One in four small businesses that are forced to close due to a natural disaster never reopen their doors, according to Gail Moraton of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. In the latest free on-demand episode of Executive Briefing, Moraton tells distributors what to keep in mind as they craft plans for their businesses, including areas of disaster planning that are often overlooked.

Download a Free Chapter: The Little Black Book of Strategic Planning for Distributors Submit your email address below to receive a chapter of Brent Grover’s new book. When you submit your email you will be signed up to receive weekly distribution news updates.

Get this episode and the rest of MDM’s 2012 episodes of Executive Briefing on one DVD for just $39 and free shipping, featuring industry experts Jon Schreibfeder, Bob DeStefano, Al Bates and more!

From something as large as a hurricane to something as small as a water main break, Moraton says disruptions are something all businesses should plan for and gives three tips for improving business continuity when disruptions do occur:

1. Perform a vulnerability assessment. Moraton says the two biggest mistakes businesses make in planning for disruptions are failing to identify a potential threat and underestimating the severity of a known threat. Companies should identify all potential threats and determine the likeliness and potential impact of each as a first step in disaster planning. There is no "one-size-fits-all approach" to assessing risks since companies differ in location, industry and key business objectives, so each distributor must perform its own assessment.
    
2. Compile contact information for employers and key customers. Distributors should maintain accurate contacts for all employees, including personal phone numbers and email addresses. They should also maintain records for suppliers and key customers, "because they need to know if their store or office can provide business as usual even if others around them aren't." This information should also be accessible off-site.
    
3. Don't forget about your supply chain. In Moraton's experience, many businesses forget to factor in this element. She recommends evaluating current suppliers' continuity plans and referring those suppliers that don't have plans in place to the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety website, DisasterSafety.org. She also recommends looking at current suppliers' geographic locations because natural disasters can make a tight concentration of suppliers problematic.

Moraton walks distributors through determining their most critical business functions and brainstorming ways of keeping them online in this month's episode of Executive Breifing. For a list of disaster planning resources Moraton recommends for distributors, view the episode now.