Prepare your business for a sudden disaster

The world wide community of professional speakers is very generous in its sharing of information to assist us both professionally and personally. Sara Zeff-Geber, an expert in Retirement Transition and Life Planning Expert for Boomers, shared this advice after her house in Sonoma County, California was burned down in a wildfire. I think her thoughts are so valuable for each of us that I am sharing them here:

“As we’ve seen this year, hurricanes, floods, fires and other disasters can befall huge communities with little or no notice. What would you lose if your house burned down?

Unfortunately, I had to deal with just such a tragedy when my house burned to the ground with 5000+ others in the Sonoma County fires of October. What did I conclude or learn and what can I pass on?

• Use the Cloud for everything. I lost my phone, iPad and MacBook Air but between my subscription to Dropbox and the Apple iCloud I lost very little data. The only things I did not have on Dropbox were a few pictures and my email archive. My husband was not so lucky. He only used Dropbox for the work he was doing with his clients; all his personal stuff was lost. With an inexpensive subscription to a service like Dropbox ($99 per year), you get a huge amount of storage that will accommodate all your large Powerpoint or Keynote files, pictures, videos, and more. The set up is invisible and seamless for me. Every file I create automatically goes into the Dropbox folder. To me, the small security risk of such a program is worth taking. And I have the added advantage of being able to log in anywhere in the world and access all my files.

• “Things” are replaceable; your life is not. When fire threatens, get all the people and pets out of the house. All the “stuff” is replaceable. Experts strongly suggest keeping a “go bag” packed and ready at all times. Yes, it would have been nice to have my own jammies and toothbrush when my husband and I arrived at our friend’s door at 3:30 am, but those things were minor inconveniences. If you really want to safeguard some possessions, get a safe that is rated for very high temperatures and keep your jewelry and important papers in it. Those who did this didn’t lose as much as those of us who did not. Better yet, scan the important papers and keep them in the Cloud.

• Keep your homeowners insurance up to date. If you bought your house more than five years ago and you haven’t updated your coverage, call your agent and make sure you are insured for the current value of your home — not what it is worth on the market, but what it would take to rebuild it today. Those who are underinsured in Sonoma County have a long, uphill battle with the insurance companies. It’s not a pretty sight. It’s also important to have 100% replacement value on your personal property. If you do not, you will only be given the depreciated value on your possessions and they depreciate quickly. If you are renting, be sure you have a good renter’s insurance policy that includes temporary lodging until you can find another home to rent.

Like Beth Terry said when she wrote about a webmaster dying unexpectedly, life can turn on a dime. We can never be totally ready for such a turn, but we should at least be smart and engage in some level of preparedness.”

Real food for thought and, more importantly, action.