When disaster strikes, it’s important that you take the right steps to help your business recover. Below are a few ways to recover from a disaster – whether it be a fire, flood or cyberattack.
Notify your customers
A disaster will likely involve shutting down your business temporarily. Customer records may even be lost if they were not backed up on the cloud. Make sure to notify your customers if they are likely to be affected by the disaster in any way. This is not an easy thing to do, but it’s important that you notify them straight away – you don’t want your customers finding out about the disaster through other sources. You may be able to use a mass email to notify them or you may prefer to notify customers individually.
Consider if you’re insured
You may be financially protected against disasters by certain types of business insurance. Commercial property insurance for instance may cover you against burglary, fire or natural disaster. If you are likely to be covered by insurance, make sure to notify your insurance provider within 48 hours of the disaster. If you don’t notify your insurer straight away, you could risk not having your claim accepted (you usually don’t have to make a claim straight away, but notifying your insurer of the event is important). This compensation could be vital for helping you to fund the recovery process.
Look for financial support
There may be other sources of financial support that you can look into to help fund the recovery process. You could borrow money in the form of a business emergency loan. Alternatively, you could try to approach local charities or you could try looking into government grants. You may even find that crowdfunding is an option. Explore all of these financial support options – if the damage caused by the disaster is severe, you’ll need as much third-party funding as you can get to help recover your business.
Get help with recovery
Once you have the funds to start pouring into recovery, it is important to then seek out the right professional support. There are emergency cleaning services that you can use to help deal with the damage. This could include clearing up rubble after a natural disaster or looking into mold and damp remediation after a flood. Do your research and read reviews in order to find a company that you trust. Recovery is likely to be a long process, but with the right team of professionals you can make the process as efficient as possible. This recovery process could be a great time to start over and possibly make improvements that you were already planning on making but never got round to.
Take preventative measures against future disasters
It’s important that your business is armed against future disasters. There may be a way to greatly reduce the impact of another disaster or even prevent a future disaster from occurring entirely. A few examples of business disaster prevention and mitigation include:
- Installing security windows and doors, as well as setting a burglar alarm.
- Investing in flood-proofing measures to prevent water getting into the building.
- Setting up disaster recovery software and backing up data on the cloud.
- Investing in fire training/cybersecurity training in order to come up with an effective disaster recovery response plan
If you haven’t already got insurance to cover you against disasters, it could also be worth looking into insurance schemes. As a previous victim of this disaster, you may find that insurance rates are quite high. Take the time to shop around to find the best rates.
Make sure to drill your disaster recovery response plan. This ensures that you staff know how to react quickly to an event such as a fire or an earthquake. If you hire new staff in the future, make sure that they are also educated as to how to react in a disaster. The whole response should be able to come naturally.
Stay positive
It’s easy to give up after a disaster has occurred. However, you may be surprised by how possible it is to bounce back. With the right amount of funding and the right amount of support, you can usually recover from a disaster. Use the experience as a learning opportunity and a chance to relaunch your business. It could be the ideal time to do away with the old and embrace the new.
