Will Your Business Be Ready When “Business As Usual” is Not The Usual?

Planning For The Unexpected Is Just As Crucial As Planning for Business Growth

Grand Ole Opry House flooded

The Gulf Oil Spill, the floods in Nashville, the recent series of devastating tornados that cut a path of destruction through the Midwest and the recent storms that disrupted power for weeks in the Northeast all underscore one important point…

While it’s critical to have an annual business plan it is equally crucial to plan for special situations that can lead to disruption and potentially significant financial losses. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re a sole proprietor or if you’re a multi-national corporation, you’ve got to be ready when “business as usual” is not the usual.

The importance of having a business plan is not lost on most large businesses and certainly many smaller businesses that are savvy about competing in the current economic climate. 

That said, a forward thinking company must also take into account potential business disruption, natural disasters and even employee injuries as part of their planning process.

The unfortunate reality is that special situations do occur.

Devastating tornados that cut a path of destruction through the Midwest

Note, I’m not calling them disasters and I frown on companies that do disaster planning, because what company owner or executive wants to have a microphone thrust under their nose and answer a reporter’s question, or worse, a lawyer’s cross-examination as to why they consider disaster a typical part of doing business.

The unforeseen are in fact special situations because, all things being equal, they are events that happen OUTSIDE of your normal scope of business.  And that’s how you and your employees should think of them.

Here are some basic tips for making sure you don’t end up on the wrong end of a special situation:

1. Create a manual that documents all essential business activities and the employees who are responsible for them.
2. Develop backup procedures for all critical documents and electronic files and routinely backup your critical documents.  Be as redundant as you can afford to be – back up locally, back up via Internet services, but by all means back up your critical data.
3. In the event of a major situation – the injury or death of an employee – you should have information readily at hand for all your employees and their emergency contacts.  If you’re a larger organization, then you should have this info at least for all major decision-makers.
4. Who are your most important advisors:  lawyers, accountants, bookkeepers, your insurance agents, financial planners?  Again, this should be contained in a list that is readily available to major decisionmakers in your organization.
5. In the event that owners or senior managers are incapacitated, make sure you have written down a plan for who needs to take charge in order to keep your business going.
6. Insurance.  When was the last time you looked at your business disruption insurance limits?  A worse question:  Do you even have business disruption insurance to begin with?  Just a few extra dollars a year can mean the difference between financial ruin and a fresh start once the dust settles.  Equally if you own a business in an area that is prone to flooding and you are on the ground floor, get flood insurance.  Sure it’s not cheap, but which would you rather do:  pay an annual premium or replace all your office equipment and your inventory?
7. Don’t just put a special situations plan together and throw it on the shelf to collect dust.  At least once a year, you and all of your critical employees should do special situations scenarios. 
8. Think through the worst that can happen that can affect your particular business and plan for how to address it.

When thinking through possible “worst case scenarios” consider…

• What if an employee is hurt or injured? 
• Who do you call first? 
• Where is the nearest hospital? 
• Who are their emergency contacts?

If you have a major storm or environmental event, how do you get word out to your people if they absolutely should not be traveling to work?

Most businesses that are smart have an annual business planning process and then they follow that plan to achieve the growth results they want. 

But do you have a Special Situations Plan in place?

It only takes one fire, one flood, one major storm to shut you down permanently if you’re not prepared. 

If you would like to learn more about how you can prepare your organization should a special situation arrise, please contact our business coaching firm to learn more about how you can protect your business.