I received quite a few comments about my first post regarding preparing for our favorite non-season, and several requests for more information. Since none of you were terribly specific, I had to go out on a limb and guess – what else can I cover? And then, thanks in part to someone in a networking group I attended this morning, the answer struck me.

After the storm passes, what do I do?

Hopefully, if a hurricane does hit, you’ll be fine. That’s always our wish! However, let’s say you’re not. Nothing catastrophic, no trees on your roof or lawn furniture through your window. But, lets say you suffered what we personally suffered back in 2004 during Charlie, I think it was. At that time, we still had some undeveloped land at the end of our street, and a power pole was knocked-down along with a tree. Since we were certainly not the only ones without power, and as we later heard, out-of-state crews were having difficulty finding neighborhoods; we were without power for close to a week. Did I mention? We run our business from our home. Without a disaster operation plan, many folks in our same situation – even companies who could loose their storefronts, could be in for a very rough ride. How do you operate? Where would you go? How would employees work if their homes were fine, but roads were cut-off and they couldn’t come in? It’s that question I explore here.

1) From backup to Back Up
In my initial post, I mentioned backing-up your data. This is obviously an attempt to keep your valuable information, personal or business, from being lost. What do you do, however, if you can’t get it right back on your own machines? Obviously, smooth operations are the key to surviving in a post-traumatic environment. The easier and faster you can get back to ‘normal’ for your employees and customers, the more they will appreciate you. One way is to have a secondary site picked-out. In our case, we invaded the spare bedroom of a friend, and in the immediate, charged our cellphones at a neighbor’s home on another block. If your business is less mobile, you may consider having your employees telecommute. Paying for a local company to backup your servers at a secure facility and having web-accessible software options for your salespeople and even management, will allow your business to continue on with minimal interruption. For home users, the explosion of social media offers another refuge in the storm. If your relatives want to contact you and phone lines are down and the cell towers are jammed, you might be able to get online at a friend’s home and post your status on Facebook. If you’re sitting on the fence wondering why you’d ever use a site like that – there you go!

2) Have some low-tech options available
We are as guilty as the next people about not having paper backups. Especially now, the push is to be ‘green’ and that means using less paper. Maybe you don’t need to print-out every single interaction, but at the very least, have a recent phone list for both your employees and customers. Go old-school: get a three-ring binder, print out a neat list in Excel or equivalent program, hole-punch and insert. Depending on the database you use, it should be as simple as exporting your contact list as a .csv file. If you are a small business like we are, sync your contact data with your PDA or Smartphone. That way even if you can’t get to a computer, at least you’ll know it’s a customer calling and your people can still make calls to current prospects. Paper work orders, even if they are just kept for emergencies, will help in the field to ensure everything is covered. Make sure they are up-to-date with your correct address, phone # and any appropriate information-gathering fields are relevant. For the homeowner, having a three-ring binder at all times with up-to-date contact information, insurance policies and phone numbers (home/car/health), health information if relevant and any other information specific to your situation is vital. (Pet photos, nursing home info, etc) If you need to go to a shelter, for example, the last thing you want to be thinking is ‘how do I even contact my insurance company?’

3) Prepare for the worst – hope for the best
None of us want to believe a storm will hit. “That, won’t happen to me“, we say. Every time we see folks on the news, spray hitting their backs or water creeping up their porch, as they stubbornly speak with a reporter about how they just can’t leave their home and belongings.
Can I say this? Don’t be an idiot. Prepare now. Prepare on an off-year, tweak the plan where appropriate and stick with it. Don’t get lazy! The one year you say ‘oh, yeah we’re fine. It hasn’t happened yet’ will be the year you could have used that disaster plan. There’s this guy named Murphy – I’m sure you’ve heard of him. If he’s going to have the last laugh? Don’t let it be at your expense.