How to Create a Disaster Plan for Your Small Business

Disaster can strike at any time, but it doesn't have to wipe you out. Whether it's a flood in New Orleans, a hurricane in Florida or an earthquake in Japan, there are thousands of businesses that manage to get back on their feet quickly and can then in turn support their local community - all because they had a solid disaster plan.

How do you plan for unforeseen circumstances? Here are a few precautions every small business owner should take.

==> Back Up Your Data

Your data should be backed up in an offsite location. Your backup should be recent enough that if something physically happened to your systems, you'd be able to use that backup to get back online relatively quickly.

One popular solution is online backup. Online backup, provided the backup company has a good infrastructure, will allow you to store your data in a safe place without worrying about it getting corrupted or damaged.

You can also use an offsite storage facility. Basically, you back up your hard drives, mail it to an offsite company and they'll store the drives there.

==> Backup List of Services and Vendors

Let's say you're in the business of selling fishing rods on eBay. What happens if something puts your wholesaler out of commission for two weeks?

Have a backup ready to go, immediately. You may have to pay a bit more and you might not have as good payment terms, but at least your whole business won't be interrupted.

Have backup suppliers for everything crucial in your business. In this example, not only do you want to have backup suppliers for your fishing rods, but also for your boxes and packaging materials.

You should also have a backup host, with all your data and websites mirrored that you can switch over to at a moment's notice. The same goes for having a backup merchant account that you can switch payments over to if your primary account should get frozen for one reason or another.

==> Have Proper Insurance

Insure yourself against disaster by buying the appropriate insurance plans.

Start considering insurance when the cost of insurance becomes negligible compared to what you'd lose if disaster should strike.

Disaster doesn't just come in the form of forces of nature. It could come in the form of a lawsuit, a stock market meltdown, an employee who gets injured, a missed bill causing a cut-off of supply and any number of other things.

Look through the different insurance plans you can choose from, from general liability to malpractice to disaster insurance and choose the most appropriate plan(s) for your business.

Don't be caught unaware by disaster. It's unlikely to happen, but if it should you'll want to know exactly how to respond to minimize the damage.