Help for Small Businesses Caught In Disasters

If your small business experience a natural disaster it could spell doom for the business.  Many businesses never recover from a natural disaster because they lack the resources to rebuild.

What can a business do to survive a disaster?  It is a question that most entrepreneurs ignore until they find themselves in a bad situation.  This question should be answered now.  Every small business is at risk of experiencing a natural disaster.  Your location does not grant you immunity from nature.  Nature can strike at any time with a hurricane, tornado, volcano eruption, excessive rain that leads to flooding and mud slides, fire started by lightening, earthquake, sink holes, etc.

There are many things that could could hamper a small business's ability to recover quickly:

-Out of pocket expenses:  In order to rebuild the entrepreneur will have to pay for most of the recovery effort out of pocket until he/she is re-imbursed by insurance or they get a loan or a grant.  Payout from insurance or getting a bank loan will take time and a great deal of persistence.  These expenses could range from demolishing and rebuilding a damaged building (if you own the building); keep funding payroll while you rebuild; rebuilding your supply levels; buying new furniture; buying new vehicles; funding an alternate worksite, etc.

-Smaller Customer Base:  A small business hit by a disaster could be impacted by a smaller customer base if many of their customers are also impacted because of their location in the disaster zone.  If your customers are also in the disaster zone they will be focusing their resources on their own recovery efforts and may not have the resources to buy from you.  If you're the kind of business that sells the kind of supplies that are needed in a disaster situation (such as building materials) then your small business could experience less determination in the customer base.

-Local Economy:  The local economy has to recover in order for small businesses in the area to recover.    By that we mean that key infrastructure such as electricity, gas stations, water, sewer, medical, etc....has to be up and running.

-Transportation Infrastructure:  The transportation infrastructure is key to getting supplies delivered and shipment of products going to customers.  Retailers can't get their shelves restocked unless the roads are safe for supply trucks to make deliveries.

As an entrepreneur there are two questions you need to ask yourself.

1.            So, what can you do to minimize the cost to your small business before it is faced with a disaster situation? 

 Answer:  Visit the SBA's website for Disaster Preparedness:

And

2.   Where can you get help if your small business experience a disaster situation?

Answer:  Visit the Small Business Zone webpage on getting Disaster help.

Sources:
Freelance Isn't Free Act (FIFA)

By Bill Williams