Steve Denham speaks to retailers and how they cope with natural disasters such as flooding.

The recent floods in the north of England and Scotland disrupted the life of thousands of families and hundreds of businesses.

Our sympathies are with them as they try to recover from these events. Some of these homes and business have suffered flooding in previous years, and reports in the media revealed that people had learned their lessons and had moved furniture and precious belongings out of harms way. Their previous experience had shown them the need for disaster planning.

I had a conversation with Terry Philpott recently, and while we were talking his store’s smoke alarm went off. He told me that they are tested every Saturday morning as part of his businesses due diligence policy. Our conversation then moved on to insurance policies, as it is inevitable that if disaster strikes a phone call to your insurance company will be high on your agenda.

Terry told me that one insurer asked if he has a Disaster Recovery Plan. When he told them that he didn’t they weren’t willing to provide him with a quote. He felt that his experience will be sufficient to guide him through the challenges that a fire, flood or other form of disaster would confront him with.

The key to being able to continue operating your business after a disaster is knowing what makes your business work. These elements will include you and your employees, your sales data & accounts including your HND customer details and your premises.

A search of the internet provides plenty of websites that offer help including the Government’s Business Continuity Management Toolkit. 

Investing some time thinking about how the dangers to your business and what you will need to recover from them seems like a sensible response to the last few weeks’ storms and flooding. Understanding the essential elements of your business and then protecting them is key to your businesses future continuity even if you are never faced with a disaster.