Businesses Can Avoid Many Disasters

6/2/2017 (Permalink)

Protect your business by having an emergency plan in place.

Saving time and money through a lack of planning doesn’t work in business. It also doesn’t work in minimizing the costly effects of natural disasters. Smart businesses do think and prepare for common disasters. Those businesses also don’t fool themselves into thinking the business property and employees are well protected when they’re not.

Emergency Plan
Most commercial businesses understand the importance of having a written emergency plan. A plan like the SERVPRO Emergency Ready Profile can help prevent or minimize a business disaster repair. It can keep costs down. And after disaster strikes an Emergency Ready Profile can help you get your business back in business sooner. But just having a plan isn’t enough.

Need Expert Disaster Preparation Advice? Call SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield At 860.649.0836

Creating a plan like the SERVPRO Emergency Ready Profile eliminates some risks. For example, thinking through and acting on an emergency plan might cause your business to get rid of dangerous chemicals that currently are stored on site. Or creating your Emergency Ready Profile could identify a serious flaw in your building evacuation plan or a weakness in your sprinkler system so you can correct it before damage occurs. But businesses with an emergency plan sometimes rest too easy.

Why Having A Plan Isn’t Enough
Your business needs to keep the emergency plan up-to-date. You cannot create an Emergency Ready Profile and let it sit on a hard drive or shelf somewhere without further thought. Say for example that you built a comprehensive emergency plan two years ago. Since that time your business has added new machinery housed in a new addition to your facility. The plan must be updated to take into account the new addition and machinery. Or imagine your business has grown and you’ve added 10 new employees. How will they be made aware of the emergency plan? Will the addition of new employees mean you need to adjust your emergency evacuation procedures? 

How To Keep Your Emergency Plan Effective
Here are a few things your business can do if your emergency plan isn’t current:
1. Review your plan every year. Look for gaps.
 Are all facilities covered?
 Are the phone numbers and contact information for emergency responders up to date?
 Have you made renovations that should be noted in the plan?
 Have you added or moved hazardous material or valuable equipment?
2. Conduct training for the team charged with implementing the plan.
3. Make sure all the key players know how to immediately access your business’s emergency plan. 
4. Have SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield analyze your plan.
5. Ask a new facility manager or other key employee to test your business’s emergency plan.
 Does the plan make sense to them?
 Would they add or change anything?
6. Re-evaluate who’s in charge of the plan.
 During a natural disaster you want the decision-makers to be people who remain calm.
 The disaster team should know the plan and be able to make quick decisions.
 Your team should also know how to actively engage others and give clear direction.  

Need Expert Disaster Preparation Advice? Call SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield At 860.649.0836

7. Run a disaster drill.
 Conduct a mock exercise around the table with all the key players.
 Or conduct a full scale mock disaster around your facility.

Plan To Prevent Or Minimize Disasters
You protect lives, save money, and guard your business best when you plan for disaster before any disaster happens. Having a complete emergency plan, including an Emergency Ready Profile; having a trained disaster team in place; and knowing the steps you will take does more than bring peace of mind. It helps protect your business and your employees from the huge personal and business costs involved in a major disaster.

Disasters Permanently Close 50% Of Businesses
When a natural disaster strikes, one out of every two businesses never returns to the marketplace. And of those businesses that do recover, half go bankrupt within three years. The commercial businesses and facilities that do survive disasters are usually those with an up-to-date and well thought out emergency plan in place before the flood, storm, fire, hurricane, or other disaster strikes.

More Home Disaster Prevention Information  
Every month on the SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield blog we publish educational articles on how you can help protect your home and business from disasters and how to deal with mold, fire, water, sewage, smoke, chemical, or other damage.

Call On Us
We’re here to help you. The team at SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield has specialized training and experience in virtually all aspects of cleaning up after water, sewer, fire, smoke, wind, chemical, or other similar natural disasters. You can create your own Emergency Ready Profile with us in less than an hour. That time could save you days of business interruption and help keep the cost of any damage from a disaster down. Call SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield at (860.649.0836) anytime, 24/7.

We protect businesses and facilities in many towns including:
  Andover  Hebron
Bolton   Manchester
  Columbia  Mansfield
  Coventry  Storrs

SERVPRO of Manchester/Mansfield
IICRC Certified
Ralph DiCristofaro
540 N. Main Street
Manchester, CT 06042
Call 860.649.0836
24 hour emergency service