6 Steps You Can Take Now to Prepare Your Business for Disaster
Shawn Folks • Jun 01, 2022
For most business owners, success means a strong reliance on organization and structure. In order for your business to thrive, you have to ensure that day-to-day operations run smoothly and on schedule. When a disaster strikes, all of that prior organization goes out the window. Suddenly, you find yourself scrambling to safeguard your property, assets, and employees. In an instant, the livelihood of all you have worked for can be threatened.
From flooding to fire, unforeseen disasters are an unfortunate occurrence for businesses every year. In such events, pre-loss planning measures can be the difference between full recovery and closing your doors for good. Help ensure your business is protected from the unexpected with these steps:
- Take Preventative Steps - The greatest risks for fire or flooding often do not come from external sources. Unmaintained systems within your facility could very well be your greatest threat to security. Faulty wiring or a roof leak can disrupt your operations as drastically as a tropical storm. Keep records of maintenance on all important systems throughout your structure and make sure all safety features such as smoke detectors are working properly.
- Have an Evacuation Plan - If an emergency situation presents itself, how will you get yourself, your employees, and anyone else on your premises to safety? To avoid a chaotic and potentially deadly situation, have a pre-planned evacuation guide that includes primary and secondary evacuation routes, as well as a designated meeting area outside the facility. Ensure that these designated routes are clearly marked, well-lit, and free of obstacles at all times.
- Keep an Emergency Kit - Injuries and disasters go hand-in-hand. Keep a well-stocked emergency kit on hand and easily accessible at all times.
- Protect Business Records - Well-kept records are vital for any functioning business. However, keeping these records in a file cabinet or on a hard drive in the office does little to protect them in the event of a fire or flood. A cloud-based service is the best way to ensure that your records are always accessible. In addition, a fire and water-proof safe should be used for any important paper documents.
- Understand Your Risk for Disaster - Some areas are simply at a higher risk than others for events like flooding, hurricanes, or wildfires. Know the specific risks that affect your location and prepare accordingly.
- Know Your Insurance Coverage - Along with understanding your risk for certain types of disaster comes the need for proper insurance coverage. Familiarize yourself with your policy and make any adjustments that may be necessary to ensure you are fully covered in the event of an emergency.
Pre-Loss Planning Services for Businesses
When it comes to helping businesses plan ahead and bounce back quickly following disaster, no one does it better than Guarantee Restoration. Our wide range of pre-loss planning services are designed to fully document your business’ pre-loss condition and streamline the restoration process, allowing you to reopen as soon as possible. For more information on our pre-loss planning services, contact GRS today.
By making pre-loss planning investments, businesses can limit disruptions to operations, reduce adverse financial effects, accelerate the restoration process, and prevent permanent closures.
Every time I write the May Meet the Team feature, my first instinct is to start it with “It’s gonna be MAY!” Must be the millennial in me to want to begin it with the iconic *NSYNC track. I digress. We are back with this month’s featured employee, Jordan Steib, who serves as the Marketing Manager of GRS. Jordan was born and raised in the South Louisiana city of Thibodaux. After graduating from high school, he attended Nicholls State University before joining the workforce. He was a Lead Administrative Assistant at the Terrebonne ARC for a decade. When he moved to Baton Rouge in 2017, he served in a few administrative and office management positions before joining our GRS team in December 2019. Since arriving at Guarantee Restoration Services, Jordan as served as administrative support for the Business Development and Marketing department and as an Executive Assistant to our CEO, Shawn Folks. In July 2022, he was promoted to Marketing Manager, where he has thrived in planning and filming most of our video content. During his tenure, he has also hired a marketing assistant, which has vastly improved the department’s functionality and capabilities. He has been instrumental in building and expanding our brand awareness. We have also increased the support we can provide our fellow GRS team members. In addition, we have steadily cultivated a better sense of teamwork and community through our company culture engagement activities, such as National Cocoa Day and “Pumpkins and Pies.” Personally, he is the second born of three sons to his parents, Martha and Damian. He is the proud cat father of Bridgette Anne Steib, who turns 3 years old this month. In his spare time, he has recently taken up home wine making and has really enjoyed the (literal) fruits of his labor. He has made wine with strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, cherries and raspberries. His hobbies also include camping, tubing, boating and fishing with friends. Additionally, over the years, he has become quite the home chef and enjoys cooking for himself and having friends over for dinner. He enjoys being creative and decorating for different holidays. Finally, when he can go home to Thibodaux, he enjoys nothing more than spending time with his parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, nephew and nieces.
Guarantee Restoration Services provides a full range of pre-loss planning services aimed at properly equipping companies in the event of a catastrophic incident.
