The 4 Stages of Keeping Your Business Running After a Flood

12/19/2021 (Permalink)

The ceiling of a building damaged with water after heavy rains.

After a storm hits Clearfield, UT, your business may be flooded. Repairs with even the most efficient water damage specialists can take some time, and your business needs to keep running while they are in progress. Having a business continuity plan is essential to keeping your business going and your income flowing. Here are the four stages of constructing a plan that will help you weather storm damage to your building.

4 Stages of a Plan to Keep Your Business Running After Storm Damage

1. Analysis

The first thing you must do is identify essential services and what you need to make them happen. Develop and distribute business impact analysis questionnaires to all personnel. Then conduct follow-up interviews to make sure your information is correct and that nothing is missing.

2. Strategies

It is likely that your BIA will reveal discrepancies between what you would need in a flooding situation and what you are currently capable of doing should your business flood tomorrow. A recovery strategy team should be formed to come up with and implement strategies to eliminate those discrepancies.

3. Plan

The third stage is formulating your business continuity plan. Divide the labor among recovery teams. Make decisions regarding relocation. Confirm that you have an information and document recovery system in place so that essential resources are protected. With management approval, write down the details of the plan.

4. Practice

A plan is only as good as its execution, so it's important to test your plan. Train everyone involved, and give it a practice run. Take careful notes to document what works and what doesn't so that you can fix problems before you have to put the plan into action for real.

Once you have gathered information, omitted shortcomings, drafted a business continuity plan, and tested the plan, you can rest assured that stormy weather is unlikely to be your company's undoing. By being prepared for potential problems, you protect yourself and your employees.