Do You Have a Hurricane Protection Plan?

Jean Murray — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:49:36 +0000

Hurricane Season officially began June 1, but it really gets going in August and September. If you live in Florida or anywhere in the Gulf Coast areas, you have probably thought about the obvious protections, getting supplies to board up windows, but don’t forget other ways to protect your business. Even if your business isn’t in the hurricane area, you should still consider protecting your business from natural disasters like floods, tornadoes, snowstorms, and anything that happens in y our area.

Develop a protection and preparedness plan for your small business that includes:

Business Data Protection. Have a physical backup or backup on the Internet every day, so you know you have the most recent files. Read my recent Small Business blog post on protecting business data to get more ideas.

The University of South Florida has a USF SafetyFlorida website that includes a Hurriplanner, which takes you through the decisions you need to make, phone numbers and emergency help you can receive. The Hurriplanner creates a Word document that you can save and make changes to as needed. It includes all kinds of information about how to prepare for disasters, including hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires. So get going and put that plan together. Then put it in a safe place and hope you don’t need it.