As the past few years have shown, disaster can strike at any time, anywhere. We’ve faced off against the COVID-19 pandemic, witnessed California and Australia battle raging wildfires, windstorms and earthquakes and more – this begs the ultimate question, as a business owner: how can you future-proof your business in case of a natural disaster or pandemic? We may think natural disasters and waves of disease are unpredictable, but there are ways to prepare for these rare events. If you don’t have strategies in place for handling these earth-shattering problems, you leave your business in the lurch. It could take years for your business, no matter how large, to recover from a devastating hurricane or pandemic.
With this in mind, here are five ways to future-proof your business in a safe, reliable way. Protect yourself before, during and after any natural disaster or pandemic.
Invest in a UPS power supply
UPS systems, also known as an uninterruptible power supply, are absolutely essential for your business in times of crisis. Much like the name suggests, a UPS power supply will not falter in times of natural disaster or pandemic: it can provide emergency power to great loads, when your main power source fails. Depending on how long your power outage lasts – which can be for quite some time during disaster or pandemic! – they keep your system going, preserving your data until proper power can be restored.
Have a plan for emergencies
An emergency operations plan, for when your business faces disaster, could protect everything you’ve built. Consider vital issues like: if worst comes to worst, who would take charge of operations? Could your employees work from home? How would your team contact one another, and what would happen to your data? Do you have practice drills for events like earthquakes or typhoons? If you don’t have clear answers to these many questions, start planning as soon as possible.
Protect your paperwork
Whether your operations are fully digital or you still use traditional forms of paperwork, protect them all. Make sure you organise existing paperwork into safe areas of storage off-site, including important documents relating to your payroll, tax and insurance. Create backups upon backups of your digital files in a cloud-based storage system, and avoid data loss with a UPS power supply.
Update your insurance
You need to know if your company’s insurance provider covers instances of natural disaster and pandemic. Your insurance could stretch to employee wages, lost revenue, relocation costs and more. If your current policy doesn’t cover these things and you need to invest in additional coverage elsewhere, make sure this is done.
Strong communication is key
Your business should engage in practices of strong communication before, during and after a disaster! Communicating with customers through social media, email or press releases is absolutely essential; through these formats, customers can understand and sympathise with the impact of a disaster on your operations. Customers must know when you’re back up and running.
Similarly, your team members must also be kept in the loop; check in with employees to make sure they’re okay and inform them of any issues with payroll or relocation. Above all, make sure these issues are prevented in the first place.
