Do You Have a Disaster Recovery Plan?

Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Floods. Natural disasters can shut the doors of a business for days, weeks or even months. For some small business owners, the inability to recover quickly can spell a death knell. Having a disaster recovery plan in place can make the difference between going forward and going under. It can help to bring organization to an otherwise chaotic situation. A disaster plan begins with assessing your needs. Your insurance agent can review your business and determine what you need to cover, such as loss of net income, any continuing operating expenses that would have to be paid while the business was closed, or extra expenses incurred after a disaster. Having all the information you need in one place will save you precious time in the face of a disaster. The documents and information you should safeguard will depend on the type and size of your business. You need to assess what information is critical. The nature of your business may make off-site backup of computer files imperative, for example. The standard business owners' insurance package includes business income insurance, which covers loss of business income should operations be interrupted. In the face of a loss, you will need, among other things, to provide financial information to your insurance company. These records enable an adjuster to estimate what your profits might have been if your business had not been closed.