What’s your business plan for the zombie apocalypse?

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The undead have risen from the earth.

And they are after your brains, your business, and anything else they can get their hands on. Are you prepared?

You’ve barricaded the doors and windows, divvied up the emergency rations, and the secretary has even found a chainsaw in the supply cupboard. If only you’d thought to create a disaster recovery plan, you wouldn’t be in this situation right now. A disaster recovery plan is vital for any business.

While the above scenario is pretty unlikely to happen, what if it did? Would you be prepared? What would happen if an earthquake destroyed your office? Or an arsonist set fire to your servers? Take some time today to prepare a zombie apocalypse plan for your business. Here’s what you need to think about:

Communication

In any disaster situation, being able to communicate with employees, key agencies and clients is vital. After escaping any immediate danger and ensuring your family and possessions are secure, the first thing you should do is contact your team. You’ll need to keep everyone informed of what’s going on and what plan of action you’re going to take.

After assessing the damage to your business assets, you can start looking ahead; how will you keep your business running? How has the disaster impacted your clients and suppliers? Can you still keep your clients informed if the zombies have wiped out the phone lines in your city?

Location independence

The first and most important part of any zombie apocalypse plan is to keep up-to-date records, and to ensure those records can be accessed outside of your office building. It’s no good having all your files stored in your office if your office is buried under 5 feet of rubble.

Cloud-based software offers location independence forbusiness owners.

If you store your job data and contacts on the cloud, you’re able to access them anywhere, from any device, at any time (provided you can get internet service). Since data and wifi are some of the first services to be restored following a disaster, you should quickly be able to get a full picture of the situation.

Workspace

You might not be able to return to the zombie infestation zone for some time. In most situations, workers will be able to telecommute from their homes or another remote office if adequate equipment and tools are available to them.

You could also pool resources with other business owners in the area to set up temporary backup offices, perhaps in a warehouse or someone’s garage.

Companies can work together to establish and share communications and equipment. In a disaster, it’s good if everyone can work together.

Create a plan with other local businesses in case disaster strikes. Set up communication channels and figure out a plan for sharing resources to set up a business “hot spot” in another location, with computers and other equipment to enable you all to keep things running.

Handing over the reins

Perhaps you were unfortunate to be eaten alive, but your second in command is the plucky hero type who will undoubtedly go on to survive and repopulate the species. How will they be able to manage the business after your gruesome and untimely death?

It’s especially important for small businesses that you are not the only person who knows what’s going on. A disaster isn’t just a flood or a tsunami – it could be a medical emergency that places you out of commission for several months. Don’t leave it too late to train up someone to manage your business; start grooming your successor.

Make sure you’re covered

There probably isn’t an insurance policy on earth that covers you for the zombie apocalypse, but you should definitely make sure your business is adequately insured against disaster. Fire, theft, earthquakes, tsunamis and hordes of bloodthirsty undead can and do happen, and always to people who think it will never happen to them. If you can’t afford to lose your business, then you can’t afford not to insure it.

I suggest getting some advice from a mortgage broker or independent financial advisor, as they’ll help you figure out what you need and find the best price for your budget.

Is your business prepared for the unexpected and the undead?

Author: Steff Green is a content writer for WorkflowMax, cloud-based job management software that tackles everything from leads, quotes, time sheeting, invoicing, reporting, and more. You can find her writing on small business tips, productivity, project management and cloud-business advice for accountants, creative agencies, architects, IT companies and other business that bill by time on the WorkflowMax blog.

Steff Green is a content writer for WorkflowMax.

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