I live in South Florida.  It won’t be too long before residents here start thinking about emergency plans for the hurricane season.  Having gone through three hurricanes since moving to Florida with the worst hurricane going over the house with wind gusts of over 115 mph, I have respect for the power of Mother Nature.  So I will make sure that there are enough batteries for flashlights, 10 cases of water and an ample supply of canned goods.  I’ve also learned how to charge the cell phone off of the back up on the computer or in the car.  I take this possible emergency seriously.  I rethink it through every hurricane season, even deciding at what point it may be wise to evacuate in order to move away from the storm.  I have to admit that when I lived in the north I didn’t take hurricanes nearly as seriously as I do after seeing the destruction one storm can cause.

When running a business, there can be many different types of emergencies.  What if one of your suppliers went out of business?  What would you do?  Should you have a back up generator – so if a storm knocks out the electrical grid, you can operate your business?  Do you have contact information in case all of your employees are scattered as they were in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina or after 9/11 in New York City so you know your employees are safe and well?

Have you considered an emergency plan for your business?  Without an emergency plan you are risking the very well-being of yourself, your employees and your business.

The current potential health crisis situation is a perfect example of why you need an emergency plan.  Can you imagine on top of everything else you are dealing with to run your business during this recession, now there is, according to the news media, the potential for a flu epidemic or even pandemic?!

What would you do if the swine flu hits your town?  Or key people at your company become ill and are unable to work for extended periods of time?

We all certainly hope that this latest emergency passes.  But what if it doesn’t?  Just as you need a business plan, you need to think through an emergency plan to keep your business operating in times when the unexpected hits.  List every possible emergency you can think of that could happen to your business.  Develop an emergency manual.  Know you and your company are prepared and ready just in case the unthinkable happens.