Are your businesses prepared to sustain themselves through a disaster or disruption? A great resource for helping businesses and organizations become more resilient is RestoreYourEconomy.org, funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (EDA) and managed by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). According to the website, “RestoreYourEconomy.org provides resources and best practice information for public and private stakeholders who are seeking to rebuild their local economies after an economic disruption, be it a natural disaster or man-made crisis, as well as assisting the business community in preparing for a disruption. It is a one-stop shop of disaster preparedness, post-disaster economic recovery, and economic resilience resources, tools, event announcements as well as opportunities to connect with peers through social media groups.”
Business Disasters: from zombie apocalypse to our internet is down for a day
As a part of this disaster preparedness for a community, preparing for resilience by planning for business continuity and disaster recovery is also included (visit webpage). Disasters for business can not only be the obvious flood, tornado, earthquake or zombie apocalypse, but also death or debilitation of key people, computer crashes, broken pipes, cyber-attacks or anything that disrupts business operations. On the webpage, you will find a link to two (2) free toolkits for small businesses provided by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS). One is focused on business continuity and the other on business preparedness. The toolkits contain templates and sample procedures that can be easily customized to a business’ specific needs.
