Within the past few years there have been many different types of natural disasters across the world. Whether it is a tornado, hurricane, earthquake, tidal wave, flooding, wild fire, tsunami, or even a volcanic eruption it affects us. It may affect us in our personal lives such as our homes, loss of a family member or friend, or more. But it can also affect business or franchise owners which in turn will affect that business or franchise owner's personal life. Don't think that it won't happen to you, because in reality it very well could. So, as a business owner you should have a plan and be prepared for any form of disaster recovery you may encounter.



First of all you need to have a plan for any kind of disaster you may encounter in your geographic area. It is important you all of you employees know the plan and how to execute it. You will want them to know certain measures that need to be taken. For example if you live in Florida and get hurricanes you first need to protect your windows by boarding them up, you also need to cover anything that can be damaged if water gets to it (like important files, computers, and such), you also need to protect any type of loss you may encounter if you lose power. You need to do this ahead of time because when you are in a rush and in the situation it is hard to make decisions on a whim.

You also need to have a recovery plan. You and your employees need to know what will be done after having experienced a natural disaster. If not you will be wasting time as you and your employees try to figure out what to do.

You should create an employee contact list of all employees. This way you can check on your employees after a natural disaster and figure out if any of them need assistance. You will also be able to figure out who can make it into work and who can't as you try to put your business back together.

You must get good insurance. You will want you insurance to cover property damage to cover any costs related to building damages. You will also need it to cover any loss including inventory you may have encountered to do loss of power or structural damage. You will also need enough to cover the costs of your flow of business being interrupted. You may have to close for a few days or longer to get your franchise back open and going.

Lastly, keep back up's of anything that is important like documents, client lists/information, accounting information, and other things of that nature in a different safe place.

Just remember that anything can and will happen, it is important to plan for the worst. That way it won't be so bad, whether it is a little or big natural disaster, and you can keep your franchise business successful!