Small Businesses Fail at Disaster Planning

Small businesses that neglect disaster recovery planning might find themselves closing up shop in the wake of a disaster, according to a University of North Dakota economics professor.

In a recent study, Professor David Flynn found that a number of small business owners believe disaster planning is harder than it really is, and therefore don't attempt to make a recovery plan. Flynn's findings were reported by Tu-Uyen Tran in the Grand Forks Herald.

Flynn studied a number of local small businesses to find out who was prepared before a 1997 flood, and which businesses learned lessons from the flood and created plans. The majority of businesses had no plans either before or after the flood.

Flynn told Tran that most business owners felt planning was too much work and too costly for disasters that were simply out of their control. Some told Flynn they thought it unlikely another disaster would strike soon, while others said they had flood insurance and that was enough of a substitute for a recovery plan. One business owner told Flynn he would just leave town if another disaster struck. "That biz didn't have a disaster plan in place," Flynn said. "If you're planning on leaving town in wake of another disaster, you really should have an exit plan."

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