Prepare Your Business For A Hurricane

7 Ways To Prepare Your Business For A Hurricane

Stephanie

Prepare Your Business For A Hurricane

  1. Back It Up: We still have 24 hours before the brunt of Ian rolls into Florida. If you haven’t yet sent your critical business data to the cloud or synced it to your external drive, now is the time!
  2. Protect your hardware: Take photos of your valuable assets like equipment. Turn everything off, shut down, and unplug computers/electronics to protect them from lightning. Store monitors, towers, & laptops in a dry place and secure them in a plastic bag if you’re able.
  3. Write a blog post: Grab a journal and put pen to paper. Some of your best content may come out of quietly thinking about what is going through your customers’ minds right now.
  4. Expect power outages: This is when all those candles you’ve been collecting during the buy 5 get 5 free sales at Bath & Bodyworks come in super handy! Find a battery-powered radio and turn on SMS text capability.
  5. Social Media, Websites, & Phones: Right now is not the time to be posting on social media unless you’re sharing verified/trusted info to help your customer base. It is recommended to make sure you have a “what to do if” post and to forward all calls to an automated message ensuring your customers that you’ll be in touch as soon as you’re able. Mention that you’re in the path of the storm and will be back up and running as soon as possible. If you provide Help services, direct customers to your help resources.
  6. Grace: There’s nothing worse than being hot, sticky, and stressed. When hurricanes hit, we get to enjoy all three. Grab a puzzle, a refreshing drink, and a book before you lose it on your neighbor. Take care of yourself and those within your circle of care.
  7. Remember, this too shall pass, and behind every cloud is blue sky! We’re in this together and we’ll be here for you when you need us!
Thank you to my friend, David Thornton at A Better Choice Network Solutions of Lakeland for helping with 4 of the aforementioned items!
Out of curiosity, what’s your go-to hurricane/bad weather snack? It’s still a little early but my kids have already plowed through one box of Fruit Loops!
Stay safe out there and at home.
Stephanie Hoskins is the President and Owner of Good Intents Marketing. She is also a native Floridian. She’s weathered more hurricanes than she can count and believes these are essential things to do to prepare your business before a bad storm to enable little downtime and quick restoration of business. She can be contacted at stephanie@good-intents.com.