Worrying About the After? Try Things Before!

I was recently put on to reporting Inc. Magazine did to finish out the year and populate their social media throughout this month: the cost of coming back after a disaster. For those who aren't aware, Inc. Magazine focuses on entrepreneurship. Man, oh, man, have they really missed a great opportunity.

First, I will give a lot of credit for the hard-hitting pieces about how expensive it is for small businesses to come back after disasters. Never mind for the small businesses themselves, but the lack of resources available to them as well. There are some raw moments hearing the business owners talk about their losses. Inc. even hosted a panel in December with the main journalist who featured struggling businesses in her piece on Kerr County, TX, after the floods, but this time with business owners from Altadena, CA (very different disaster, still a disastrous experience afterwards). The panel included a specialist for grants and - I hate to even say this - my favorite FEMA Administrator of all time, Craig Fugate. I say "hate" because he really missed the mark, especially when FEMA promotes mitigation and preparation before disasters. He talked about what FEMA will not do and how limited the SBA is in helping. I can't really blame him - he's not a business continuity expert, let alone practitioner.

The first two of four stages in emergency management are mitigation and preparation. They are two vital parts of reducing impact and cost before a disaster. Mitigation is reducing the likelihood of a disaster, preparation is reducing the impact of the disaster when it comes. FEMA's numbers are echoed in a variety of instances - it's been as little as "for every $1 invested in mitigation and preparation, you save $6 on the back end," and I've seen it as big as a $25 savings on the back end. It just makes good fiscal and business sense to pay less now that more later. So why are we stuck on the after? We are we stuck on hoping federal and charitable entities will come together to offer more help later?

The good news? It all can be avoided or lessened significantly. The bad news? You wouldn't know that from Inc.

Yes, please inform those about the world of hurt afterwards and what to expect or not expect. I already wrote all about it in my book released last March, "When The Sh*t Hits The Fan." What kills me, though, is they reported nothing at all about the options small businesses have available to them beforehand. The grant specialist didn't even touch on the topic of the Readiness for Resiliency grant. Why wouldn't you want business owners to know they can get $5,000 free and clear, without applying for it in the stressful aftermath of a disaster, so long as they do business continuity before? The grant is purely rewarding small business owners for being proactive and ahead of the curve.

I've said it many times before: GoFundMe is not a business continuity plan.

I've also said that business continuity is a leadership strategy, not a luxury.

But how do these experts not even know there are things you can do before? And if they do, why aren't they talking about it?

Guess what: you now know more than the experts. I challenge you to do something with that knowledge, because what's going to greet you afterwards has already been outlined for you, and it ain't much.

BE EMPOWERED! YOU HAVE OPTIONS! DO NOT WAIT.