Preparedness measures can help lessen the impact and financial stress when a disaster strikes. Here are the three most crucial steps to take to prepare your small business for disaster and mitigate your risk.

1. Determine what is most critical to keep your business open. Is it your server and computers, machinery, physical inventory, or the ability for employees to access your physical location? You probably have a few mission-critical operations that should become your risk-reduction priorities. Go through a planning process to understand exactly what you would do to reinstate those operational priorities once the disaster is over and you want to re-open. If you know what your priorities are, you will make smarter decisions during a stressful time.

2. Educate yourself and decide which insurance policy option is best for you. When you know the priorities that your business needs to survive and re-open, then you know what to insure. Having an insurance policy that covers every aspect of the business can be cost prohibitive. Insurance policies have options for different hazards, so talk to your agent about your mission-critical business priorities. For example, business interruption insurance and key person insurance are often overlooked, but could provide important protections that help sustain a business in the aftermath of a disaster. Also, ask your agent to walk you through the various add-on options, such as earthquake or flood riders.

3. Take action. We urge small business owners to not wait for a disaster to threaten their business before they decide to hone in on disaster risk and mitigation. Taking protective measures, such as the two steps above, is smart business..

The first thing you should do if your business is affected by a disaster is to contact your insurance company. Do this right away, before following your natural instinct to go right into fix-it mode. This holds true whether the disaster is large-scale and creates a scenario in which federal assistance is available, or smaller-scale only affecting one or a few businesses.

Your insurance company will need records, photos, and more in support of your claim. Understand what they need from you and take care of these details first, before diving into clean-up. This will help you with your insurance reimbursements.

Without business insurance, your options may be limited to using a “rainy day” savings account, borrowing from family or friends, or using credit cards that often come with high interest rates. Most small businesses do not have emergency savings that are adequate for overcoming a disaster. This reality makes it all the more important that critical aspects of the business are insured, even if it is cost-prohibitive to insure the whole business.

Water mitigation is a multi-phase process. The first step is to extract all remaining water from flooring, wet carpet, and other affected materials. Once the water is removed, specialized types of equipment such as dehumidifiers are used to dry the area. If there are unsalvageable materials that were affected by the water, they will be properly removed and discarded.