Protect Your Business in the New Year by Creating a Disaster Recovery Plan

1/8/2019 (Permalink)

Recovery Plan SERVPRO

Do you have a disaster recovery plan for your business? If you don’t, you may have no idea what to do when a fire damages your business or when a flood causes extensive water damage. If you don’t have at least an outline of what steps to take when a disaster hits, you may lose valuable time and money. Having a disaster recovery plan in place will help you focus on what needs to be done, plus it provides instructions to your employees and managers in case you’re not available when the disaster happens.

What Should Your Plan Include?

A disaster recovery plan is a document that outlines what to do in the event of a major problem that’s going to shut down your business. It needs to cover a wide number of problems, including the following:

• Fire and smoke damage
• Flooding and water damage
• Mold
• Storm damage, including flooding, hurricanes, and tornaadoes
• Earthquake damage, if you’re in an area that sees frequent earthquakes
• Cyber-attacks, including the loss of customer’s private financial information

These are common issues, but you should also outline responses to less common problems that affect your local area.

What Do You Address?

For each different type of issue, you need to create a response plan that addresses all of these questions:

• What should you/your employees do immediately after the event?
• If the event happens while the business is open, how will you protect your customers and employees who are in the building?
• What services do you contact to begin the repair process?
• How will you finance these repairs and pay your employees if you have to close your business for days or weeks?
• What sort of public statement will you make? You can even draft statements for some of the more common issues or create templates to fill in.
• If your business has to close for weeks or months, how will you continue to generate income? Will you be able to work from a temporary office, from home, or from another location?

These are just a few of the questions you need to ask. You also need to have all of the contact information on hand for SERVPRO of Fontana. Our commercial services include water, fire, and storm damage repair as well as mold remediation and disaster recovery. Contact us at (909) 357-4337 or email us at SERVPRO9656@SERVPROfontana.com to learn more about how we can help your business get back on its feet after a disaster.