75% of companies without business continuity plans fail within three years after facing a disaster.

- Business Continuity Institute

How can you help prepare your company to not only respond to a disaster, but to remain in business once the dust settles?

When disaster strikes, the story will happen with or without you. Don’t let it happen without you. Make a comprehensive plan for handling communications before, during, and after a crisis.

What comes to mind when you think DISASTER? A power outage, a building fire, a tornado that levels your facility, or even a hurricane knocking out the entire region?

Large or small, when disaster strikes, the only way you will be ready is to have the right plan, a quality response, and a comprehensive approach. This will ensure your ability to stay in business. As you prepare, don’t limit your thinking when defining disasters.

The dark clouds roll in. The warning siren sounds. Severe weather is coming…are you and your employees ready?

The storm may pass your site, causing little to no damage. But if you are caught in the heart of the tornado, the result could be catastrophic. You’ve seen the images. Entire towns wiped out in the path of a tornado. You can’t predict the outcome of a storm, but you can plan ahead to make sure your organization is disaster ready.

Businesses must approach disaster planning as a probable scenario. Approaching it as a possible scenario is not enough. There are several points of impact resulting from a disruption in power, from (the obvious) loss of connectivity, to (the physical) damaged equipment, or (the elusive) reputation damage. Businesses lose more than just power when an outage occurs. Disaster preparedness involves a planning process resulting in both external and internal communications that help a business continue operating as usual, no matter the situation. To facilitate the planning process, ten steps are discussed, beginning with the “Analysis Of Potential Threats,” and concluding with the ever-important “Recovery Phase.”