A natural disaster, building fire, or burglary can cost your business tens of thousands of dollars in damages and erase your records and client contacts. Such a tremendous loss can often end a small business for good, which is why it is so trememndously important to be prepared. If you take proper measures ahead of time, these worst case scenarios can be avoided. Here are a few tips that will help you and your work survive a potentially business destroying disaster.

The first step in disaster prevention and preparation is to identify your core assets. What does your business need to function healthily? This can be everything from a stock of supplies and a storefront to spreadsheets stored on your computer’s hard drive. On a quick initial analysis it is almost impossible to avoid missing some vital assets, so I suggest you spend a month monitoring what you and your employees rely on to keep the business chugging along. Be sure that you separate the necessary from the convenient and helpful.

You know what you need to defend, now you have to figure out what you are defending against. What your potential threats are will depend upon your location and your business type. If you operate out of coastal Florida,for example, hurricanes are going to be a much greater risk than if you live in the midwest. If you live on a fault-line, it might be important to guard against earthquakes. Are your offices in a part of town that has a notoriously high crime rate? Watch out for burglary. What does your business do? If you are heavily reliant on computers and the internet, viruses and hackers present a major threat. Likewise hacking is less of a worry if you own a vintage clothing boutique, but if your stock gets damaged in a fire, it will be far more difficult to replace than simply reinstalling software.

After establishing your business’ assets and its potential threats, it is time to develop a plan. Back up any important data and records that you store on a computer to both an on site external hard drive and an offsite server. Do so regularly. This way, if one of your computers goes down, for whatever reason, you will have quick access to any lost information. And, if your office is the target of theft, flood, or fire, you have all that vital information stored thousands of miles away, untouched. Do you have an up to date and reliable security system? How quickly will the police be contacted if an alarm is triggered, and how long will it take the police to arrive once they are notified? If you are uncomfortable with the response time and are especially prone to theft, it might make sense to hire a security guard.

Be sure to review your insurance policy. Does it cover the threats that you have decided to pose the greatest potential risk? Will the money your insurance policy pays out cover your losses, or will it only put a dent in the price of recovery? I also recommend that you establish a line of credit. After a disaster strikes it is important that you reestablish your business quickly, instead of languishing for months trying to come up with the money. A line of credit assures that you will have access to the funds you’ll need to bounce back from the brink.

By establishing your core assets, major threats, a clear plan of action, and a financial safety net you can rest easy knowing that nothing, not even Mother Nature’s wrath, will stop your business. Intelligent preventive measures and planning will guarantee that your entrepreneurial spirit will come out on top, bruised, perhaps, but not beaten.

Just a quick post to draw your attention to this eye opening video.

Does this make you want to reconsider how you manage your employees and how you get them motivated about their work? It should.

When running a small business, it is imperative that you are constantly aware of your company’s cash flow. What is cash flow? Cash flow is that amount of money that you really have, available and on hand, right now. It is especially important to keep this in mind when you are considering taking on a large contract. Big contracts are wonderful opportunities and can bring your small business to the next level, but they are fraught with danger as well.

When the potential to seize a big contract arises, it can be easy to have eyes that are bigger than your stomach. Many small businesses leap at the chance. They start hiring more workers, buying expensive resources in huge quantities, and take on a larger amount of responsibilities then they had dealt with before, which requires them to bring on expensive specialists and lawyers. And, because they were not keeping a careful eye on their cash flow, they find out too late that they have bitten off more than they can chew. How does this happen?

A common mistake is that the small business owner refers to their profit-and-loss statement, rather than their cash flow. Your P&L, also known as your income statement, is quite simply not an accurate report of your available funds. This is primarily due to the fact that it counts owed income in it’s final balance for the period of time being considered. If you closed an order for 1,500 dollars, it will be counted in your P&L, even if you have not received payment yet. When you take on a large project and assume you have cash in the bank that simply is not there yet, for whatever reason, you can find yourself in serious trouble. Checks will begin to bounce, workers may have to be laid off, and the big contract is going to languish and fall behind schedule. In the worst case scenario, you might end up losing the contract and all the money you’ve sunk into the project, as well as seriously damaging your reputation. For many small businesses, that is a wound that they simply cannot recover from.

Before you get involved in a big contract, please, make sure your business can afford it. Know your cash flow.

You probably know why going green is good for the planet, but did you know that it is good for your small business too? I’ll outline the three major ways that running an environmentally friendly small business will translate to a better bottom line.

1.) Ecoefficiency Means Cost Savings

The first major change you’ll see when you go green is that your expenses will shrink as your carbon footprint does. A company that has an environmentally aware mindset will use less resources to get the same work done, and that sort of efficiency can slash expenditures. Using compact florescent lightbulbs, for example, will greatly reduce your electric bill. Keeping in mind the toll paper products has on our rainforests will move you to cut down on unneccessary shipping materials, which also means you spend less. The lesson here is that you should use less, for the environment and for your bank account.

2.) Green Pride & Productive Employees

When you nurture a workplace environment that is concerned with the health of its community and the planet, you and your employees know that you are working for something more than just a pay check. That sort of sense of purpose makes the work your employees do feel important, and it is! When people are motivated by socially conscious and just goals, they are going to work harder and be happier while they do it. It has been shown that environmentally benign companies have reduced rates of absenteeism, increased job satisfaction, and commitment to the company’s mission. A proud employee is a productive one!

3.) Customer Good Will

One of the major advantages that very small businesses need to leverage if they want to regain a prominent place in the American marketplace is a sense of belonging to the community. Faceless behemoths like Wal*Mart are disliked by so many is because it is obvious how little they care for the places they operate. You and your business can stand out if you make an effort to make things better, and going green is an intrical part of that. When you use recycled materials, call your customers’ attention to it. Promote green discounts for people who bring their own reusable shopping bags. Use locally grown, organic produce (not only are these better for the planet, but they are better for the people eating them too!). The possibilities are endless, so get creative. Go green and your community will thank you with their wallets.