Hurricane Katrina — After the Storm
Here are a few of their priceless tips:
• Have a plan in place. Anticipate in advance. Have complete backup files—especially of the last week of work—so, if necessary, you can have a backup printer who will still be able to produce the work.
• Build alliances with printers outside the area. Do this, so you don’t have to start from scratch. We were quickly placing orders with other (backup) printers because we had an agreement already set up.
• Remove all records. Take them with you in your vehicle to the evacuation area. And be sure to have your backup records stored safely offsite.
• Back up the company’s e-mail system. Our e-mail at Harvey Press was backed up and managed in Atlanta. If we hadn’t, we would have been out of business. We highly recommend having a backup/server offsite for your company e-mail system.
• Review insurance policies annually. Make sure everything’s up to date. As you add equipment, update the policy.
• Keep detailed records of all assets. This includes equipment, materials, supplies, furniture, everything. You must have records of all of your assets. And, all those records must be backed up—offsite! And, that means all the executives’ files and records, too. Ninety percent of our paperwork was destroyed.
• Open a cash-only account at a secondary bank. Have a cash account at a bank other than your primary bank (that holds your mortgage/loan and handles most of your financial transactions). If you have a cash-only account (cash is the only business you do with that bank), then that bank can’t put a “hold” on your cash. If a bank holds your loan, it can also put a “hold” on your cash.
• Contact customers ASAP. That was critical. If we didn’t, they would have gone elsewhere. We called customers right away and gave them our new new phone numbers and address. We let them know that we were still working on their print order and would have it done as fast as we could. We explained how we had a backup printer, but we would still be responsible for printing their material with the same quality and service.
