Small Business Information
Emergency management & recovery
- Emergency management & recovery
In Australia, natural disasters such as flood, fire and earthquakes can strike without warning. Your business is critical to your financial wellbeing and could also be a necessary service to your community, so it's important to protect what you can in times of crisis. - Step 1 - Prepare
You can't prepare for all possible risks to your business, but some targeted research and planning can give it the best chance against the most likely emergency situations. - Plan for emergencies
Emergency management planning is more than just planning for natural disasters - it can help your business survive through any emergency situation. Know your business' strengths and weaknesses and put strategies in place to adapt it to any scenario. - Research risks in your area
Research your local area for any risks that are likely to affect your business. Look into the history of the area - this can give you an idea of the pattern and frequency of natural disasters such as drought, storms, fires, and floods. It can also provide a history of criminal activities like theft. - Research your business
Look closely at how your business operates and identify any areas that you can't do without. List all critical business areas/functions, the likely impact on your business if they fail and any current protection you have to help avoid a failure. - Develop your emergency action plan
How to develop an emergency action plan - a set of steps to follow when your business is forced to stop operating due to an emergency situation. - State Emergency Services (SES) in your state or territory
State Emergency Services (SES) in your state or territory. - Emergency management planning in your state or territory
Emergency management planning in your state or territory. - Protect your business
Now that you've identified the risks to your business, it's the time to start mitigating them. It's hard to predict what will happen in the future, but you can make changes now to help protect your business later. - Step 2 - Take action
Information on how to take action in an emergency and maintain business as usual to protect your business operations. - Act in an emergency
In an emergency, the most important thing to do is ensure the safety of yourself and your employees, then protect your business and assets as much as possible. - Maintain 'business as usual'
Your main aim is to ensure your business continues operating throughout any emergency. By carefully researching and planning your options before an emergency situation, you can act quickly and easily. - Step 3 - Recover
The emergency situation has passed - now you need to find out how to assess the impact, recover cash flow, seek help and restore your business. - Assess the impact
Find out how your business has coped with the emergency. Assess every aspect of your business including physical damage and market impacts, and work out what it means for the future of your business. - Conduct a business impact assessment
How to conduct a business impact assessment after an emergency and why you should do so. - Reassess the market
Identify any changes in the market following an emergency situation, and assess the impact of these changes on your business. - Reassess your financial position
Reassessing your financial position will help you decide how much cash you need to recover in the short-term. It will also help you make decisions about what you can recover and whether your business is in a good enough financial position to continue. - Stay, pause or exit
Once you have updated your finances and recorded what it will cost to repair or rebuild the damage, decide what it will take to recover your business. - Boost your cash flow
Your business' recovery may depend on how much cash you have available. Fortunately, there are a range of options available to increase your cash flow. - Communicate
After the danger has passed, your first phone calls should be to your insurance provider and any financial institutions or other debtors you make regular payments to. - Seek help
In the confusion and chaos following an emergency situation there are a number of tough issues that arise, and often you may need to seek help. You can seek help from a number of sources. - Restore your business
Once your finances are in order and you've planned a way forward, restoring your business can be a lot easier. - Clean up & secure your business
Whether it was a fire, flood, cyclone, earthquake, tsunami or another type of natural disaster, the clean up can be quite substantial. Often there are significant health concerns with revisiting the area, so ensure you protect yourself, your employees and any volunteers during a clean up. - Repair & rebuild
Once you know what damage you have sustained, you can make the decision to either repair or rebuild your business. - Help employees return to work
The quicker you rebuild, the quicker your employees can return to work. Although in some cases, you can make alternative arrangements while you rebuild so they can work from home or a temporary location. - Carry on with business
During the recovery effort it will be necessary to continue operations as much as possible. - Emergency service alerts & updates in your state or territory
A list of state and territory resources available from emergency services to be informed about alerts, updates and warnings.
Source: This information is brought to you by business.gov.au