GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
chamberthink:
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS:
Is Your Business Ready?
A
ccording to SBA, 43% of businesses NEVER
Re-Open after a disaster and 80% of business-
es close within two years. Yes, EVERY business
needs a “Disaster Recovery Plan”, especially small
businesses. Timely response and preplanned ac-
tions taken during the first 12 to 72 hours after a
disaster are critical in determining whether your
business fully recovers.
Let me share story about a customer from several
years ago. Sam was a single-location dry cleaner
in a strip center whose operation was affected by
heavy smoke damage when a neighboring tenant
space was destroyed by a fire. The extent of dam-
ages to Sam’s business was devastating. Sam did
not have a plan in place and regrettably his busi-
ness did not survive the event. He was like many
small business owners who are so focused on
managing and growing their business they failed
to properly plan for a disaster. Ask yourself what
would you do if you suddenly lost your business?
Can you afford to just s tart over?
Here are four key factors in developing your Disas-
ter Recovery Plan:
PREPERATION
Preparation is a continuous cycle of planning, man-
aging and training to allow all parties to effective-
ly respond in the event of a disaster. During this
phase, it is most important to align yourself with
a qualified restoration firm. Understand, NOT all
restoration firms are truly qualified for all circum-
stances.
RESPONSE
The response phase includes the mobilization of
the necessary equipment and personnel to the di-
saster site. In addition to a pre-selected disaster
recovery contractor, this may also include special-
ty vendors such as alarm companies, technology
support, phones, HVAC, elevator companies, etc.
MITIGATION
Mitigation is mainly about knowing and avoiding
unnecessary risks. This includes an assessment
of possible risks to a property. This phase also
includes the disaster recovery process that elimi-
nates additional damage to a structure and/or con-
tents.
RECOVERY
The aim of the recovery phase is to restore the af-
fected area and its contents to its pre-loss state.
Recovery is normally concerned with issues and
decisions that must be made after the immediate
mitigation needs have been addressed.
Before a disaster strikes your business – Call BEL-
FOR Property Restoration for FREE Disaster Recov-
ery Check List.
Because BELFOR has such a deep and experi-
enced global work force, we are able to mobilize
the necessary specialists to your site for immediate
action. This ability to amass the right size team of
response professionals as well as handle the lo-
gistics of transporting any support equipment is
key to the speed and efficiency of our response,
whether the project is small or massive.
CONTRIBUTED BY:
TIM WILLIAMSON
General Manager,
BELFOR Property Restoration
Corpus Christi, TX
Tim is Certified Commercial Drying Specialist
with over 25 years in the industry.
Office Phone: 361-504-0845
[email protected] • www.belfor.com
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