Survival Planning :: how prepared are you?

Its been another challenging summer for Australians, with bush fires in various states and flooding in Queensland.

I live in the beautiful Shoalhaven on the South Coast of NSW.  We are blessed with beaches that have  squeaky clean sand and dolphins playing in the waves, we have an abundance of wildlife which includes the Kangaroos that like to leave deposits on my front lawn on a daily basis.  All of this beauty is surrounded by magnificent dense bushland.  It's a great place to live and bring up children, but I must admit during January I did have second thoughts.  Especially when we faced catastrophic fire warnings and the fire at Deans Gap which threatened parts of the Shoalhaven.

We were on high alert for a number of days.  I had our Survival Plan ready and my Husband had gathered all our our important items - photos, paperwork, harddrive etc.  We were ready to go at a moments notice.  Thank goodness we didn't need to put our survival plan into action but it was a good trail run.

At times like these you really start to think about the "What Ifs".  Which naturally lead me to think about what would happen to my business if my house was burnt down.  What if I was hit by a bus!  What if my MacBook died and I couldn't get it working again.  What if all my wool was ruined due to flood waters? ... and the list goes on.

Yesterday I re-read NSW Bushfire Survival Plan to see how it could be applied to my business.  I started to ponder ... 

• How prepared am I if disaster struck?  
• Is there a way I can reduce the risk to my business?
• Do I have a back up plan for my business?
• What key items do I need to take with me in an emergency?
• Will my insurance cover my stock and materials?

I found theses questions to be quite scary as they made me realise how unprepared I am.

How did you go with answering these questions?  
Do you have a survival plan for your business? 

About the Contributor: 

Christine is a Wife and a Mum of 3.  She is the owner of C Percy Designs and the Editor of The Contemporary Handmade Alliance.  She is also the Editor of the Handmade Cooperative - Australian Handmade 4 Kids and is a little obsessed with all things crochet. 
To find out more about Christine go to her blog or follow her on Facebook.