I found information on the SBA (Small Business Administration) website.   It says that roughly 25 percent of small businesses never reopen their doors following a disaster. They defined disaster as long-term power outages, hacker disruption, fire, natural disasters, and other catastrophes.  They have checklists and other resources.

It doesn’t address the impact of disasters on larger businesses since it is the SBA website, but we can’t overlook any business.  Small businesses are especially vulnerable to closing down during disasters and larger ones are impacted with revenue loss, staffing challenges, and more.

I’m confident many of you reading this have disaster recovery plans for your technology and maybe have addressed other possibilities through insurance options.  What we often overlook though are many of the other issues that may impact your business during a time of crisis, that we should be thinking about and planning for long before we are faced with having to deal with them.

Examples are:

• Business continuity – how will staff be able to continue working?
• Revenue changes – what if you lose some significant portion of your revenues?
• Process changes – how might a disaster or crisis impact the normal and critical processes or procedures you have in place?
• Technology changes – do you have what you need to keep things running effectively?
• Teams and people – how will you connect with people at the human level when they aren’t down the hall or in the building next door?
• Policies – whether it’s HR policies such as how long will you pay your staff even if they aren’t working or changes to travel or anything else?

It made me revisit the idea that being prepared isn’t just about disasters. Yet as leaders, we often focus our preparedness when a crisis occurs, rather than on the week-to-week or month-to-month preparedness that would be helpful to the business or our company.

Great leaders understand the importance of being prepared for eventualities.  But even great leaders get focused on what’s in front of them now and push aside preparedness.

There are other examples to consider for preparedness, that go beyond what I listed above.

What happens if a key person in your organization leaves? Recently one of my clients had an employee leave who was the only person in her company who performed a certain critical task. In her words, “I feel like it’s Hiroshima.” She’s now hiring a replacement and intends to train three people to handle this role so she’s never so vulnerable again.

The same question relates to customers. What if your key customer or client leaves?  Do you have enough business with others to weather the situation, or will you find yourself out of business?

Consider hiccups that can arise with projects, such as delays, outcomes different than expected, or the project’s going totally awry.

Even situations such as a family illness or emergencies, staff vacations or illness, and weather can play havoc if you are ill-prepared or not prepared at all.

Don’t let your focus on disaster recovery interfere with running your company. Leadership is being prepared for any eventuality, disasters being just one of them.

There is always room for development as a leader.  Take our leadership quiz and find out what kind of leader you are, and in what areas you can develop.  Click the link below.