Who thinks about disaster strike, until it hits your neighbour or you just saw this story on TV? Yes, we all know it happens, but procrastinate forever to get prepared. 9/11 changed our world and since then we hear more about businesses preparedness, continuity plans and contingencies.
Did you know that each year in Ontario there are :
 more than 100 severe summer storms
 an average of 14 tornadoes
 yearly floods and forest fires

What kind of disaster can impact self-employed person or small business? Fire, flood, tornado, death or illness of key employee, including car and plane accidents, break-in and theft, breakdown of key equipment like computers with storage hardware, servers security breach like hacking, takeover of the website or theft of a domain. Events in the city, like long power outage, epidemic, quarantine, long strike of a transit system can also impact your business to the point of bankruptcy. Imagine you can’t get out of your house or employees can’t get to your office or no one is buying your products…

What a self-employed person needs to do not to lose the business when disaster strikes?

The answer is simple: have a plan, stick to it!

OK, what such a plan contains? First – it identifies critical sources: key people, data locations, vulnerable points of business. Secondly – it addresses these points one by one, in terms of a) protection, b) contingency.
A bigger business would address recovery objectives and crisis management. We just know – we want to stay in business!

What result do we want to achieve? – ESTABLISH A PROCESS that would protect our business the best within our means.

Here are some examples how you can address the key issues:
People – after identifying your key people, without whom business cannot run, make sure you have sufficient documentation of what they are doing, how they are doing it and have a copy of their important contacts. Think who can replace this person or have a process established so well that someone else, with existing documentation can take over. Take a good care of your key people.

Data and Technology – after identifying where is your data stored, establish a process for backup. It needs to be redundant. If you have two computers – cross-backup crucial data from both of them. Additionally copy frequently your data to CDs, and you may also use an online backup.

OK, I can hear you sigh – who’s got time for that…
It’s easier than you think. With a little help from a techie you can setup a program which, with one click of a button will backup your data from one location to another. Set aside time of a week when you regularly do a backup.
Establish an off-site location where you can keep one spare, current (weekly) backup. It can be your in-laws house or a safe deposit box in your bank or one of the online backup facilities.

Think about your contractual obligations and how are you going to fulfill those in time of crisis. Will you be liable? Maybe you need to make sufficient provisions in your contracts.

There are provincial and federal government regulations and resources on crisis management, emergency planning and your obligations. Learn what they are. Do you have a personal emergency kit?
If you want to know more about disaster recovery and business continuity, visit Business Continuity Institute site.
In Canada there are regular courses on Business Continuity, run by Surefire Continuity Inc, based in Calgary. You may even want to become a Business Continuity Professional and start your own business organizing businesses to prepare for disaster.

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