I'm a 2005 Hurricane Rita evacuee and fortunately made it
through a hellish evacuation process and ensuing hurricane
with hardly a scratch. Running from a hurricane and
dealing with its landfall isn't something I've ever had to
do before, nor is it something I'd ever like to do again.
However, as an solo business owner, I'm quite thankful that
I have an online business. The fact that I own a virtual
company and can operate from anywhere that there's
electricity and phone service was of great help to me in
this disaster. It was a primary factor in helping me reopen
my business a scant 4 days after the landfall of Hurricane
Rita when so many brick-and-mortar businesses were still
shuttered for weeks after the storm.
As an online business owner, what can you do to make your
business disaster-proof? It seems that we have an
increasing number of hurricanes making landfall in the
coastal states, and add to that an increased number of
other types of natural disasters like tornadoes,
earthquakes, wildfires, mud slides, ice storms, blizzards,
etc. makes me think that there is no ideal location in
which to operate a business. Accepting that natural
disasters are here to stay, here's what I learned from my
hurricane evacuation that helped me get my business back up
and running quickly:
1. Know the location of your vital papers. You should be
able to quickly put into a folder the following for you and
your family:
--marriage license
--birth certificate for you and your children
--social security card
--bank account information, including bank routing number
--driver's license or state ID card
--car title/mortgage info and insurance contact info
--house deed/mortgage info and insurance contact info
--apartment lease or copy of a utility bill and renters
insurance contact info
--employee ID card
If you have documentation of your home contents, bring that
information as well. In a disaster, you'll be asked to
prove where you live and that you are who you claim you
are, especially when applying for disaster assistance. You
may also have to initiate damage reports on property, so
having those files at your fingertips will help you
expedite the process.
2. Have an online backup of all of your computer data. I
back up my computer in two ways--to an external portable
hard drive as well as to an online backup service. I use
both because my files are my livelihood -- I would be dead
in the water without them -- so I want to leave absolutely
no room to lose my data. For my external backup, I use a
100 GB portable drive made by Seagate, and for my online
backup, I have unlimited backup available through
Carbonite.com
You can also use an online office system, like
CentralDesktop.com or OfficeZilla.com, to upload and store
many of your data files, calendar events, or contacts you
might need to access.
3. Create a file with vital contact information. I copied
a file with all of my usernames and passcodes for websites,
bank accounts, etc. to my USB flash drive (a key chain-like
device with 4 GB of memory) as well as the physical and
email addresses and all phone numbers of friends, clients
and family members -- anyone I needed to contact during the
evacuation period. I manage my passcodes using RoboForm2Go,
www.roboform.com, a portable version of my password manager
software. You'll also want to take along your children's
school contact info to be able to check on the current
operating status of your child's school, as well as local
media website info. My lifeline in getting current
information about my home city was through the websites of
Beaumont's newspapers and television and radio stations. If
you keep your contact info in Outlook and want to create an
online backup, you can do so through Plaxo.com. All you
need to access your info in Plaxo is a computer and to know
your username and password.
4. Know the primary office/computer equipment that will be
required to get your business up and running. I had
operated with a minimal amount of my office equipment
during this time due to my being a house sitter for a
friend for 2 months. So, upon receiving the mandatory
evacuation order, I knew that to run my business, I needed
my desktop PC, flat panel monitor, wireless mouse and
keyboard, speakers and associated cords, modems, router,
backup portable external hard drive, office telephone and
associated cords, laptop computer, printer, box of
software, and scanner. It sounds like a great deal of
equipment, but I packed it all into 2 boxes from U-Haul (1
small and 1 medium box). I knew I could work for at least
2 months comfortably with just this equipment.
5. Know the location of your primary paper files for your
clients/business. I have 2 sets of files -- ones for the
immediate short-term that I use frequently and my lateral
file drawer files that are primarily reference files. I
grabbed the contents of the two drawers of my 2-drawer file
cabinet (which hold my immediate short-term files), all of
which fit into one small U-Haul box.
6. Have a backup telephone plan. I wasn't sure what I was
going to do for phone service for my business, as all of my
clients are scattered across the US and in Canada. Just to
be safe, I upgraded my cell phone plan, and had a prepaid
calling card (purchased an AT&T calling card at
SamsClub.com at my disposal if I needed it. As luck would
have it, my hotel offered an unlimited Internet access/long
distance plan for an additional $1.88 per day, so I happily
signed up for that, saving myself a fortune in phone calls
and Internet service fees.
I now have Vonage.com as my phone service, so in the event
I had to evacuate again, I could take my office phone and
Vonage modem with me and have phone service at my office
number by simply plugging in my Vonage modem to my new
Internet connection.
7. Have a backup Internet access plan. Since power
restoration to my home was estimated at 2-8 weeks, I had to
find temporary lodging. I looked for a hotel that offered
high speed Internet access and was able to use their system
for my Internet access. However, once I found the hotel, I
also called the tech support of my DSL ISP and found the
local dial-up numbers for the area in which the hotel is
located. I never had to use the dial-up service, but it
was good info to have. If you have cable or DSL Internet
service, now is the time to discover alternate Internet
access plans to be able to get online should your DSL or
cable access be out-of-service. You should also know how
to access your email online through your ISP if you don't
have access to your computer. If your ISP doesn't offer a
version of webmail, you can use this service
free-of-charge, Mail2Web.com.
8. Bring along adequate office supplies for a month. I
threw in pens, pencils, post-it notes, a calculator,
stamps, envelopes, tape, stapler, paper clips, note pads,
etc. that would last me at least a month while I was out of
my office. I used a portable plastic file case to carry
these items.
9. Outline your office procedures to help you operate
independently or be able to delegate tasks. Instead of
carrying your business operations info in your head or have
it stored in various files across your computer, what makes
more sense is to document all of your office procedures, as
well as computer and client info, so that everything you
need is in one document. I can then upload this doc to my
Yahoo account, my backup files, or carry it with me on my
USB flash drive.
10. Bring a digital camera to record the event and/or
record damages to personal property. I wish I'd had a
digital camera to record all that I witnessed during my
evacuation from Hurricane Rita (I now own a Canon Powershot
A630). My sister took tons of pics, but I would've loved
to have had the same opportunity. More importantly,
however, is the need for a digital camera to record damage
to your home and property. In a wide-spread disaster, it
can be at least a month, usually more, before your
insurance adjuster will be able to assess damages to your
property. In the meantime, however, you need to start
repairs, like placing a tarp on your roof, boarding up
broken windows, removing downed trees from your house or
yard, or cleaning your refrigerator of spoiled food. In
many cases, your insurance will cover the repairs or food
replacement, but you need to carefully document the
"before" scenario in order to receive compensation for your
loss.
Don't let a natural disaster destroy your business. Take
some time now to prepare your disaster-readiness plan, and
get back into business as soon as you can!
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Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business
Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals
learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their
expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To
claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing
Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com . Ask
Donna an Internet Marketing question at
http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com .
