After the Storm: Long-Term Recovery and Resilience After a Major Storm
By Debra Schweikowksy | January 2, 2025
After the storm, businesses can take critical steps for long term recovery and focus on being resilient. I visited many businesses and communities after Hurricanes Helene and Milton and saw business owners assessing their business damage, doing inventory, cleaning up, and making repairs to their business. Many businesses were doing their best to open as soon as possible even if it was at limited capacity and providing limited services or figuring how to pivot – this is business resiliency. Businesses can survive and even thrive after such events by having effective preparation and recovery strategies in place.
Challenges
The road to recovery can take time after a major storm. Businesses who experienced physical damage, are waiting on insurance, a business loan to cover structural damage, or replacing equipment, machinery, furniture, and technology. They may also experience environmental concerns such as mold, contamination, or making sure they are providing a healthy environment for their employees and customers, or clients. Other challenges include economic injury, which is loss of revenue. Business who to return to normal operations quickly will help minimize the financial impact of the disaster.
Business Continuity Plan
Having a Business Continuity Plan in place outlines steps that a company will take to ensure their business will continue to function even after a disaster. This can include risk assessment which identifies what the risks are specific to a business.
Emergency contact list should include:
- your team,
- suppliers,
- vendors,
- contractors, and
- emergency services which include local, state, and federal resources.
It should also include a plan for how your business operations will continue if your business location is unable to open, such as temporary work location, and protocols that are put in place. You should also have a plan in place to safeguard data, important documents, and system backups. Your business should not rely on a single source for supplies or services. Instead diversifying the supply chain across different vendors or regions can help mitigate the risk of interruptions caused by storms.
Review and Revise
After the storm and recovery is well on its way take the time to review and revise your business continuity plan. This is a good time to see what worked well and what didn’t. Consider your biggest challenges that your business faced. Identify areas for improvement in preparation for future storms, and then update your plan, training policies and procedures, then practice them. Look for ways to make your business more resilient, including:
- investing in better infrastructure
- new roof
- storm shutters
- backup generator
- flood barriers
Review your insurance policy and investigate coverages including business interruption, flood, and storm surge. Make sure your technology is up to date including investing in backup systems, include cybersecurity measures. Cash flow is important, so make sure that you have a business line of credit in place as this can help while waiting for insurance claims, emergency funding, or a long-term loan Small Business Administration (SBA) loan. All the above will help to improve your business operations.
Planning in advance for long-term recovery and for long-term resilience is critical. The goal is to ensure that your business is stronger, more adaptable, and better prepared for future events.
Debra Schweikowsky
Consultants, Finance, Pinellas, SchweikowskyFlorida SBDC at Pinellas County Economic Development
Specialty: Economic Development Finance Professional (EDFP-BCA), Capital Access, Finance
Debra Schweikowsky is a business professional with experience in business management, administration, banking and finance. She was a small business owner with more than 20 years of experience, including as a franchisee. As a business owner, she successfully implemented a variety of revenue enhancement strategies and is results driven. As a franchisee, she successfully implemented a variety of revenue enhancements, sales tactics, and marketing initiatives, to increase revenues. Schweikowsky successfully sold her business by following an established exit strategy.