Simple steps to protect your people, operations, and ability to keep doing business when plans change.
Running a business in Alaska already requires a certain amount of resilience.
Weather changes. Roads close. Deliveries get delayed. Power and internet can go down. Wildfires, flooding, earthquakes, and other emergencies can disrupt entire communities. And sometimes, the disruption isn’t physical at all. A cyberattack, equipment failure, or unavailable supplier can be enough to bring normal operations to a halt.
September is National Preparedness Month, making it a good time to ask an important question:
If your business couldn’t operate normally tomorrow, would you know what to do next?
Business preparedness doesn’t have to mean planning for every possible worst-case scenario. It means understanding what your business depends on most and creating a plan for how you’ll respond when something doesn’t go according to plan.
Start With What Keeps Your Business Running
Before building a complicated emergency plan, identify the things your business absolutely needs to operate.
That might include:
- Key employees
- Internet or phone service
- Electricity
- A physical storefront or workspace
- Specialized equipment
- Access to important files and customer information
- Inventory or supplies
- Transportation
- One or two critical vendors
Then ask: What would happen if one of these wasn’t available for a day? A week? Longer?
Your answers can help identify where your business is most vulnerable and where a backup plan would have the greatest impact.
The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends that businesses assess their risks, create a response plan tailored to their operations, and practice that plan with employees before an emergency occurs.
Explore the SBA Business Resilience Guide and emergency preparedness resources:
https://www.sba.gov/prepare
Build a Business Continuity Plan You Can Actually Use
An emergency plan doesn’t need to be a binder that sits untouched on a shelf.
A useful business continuity plan should answer practical questions such as:
- Who makes decisions if the owner or manager is unavailable?
- How will employees communicate with one another?
- How will you communicate closures or changes with customers?
- Can employees access important business information remotely?
- Where are insurance policies, financial records, vendor contacts, and other essential documents stored?
- What operations need to be restored first?
- Who needs to be contacted after a disruption?
Keep important information somewhere secure and accessible even if you cannot reach your normal workplace.
Most importantly, make sure the people on your team know the plan. A plan is much more useful when it has been discussed and practiced before it’s needed.
Don’t Let One Supplier Become a Single Point of Failure
For Alaska businesses, supply chain resilience can be especially important.
Distance, transportation schedules, severe weather, limited local availability, and reliance on outside suppliers can all affect how quickly inventory, equipment, or materials reach your business.
Take a look at the products and services your business depends on most.
Do you rely heavily on one supplier? Could you identify a backup vendor now instead of during an emergency? Are there essential items that make sense to keep additional inventory of? How long could you continue operating if your normal shipment was delayed?
You don’t necessarily need to replace trusted vendors or dramatically increase inventory. Simply knowing your alternatives can save valuable time when something goes wrong.
Consider keeping an updated list of:
- Primary and backup suppliers
- Vendor contact information
- Typical lead times
- Locally available alternatives
- Essential inventory and reorder points
Resilience often comes down to having options.
Remember That Disasters Can Be Digital, Too
A business doesn’t have to experience a flood, fire, or earthquake to suddenly lose access to its operations.
Cybersecurity should be part of your preparedness plan.
A compromised email account, ransomware attack, stolen password, phishing attempt, or lost device can disrupt business operations and put sensitive information at risk.
A few basic practices can make your business more resilient:
- Use strong, unique passwords
- Turn on multi-factor authentication
- Regularly back up important files
- Keep software and devices updated
- Limit access to sensitive information
- Teach employees how to identify suspicious emails and links
- Know who you will contact if a cyber incident occurs
And don’t wait until something happens to figure out whether your backups actually work. Test them.
The Alaska SBDC also offers an on-demand workshop, Avoiding Security Disasters for Small Businesses, to help business owners better understand common cybersecurity risks and practical ways to protect their operations.
https://aksbdc.org/workshops/avoiding-security-disasters-for-small-businesses-live-webinar/
Know Where to Turn After a Disaster
Preparedness can reduce your risk, but it can’t prevent every disruption.
When a federally declared disaster affects a community, the U.S. Small Business Administration may provide disaster assistance to eligible businesses.
Depending on the declaration and circumstances, SBA assistance can include Business Physical Disaster Loans to repair or replace damaged business property and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) to help eligible small businesses meet ordinary operating expenses when a disaster causes substantial economic injury.
Learning about these programs before you need them can make navigating recovery a little easier.
Explore current disaster declarations and SBA disaster assistance resources:
https://www.sba.gov/disaster
It’s also a good idea to keep your financial records, insurance information, licenses, tax documents, inventory records, and other important business documents organized and backed up. Those records can become especially important when applying for assistance or documenting losses.
Resilience Starts Before the Emergency
Preparedness isn’t about expecting something bad to happen. It’s about making sure one unexpected event doesn’t undo everything you’ve worked hard to build.
This September, choose one area of your business to strengthen.
Create an emergency contact list. Back up your files. Talk through a continuity plan with your employees. Review your insurance coverage. Find a backup supplier. Turn on multi-factor authentication. Organize your financial records.
You don’t have to prepare for everything at once.
The Alaska SBDC provides no-fee Business Advising, workshops, tools, and resources to help Alaska entrepreneurs strengthen their businesses, identify risks, and plan for what comes next.