In case of emergency: Business contingency plan needed
In a city as dense and old as New York, it's almost surprising there aren't more disasters -- like the springtime fire at Westchester Square in the Bronx that devastated a row of decades-old stores.
Or the early-morning building collapse a few weeks later on Reade St. near City Hall that left nearby streets closed, forcing stores to close temporarily.
Or the frightening July 2007 steam pipe explosion in midtown that killed one person, injured many more and forced tenants out of nearby shops and office buildings for at least several weeks.
Whether it's a fire, a water main break or worse, an emergency can exact a heavy toll on a business. In fact, 25% of small businesses never recover from a disaster, according to the Institute for Business & Home Safety.
While the stakes are high, 98% of the city's businesses are small, family-owned companies that rarely can afford in-house emergency planners and contingency departments commonplace at large businesses.
That makes it even more imperative for small business owners to look for easy ways to create continuity plans using resources such as the city's Ready New York for Business program.
A free planning guide created by the city Office of Emergency Management and the city Department of Small Business Services teaches business owners to assess the hazards they might face and learn how to respond. It's available at nyc.gov/readynewyork or by calling 311.
The U.S. Small Business Administration, which makes low-interest loans available to businesses hit by a disaster, also offers recommendations for preparing for an emergency at sba.gov/disasterassistance.
"We wanted them to realize there are simple steps they can take to prepare their businesses with resources they already have and the knowledge they already have," said Ira Tannenbaum, coordinator of public/private initiatives for the Office of Emergency Management.
"It could make the difference between a company recovering from an emergency or not recovering," he said.
The steps outlined in the guide, as well as in seminars and workshops being presented to business groups, teach entrepreneurs how to develop a written plan, back up their company records, protect their investments and coordinate emergency activities with other businesses in their neighborhoods.
Some key takeaways are in a section on how to keep a business operating when it's been hit with an emergency.
Among the recommendations: Make a list of your most important customers and plan ways to communicate with them during or after a disaster.
The guide also tells business owners to have a second set of important records at an off-site location. Those records include insurance policies, employee contact and identification information, bank account records, tax records and backups of computer data.
"If an emergency shuts down a business, backup copies of tax returns and licenses can reduce the time required to obtain new business certificates from 60 days to two weeks," said Bernadette Nation, director of the business outreach team/emergency response unit at the Department of Small Business Services.
"If you need to apply for new loans, you need the documentation to complete the process," Tannenbaum added. "If you had to send away for the documentation, that can cause delays."
The guide also urges employers to involve employees in emergency planning. An important step is to set up an e-mail alert or call-in voice recording to communicate with workers.
Emergency planning -- and a stroke of good fortune -- was key to the survival of On the Square Florist, one of the stores hit by the March 22, three-alarm fire in Westchester Square.
The flower shop, which had been at 125 Westchester Square for 36 years, burned to the ground during the 90-minute, early-morning blaze, destroying important property, including the retailer's customer database.
About a dozen other businesses were wiped out or heavily damaged.
By a stroke of luck, a nearby florist was vacating its space and offered it to On the Square. The store was up and running across the square one day after the fire.
"She said she was moving; 'If you want I will give you the keys,'" recalled On the Square owner Xhoana Tozaj.
She said she was grateful to be a member of the Westchester Square Merchants Association, which set up a phone bank for the displaced store owners to use and worked with city officials to help businesses reopen.