Key Podcast Highlights

How Can I Prepare My Business for Hurricane Season?

  • Have a disaster recovery plan: This should be a written document that outlines all the procedures, processes, emergency communications and key contacts if a disaster strikes.
  • Back up your business data regularly: As a part of your disaster recovery plan, you’ll want to make sure your business data is backed up on a regular basis. Having cloud-based systems or hosting your files with outside managed service providers can help ensure your data is protected. If it’s stored on a cloud-based system or through a third-party, you can access it from anywhere.
  • Consult a civil engineer: A civil engineer can help guide business owners on suggested improvements to your water damage protection systems, especially if your business is located in a flood zone (like drains or drainage pumps).
  • Reach out to your insurance provider: Your business insurance carrier can help guide you through risk management upgrades to their business, like automatic gas shut offs and water damage protection sensors. These upgrades can help them lower your chances of having to file costly property damage claims in the future.
  • Get commercial flood insurance through The Hartford: Even if you already have business property insurance, that’s not enough to protect you against floods. In addition to business property insurance, you’ll likely need flood insurance if your business is located in an area that experiences hurricanes. The Hartford provides commercial flood insurance through the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Congress established the NFIP in 1968 to protect property owners from suffering financial losses due to flooding.

Transcript

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are for informational purposes only, and solely those of the podcast participants, contributors, and guests, and do not constitute an endorsement by or necessarily represent the views of The Hartford or its affiliates.

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Gene (00:03):

Hey everybody, it’s Gene Marks, and welcome to another episode of The Hartford’s Small Biz Ahead Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me this week and this week I want to talk to you about hurricanes. We are entering the stormy hurricane season, and many of you who are listening to me, have businesses that are in hurricane areas of the country. And by the way, never, not just hurricanes, tornadoes as well. I mean, the weather is definitely disruptive, but if you’re along the coastal areas particularly down South Florida, Texas, and the panhandle, I mean, these are all, and you’re running a business there. You’re well familiar with the fact that hurricanes are a risk to your business. So, I have some advice for you, some things that you should be doing right now, so that you are prepared for the absolute worst.

Gene (00:47):

So let me lay out a few things. First of all, you should have a disaster recovery plan. This should be a written document that lays out all the procedures and the processes, the emergency communications, the people that need to be contacting, what you’re going to be doing. Everything should be down in a plan. So, if a hurricane is approaching, you don’t have to start from scratch and think about what to do. You can be pulling out this disaster recovery plan. Where’s the best place to go to create such a plan? Honestly, try Chat GPT or Claude or Google Gemini, one of the new AI executive assistants. You could ask it to write for you “propose a or compose a disaster recovery plan”, and it’ll do a pretty good job. It’ll get you about 80 to 90% there. And then you want to take that document and you want to pass it around your insurance people, your overall, your business experts, IT people, so that they can all join in.

Gene (01:42):

But start with Chat GPT or those types of AI tools like it. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to get you going with a disaster recovery plan. Next, make sure that your business data is regularly backed up and make sure you can get to it offsite should anything happen. Having cloud-based systems or hosting your files and your data and your systems with outside managed services providers, they all have the resources to make sure that your data is backed up. And if you go down or you lose your property, I mean, people can work from home, work from a coffee shop, whatever, but you want to make sure they can access your data. I mentioned about having an emergency communications plan. That communications plan should be part of your disaster recovery plan. Who’s getting communicated and what, who’s responsible for what?

Gene (02:27):

And basically, just remember that disaster recovery plan, which includes this communication information that should be updated frequently. I mean, because people change and roles change, and so you want to make sure that it’s as current as possible. The other thing you want to do, a few times a year, is you should be taking photographs of your major assets. If you’ve got inventory, take a few minutes and walk around your shop and photograph it all. Same thing with any property, plant or equipment that you have, any other capital assets, even vehicles, the more photographic evidence that you have of what these assets look like before a storm will help you. If, God forbid, they get damaged during a storm and you’re trying to get compensation back, insurance back, having photographic evidence is very, very important.

Gene (03:12):

Now, I don’t need to tell you, but if there is an oncoming storm, obviously you want to secure any outdoor equipment that you have. You want to board up your windows, you want to make sure there’s a good evacuation plan in place. So, all that stuff needs to be done and taken into consideration. Another thing that I’ve seen clients do is, is hiring a civil engineer. You can find that find that person by Googling online, looking on LinkedIn, but individual civil engineers, can look at your business and sort of give you advice and consulting on where and how you can make improvements to minimize any potential water damage. Protect your plumbing, protect your infrastructure as well. Particularly if you’re in a in a flood zone, they can make recommendations about drains and drainage and pumps and things like that.

Gene (04:00):

That’s what civil engineers do. And honestly, having a civil engineer walk around your place and consider what your flooding history might have been in the past, they might be able to make some great recommendations for you that you can implement in time for the hurricane system to get here. Right? In addition to that, if you can, and you can ask your engineer about installing things like automatic gas shutoffs or automatic water shutoffs so that you have additional fire protection, or flooding protection in your place of business, and then finally, not, well actually, not finally, because I’m going to get to my biggest point, which is insurance. But just do remember if you do get hit, a hurricane and damaged by a hurricane, and you need help financial help, the Small Business Administration, the SBA, they don’t lend money to businesses except in the case of disasters.

Gene (04:51):

So, you can get direct loans from the SBA, low interest loans to help you recover from any type of a hurricane issue. If you go to sba.gov/funding-programs/disaster-assistance, you will see all of the ways that the SBA can help you out with preparing for a disaster. Okay? Now listen, let’s talk about insurance. I mean, this is a podcast that’s sponsored by The Hartford. There are many good insurance companies out there. Obviously, The Hartford is one of the best that’s out there, and they do provide business property insurance. So, hopefully you do have that type of insurance. It covers losses resulting from things like a fire or wind damage or lightning. But you got to be careful because a lot of business property insurance policies don’t cover floods, so you want to make sure that if you’re a policy holder, you will need separate insurance, a commercial flood insurance as it would be a separate policy. 

Gene (05:54):

So, floods from heavy rainfalls are not included in your business property insurance coverage. But just know that if you have a separate policy, a commercial flood insurance policy, you can be covered. So, check your policies. Just having property insurance is not enough if you get hit by a hurricane or flooded. Okay? Remember that this flood insurance, it’s actually being provided through the Federal Government’s National Flood Insurance Program. It’s managed by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Managing Agency. So, Congress established this many years ago and is making this available so that insurance companies like The Hartford can offer this type of coverage. So, let’s recap guys. I mean, we are in hurricane season. If you think you are exposed, have a disaster recovery plan. Make sure your business is being back to up.

Gene (06:48):

Make sure you’ve got a good emergency communications plan that could be part of your disaster recovery plan. Photograph as many of your assets as you possibly can. Secure your outdoor equipment, board up your windows. Consider hiring a civil engineer to take a walk through your business and property and make recommendations. Maybe install automatic shutoffs on certain things for gas and things like that to protect against fire. And then, if you do get hit by a hurricane, remember the SBA, the small business administration, they can provide loans for disaster assistance. And finally, finally, even though you might have business property insurance, just be very, very careful because a lot of business property insurance may not cover, uh, floods or hurricanes. You need a separate policy, a commercial flood insurance policy. So, check to make sure that you have got that so that you have all the coverage that you can possibly get.

Gene (07:50):

That’s my advice for you in the wake of the hurricane system. Hopefully, you will never have to use any of this advice, and you will not be affected by hurricanes or flooding. You’ve got enough issues on your plate to worry about running a business than having to worry about natural disasters. I get it. But you should be taking these steps in advance, particularly if you’re running a business and a potential flood zone or hurricane zone. My name is Gene Marks, and you have been listening to The Hartford’s Small Biz Ahead Podcast. If you need any advice or help or tips in running your business, please visit us at smallbizahead.com. Thank you so much for listening. We will be back again next week with some more thoughts and advice to help you run your business. We’ll talk to you then. Take care.

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