Article - Preparing for Swine Flu in Your Business

Will Swine Flu Destroy Your Business this autumn?

What Happens when Disaster Strikes?

Small Businesses are always being blamed for not planning. Sadly, 85% of small firms don't plan much, on paper this is; but to say that they don't plan at all is far from the truth.
Owner managers don't often have the time to write down their plans and that's the rub...If you have not written it down the only person that will have access to the plan is yourself; and that won't help much if you are in hospital or off sick will it?
 
With the advent of Health and Safety legislation now bringing Directors, Partners and Owner Managers to book for negligence is on the increase and recently the law added a new criminal offence, that of Corporate Manslaughter which any owner manager could face if the circumstances conspire against them.
 
We are currently being warned that this autumn and winter could see a massive outbreak of the Swine Flu Pandemic which could cripple many businesses if they haven't planned what they will do in the event of the outbreak actually happening.
 
It is this kind of planning that must be consigned to paper and where all the workforce will have to be involved, even if you only have one of two in your company.

But how do you plan for such a thing?

Most small businesses don't have a clue how they could plan for such an event, but once you have a "template" to work from it is not difficult to consider things and work out how you would cope should the worst happen to you.
 
The Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland warned this week that small businesses in the country are not doing enough to prepare for Swine Flu and other business organisations are reporting similar findings.
 
A number of articles and comments have been published where any of us can find out what the outbreak could mean and what to do if we have one in our business. It is this aspect which is critical to the business and by following guide lines you will stand a chance of surviving a serious pandemic.

So where can we find out about Swine Flu?

Probably the first port of call is the Department of Health where you will be able to keep up to speed with events as they occur and then follow the advice.
 
Another source of information can be found on the BBC website where news updates will be posted continually and between the two you should be able to stay abreast of events.
 
Another area with information is the Business Link website

But staying abreast of the events is not enough!

As an owner manager of a small business and in particular if you employ people, be they "cards in" or self employed you will need to have some kind of action plan that will first of all protect you and your workforce, but also your business and your clients.
 
In recent years these action plans have become known as Continuity Plans or more specifically, Business Continuity Plans.
 
A continuity plan does not just look at what you should do if you have an outbreak of Swine flu or any other type of flu pandemic.
 
It is geared to working out the things that you and your workforce must be doing when any kind of disaster strikes your business.
 
I wouldn't mind betting that those businesses that did not have a continuity plan in the areas that have recently been flooded or found themselves located close to a very serious fire and have had to close down operations are now considering putting something together in case they have to go through the same thing again.

Continuity planning is not difficult.

It is a bit of a pain at the beginning but once you get the hang of it, you soon start to get it together and by doing that you may even be able to bring down the cost of things like business interruption insurance if you have a continuity plan that will mitigate the cost to your business and the insurance company.
 
We first started our continuity planning some years ago, just before Bird Flu became a possible threat and have now produced a simple Business Continuity guide. And to help small businesses get to grips with this relatively simple, yet critical task we are making a report about Business Continuity Planning available for just £9.99
  
Just follow this link to buy a copy of the 80 Page report and example of a Business Continuity Plan that you can use to help you with your own plan and planning process.
 
Once you have a copy you can start assessing your own business and put together your own Continuity Plan.
It will make you think about many things that you just take for granted now, and may even help you come up with a better and more profitable way of carrying out any number of tasks / roles once you have to look at each in turn to see how you could be affected.
 
A well thought out Continuity Plan might even reduce or hold premiums when they could be rising if you show it to your insurers and they see that you have done everything you should be doing to mitigate their risk.
 
Why not let us have your experiences on disasters that have had an impact on your business, how they affected you, how you coped. We can then collate case studies that help to get the message across and we can share experiences.
 
To send us your experiences click on this link

Yes That's Right - An 80 Page Report full of helpful suggestions on how you can safeguard your business and your livelihood!

Only £9.99 - Click Here to Buy Now - If you don't find it useful within 14 days we'll refund your money - Guaranteed!