When an unexpected disaster hits your company, it can feel like the beginning of the end for this thing that you’ve worked so hard to build. After all, even with disaster recovery plans in place, as many as 40% of businesses fail to reopen at all after a disaster like a fire or storm.
Luckily, you don’t need to fall to the same fate if you simply think fast about how to keep any business-based disaster from proving disastrous for your finances. That’s why we’ve put together a quick-fire guide to how you can save your profits, and thus your business, from going under even when the worst comes your way.
# 1 – Take the right route to insurance
If you have decent business insurance in place, then there’s no reason why even a major disaster like an in-office fire should cost anything. After all, this is what these policies are for. And a good insurance plan should cover everything from repairs to enforced closures, and even alternative work arrangements in many cases. Unfortunately, even for businesses with this insurance backing, disasters can prove financially detrimental due to fatal mistakes in the wake of a disaster. Some common mistakes that others have made include failing to document the incident and damage properly or even taking too long to contact an insurer. To avoid this, it’s crucial to take pictures on the scene, document any police reports, and always contact your insurer the moment something happens, rather than in the days following an event.
# 2 – Act fast
Steep spending after a disaster largely happens due to extended periods of downtime. This translates to acting fast when it comes to seeking fire damage restoration or any other repairs. Obviously, this can be tricky when you’re waiting around for insurance (another reason to get to that ASAP!). But as soon as you possibly can, you should start seeking resolutions that will see your business back up to full capacity far faster. As well as helping to keep your reputational damage to a minimum, getting profits rolling again in this way is guaranteed to help offset the lasting damage that disaster can bring, especially when it comes to your business bank balance.
# 3 – Always prioritize key tasks
Even with the fastest recovery plan in place, you’ll likely be operating at a limited capacity for some time. As such, keeping your business up and running also means knowing which tasks you need to prioritize to hold the fort down during this period. After all, if you try to keep operations as they were before, you’ll be fighting an impossible battle that will most likely see your entire business ship sinking. Instead, it’s crucial to prioritize key business activities like manufacturing and customer service, while perhaps suspending focuses like marketing and sales until you’re once again in a position to put your full power behind them.
Business disaster doesn’t ever spell good news, but you can at least find a way through if you protect your finances with these points in mind.
