翻译
自然灾害对小企业来说是一场噩梦. 是飓风吗?, 全球大流行, or even an unfortunate fire on the premises; their unpredictability leaves businesses vulnerable, 特别是如果他们没有一个坚实的复苏策略.
Small businesses need to build disaster preparedness into their business plans. Assessing the probability of your business being exposed to natural disasters like floods, 地震, 更多的钱可以让你掌握应急计划.
These tips can help you get started by taking a step-by-step approach with the goal to survive and rebuild a business after any kind of calamity.
小企业在灾难中生存的8个重要建议
考虑到所造成的损失
Identifying the extent of damage to your business assets will give you a fair idea of what you need to tackle first.
有几个问题可以帮助评估损失
- 是否有任何沟通方式可以联系到员工?
- 员工安全吗??
- 他们是否感到足够舒适，可以重返工作岗位?
- Do you need to immediately purchase new equipment to get your business back to work?
2005年，卡特里娜飓风袭击了美国墨西哥湾沿岸. 小型企业和社区被它的影响摧毁了, 许多本土企业在风暴中被摧毁. 接下来的几个月, 有时甚至是几年, of recovery planning for the small businesses traumatized by the disaster.
Getting a sense of where you are at in terms of damage can help you prioritize the actions to take on the road to recovery.
备份所有数据
To safeguard your business from unpleasant surprises, invest in obtaining a cloud solution. 在这一点上，企业解决方案似乎是倾家荡产. Instead, you can look towards many simpler alternatives available around the world.
Backing up data to the cloud is critical in ensuring smooth continuity of your business and critical to safeguarding your business’s reputation by avowing to protect 客户数据.
If you must keep hard copies or consider digitizing physical copies a cumbersome project, 确保它们存放在远离火源的安全地方, 地震, 和洪水. 与此同时，尽量多买一些 文档收集工具 特别针对小型企业.
采取果断行动
Once you’re thrust in the middle of a catastrophe, there’s no time left for planning. At a junction like this, switch gears from the mindset of a manager to that of a decisive leader.
在危机中，时间是至关重要的. A quick and action-oriented leadership is desired to get things moving forward immediately.
在你评估了损失之后, you need to pivot with agility to get the business operations back on track otherwise you will be at risk of losing precious time planning to recover, 当局势失控时.
在一次内涝事件之后, 例如, you make an observation that the store merchandise boxes have water damage. 你打算怎么做? 立即打开包装，晾干? 在你制定计划之前，你当然不能让他们闲着.
Crises like this one need prompt attention necessitating adjustment in the leadership style.
把团队健康放在首位
Build disaster preparedness into your long-term business operations plans to ensure everyone’s safety the next time a crisis strikes. This could entail investing in PPE and other safety equipment like goggles eye protection and ventilation, 急救用品, 食物储备就像饮用水.
此外，经常检查你的团队的身体和心理健康. New hygiene guidelines mean that your employees will be spending more time than usual on sanitizing and cleaning up. There have been several cases where this resulted in skin conditions caused due to frequent use of sanitizers – again a necessity in today’s world. 作为领导者, it is on you to ensure they are not being overworked or their health is not being compromised due to the extra measures.
确保你的保险索赔
Depending on the extent of damage – small or large – you may have to contact your insurance company at some point. You may want to check the terms and conditions of contacting your insurance provider before picking up the phone.
在一些州, contacting an insurance provider even if it is just to inquire can be counted as a claim on your file and therefore impacting future rates.
确保你解决了这些灰色地带. For example, burglary caused by a fire is not covered by insurance companies in many countries.
通知你的顾客和客户
维护和培养牢固的客户关系, 联系你的忠实客户，让他们知道发生了什么.
他们需要等待吗 接受他们的命令? 他们需要多长时间? What are the alternative methods to contact customer care to inquire and share concerns?
Moreover, it can cost your business in the long run as customer acquisition is more demanding than 客户保留.
给自己时间恢复
Getting re-organized takes time even if you have all records backed and 库存补充.
If you’re dealing with a natural disaster right around peak shopping season, you might be eager to get operations back in full swing quickly which isn’t quite pragmatic at all.
You could have missed a corner or a nook that is still unstable due to the disaster putting your business at risk of getting sued by an employee or a customer.
提前计划
如果你住在像洪泛平原这样的灾害易发地区, there is a high probability that your business will be affected by multiple disasters. Use one such incident as a learning experience to put an airtight recovery plan in place.
Assemble a core team where each member possesses a unique skill that would be valuable to get things moving quickly in a disaster. You could also gather ideas by surveying operational and frontline staff who will be most affected in a disaster.
结论
制定一个恢复计划至关重要. Make sure you start drawing up plans when things are safe and stable and see them go a long way in ensuring the longevity of your business.
