An article from the Chicago Tribune By Joyce M. Rosenberg
Associated Press
Published May 21, 2007

The tornado that decimated Greensburg, Kan., this month and the coming official start of the hurricane season should serve as a reminder to small-business owners that they need to prepare their companies for the absolute worst if a catastrophe strikes.

But one of the lessons of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita two years ago is that traditional planning may not be enough. When New Orleans residents left the city before Katrina hit, no one could have envisioned that it would take months for many companies to be up and running again, and that many others would have to relocate permanently or shut down.

Many business owners have learned that disaster planning needs to be increasingly sophisticated for a company to survive. For example, although disaster preparation experts have long advised business owners to have a list of employee phone numbers, that might not be enough.

Now, the recommendation is that you also have contact numbers for relatives and friends for each staffer, and if there's an evacuation, you should also know where staffers will be staying.

Steven Preston, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, said many owners, unless they've already been through a disaster, find it hard to grasp the need for planning.

"In areas that have been hit in the past couple of years, it's a whole different level of awareness," Preston said in a telephone interview. "The challenge is in a place that isn't as accustomed to thinking in terms of preparedness."

These are some of the most critical parts of a small-business disaster plan:

• Protecting the company's data, such as customer lists and financial records.
• Securing the physical premises as much as possible.
• Creating a plan to restart operations remotely, if necessary.
• Buying adequate disaster insurance.

The Internet has sources to help small businesses with disaster planning.

The government has several sites, including www.ready.gov and the SBA's.

The Institute for Business & Home Safety Web site has a tool kit called Open for Business, which includes the kind of things a small business should consider in preparing for a disaster. You can find it at www.ibhs.org /business_protection.

The planning process isn't one you should be doing on your own.

Owners should consult staffers, who probably know minutiae about the company's operations that the boss doesn't.

"They're the ones who know what it's going to take to get [small businesses] back on their feet," Preston said.

Brainstorming with other business owners, particularly if their companies are similar to yours, will also help you with a plan -- and may help you think of details and contingencies that might not have occurred to you on your own.

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune