WASHINGTON – Each year small businesses nationwide are forced to close their doors in the aftermath of severe storms, flooding, tornadoes, wildfires and hurricanes. Business interruptions, even if they last just a few hours, are costly in terms of lost productivity and profits.

You can get help with your own business preparedness planning through a series of free webinars in September hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration and Agility Recovery. The September series is presented in collaboration with FEMA’s Ready Campaign as part of National Preparedness Month.

The SBA wants to help business owners take charge of the well-being of their own companies, the safety of their employees, and the sustenance of their local economies by being prepared to rebound quickly from any kind of disaster.

The half-hour webinars will be presented at 2 p.m., Eastern time, each Wednesday in September. Visit http://snurl.com/296yw4e to register for any or all of the webinars listed below:

September 3: Crisis Communications for Any Organization – Learn best practices for developing an emergency communication strategy.
September 10: How to Plan for a Power Interruption…and Recover Fast -Tips on how to make your company resilient and better prepared to mitigate losses during power outages.

September 17: The Top 5 Steps for Preparedness This Year – The top five ways to prepare for disaster-related business interruptions will be discussed.

September 24: If You Do Nothing Else This Year – Simple, low-cost tips on building a solid business continuity plan.

SBA has partnered with Agility Recovery to offer business continuity strategies through their “PrepareMyBusiness” website. Visit www.preparemybusiness.org to check out the archived webinars and for more disaster preparedness tools.

Release Number: MA14-26

Release Date: August 25, 2014

Contact: Carol Chastang
Internet Address: http://www.sba.gov/news
Phone: (202) 205-6987

SOURCE U.S. Small Business Administration