Business Preparedness

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Business Preparedness

It's not a matter of if disaster strikes, but when. And when it does, will you be READY? Racine County is not immune to emergencies and disaster situations. By taking some simple steps, you can prepare your place of business for emergencies.

There are a number of good planning guides out there to assist businesses including the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety's (IBHS) OFB-EZ (Open For Business-EZ), a free business continuity tool designed to help even the smallest businesses focus on planning for any type of business interruption, so they can quickly re-open and resume operations following a disaster. With its non-technical language and streamlined layout, any business owner can create an easy-to-use recovery plan tailored to the individual business, providing confidence if the worst occurs. Business owners create their own business continuity plan using the program’s eight modules.

Download the OFB-EZ Toolkit (PDF)

Download the OFB-EZ Toolkit Individual Forms:

Know Your Risks (Word Doc)
Know Your Operations (Word Doc)
Know Your Employees (Word Doc)
Know Your Customers, Contacts, Suppliers, Vendors (Word Doc)
Know Your Finances (Word Doc)
Know Your Information Technology (Word Doc)
Know When to Test Your Plan (Word Doc)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has also put together some useful resources:

Prepare For Emergencies
"Prepare For Emergencies Now; Information for Businesses" (PDF)

Business Continuity Plan
A business continuity plan that includes recovery strategies to overcome the disruption of business should be developed.

Business Continuity Plan (PDF)

Business Impact Analysis Worksheet
A business impact analysis (BIA) predicts the consequences of disruption of a business function and process and gathers information needed to develop recovery strategies.

Business Impact Analysis Worksheet (PDF)

Continuity Resource Worksheet
Business continuity impact analysis identifies the effects resulting from disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

Continuity Resource Worksheet (PDF)

Emergency Response Plan
Plans to protect people, property and the environment should be developed. Plans should include evacuation, sheltering in place and lockdown as well as plans for other types of threats identified during the risk assessment.

Emergency Response Plan (PDF)

Emergency Response Plan Resources
Resources are needed for all phases of preparing your business including prevention/deterrence, mitigation, emergency response, business continuity, crisis communications and disaster recovery.

Emergency Response Plan Resources (PDF)

Insurance Discussion Coverage Form
Inadequate insurance coverage can lead to a major financial loss if your business is damaged, or operations are interrupted for a period of time.

Insurance Discussion Coverage Form (PDF)

Program Coordinator Committee Worksheet
Key employees should be organized as a program committee that will assist in the development, implementation and maintenance of the preparedness program.

Program Coordinator Committee Worksheet (PDF)

Risk Assessment Table
Consider the different types of disasters that could impact your company and the likelihood that they might occur.

Risk Assessment Table (PDF)

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