisis can then move from ‘survivor’ to ‘hero’.”
The Web site from the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council makes the same argument. Representing the counties hardest hit by hurricanes in the last several years, the site offers a disaster preparedness workbook and interactive survey to help businesses access their weaknesses. The site recommends that local communities maintain a list of businesses that would be able to provide essential services after a hurricane.
There is similar help for personal use, with businesses offering worksheets to help people organize the information they need and get planning in place to make for a smooth recovery for any unforeseen event.
Homefront Security and Legacy Planner, for example, not only emphasizes getting important information in a notebook, providing forms for emergency plans and instructions for family members, it also works to build what it calls an inventory of financial and legal information.
“The plan for anyone is to make sure they have a plan,” said Meyer.
The “Florida Business Disaster Survival Kit” CD-ROM is available at local chambers of commerce. It is also available as an interactive planning template at www.fldisasterkit.com.
The Southwest Florida Regional Planning County Web site is www.swfrpc.org. Click on Disaster Planning Assistance to find “Profiting Through Disaster Preparedness.”
A brochure, “Hurricane Preparation and Business Continuity Planning” is available at Pinellas County Economic Development, www.pced.org, downloadable at www.pced.org/download/document /20060412_112941_13084.pdf.
Knowledge through experience
The Community Papers of Florida put together a guide for publishers, based on the experience of newspapers staff in areas hit hardest by the hurricanes of the past two years. Here are a couple of situations businesses might expect after a hit:
• Your place of business may not exist.
• You will not be able to communicate for a period of time. Phone service – including cell phones – will not get the job done.
• You probably will not have power. In some areas, power was out for several days to a week; and in several instances, it was out for over two weeks.
• It will take time to account for your employees.
• Expect some of your work staff to be devastated, losing their homes and all of their personal belongings.
• Fuel will not be available.
• Need groceries, ice, medicine? Good luck.
• Need someone to conduct repair work on your damaged building? An electrician to restore power? Good luck.
• If you expect the insurance companies to show up on short notice like the advertising says, forget it. Three months after Hurricane Charley people were still waiting for insurance claims to be settled and for the temporary housing promised by FEMA.
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Article published on Wednesday, May 10, 2006
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