Tag Emergency Preparedness Solutions

Speed Networking

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager Leave a comment

Last week our local chamber of commerce, of which my company – Emergency Preparedness Solutions – is a member held an event called speed networking.  Admittedly, prior to the announcements for said event, I had never heard of it.  Of course we’ve all heard of speed dating – and have even seen it on TV and in movies (i.e. Hitch) – where men typically circulate through an orderly room of women, having only a few minutes to ask questions about each other and perhaps make a love connection.  Speed networking is quite similar.

Representatives of various businesses and organizations were arranged opposite each other within a room (sadly, not the swanky, stylish room you witnessed the speed dating occurring in Hitch), having only two minutes to give their elevator speech and another two to listen to the pitch of the person across from them.  You both exchange business cards and any other materials you might have (I had a flyer highlighting our business continuity services).  At the ring of the bell everyone on one side of the table moved down a seat.

It was a pretty neat opportunity.  Two minutes isn’t long, and depending on the level of interaction, sometimes wasn’t long enough.  It was a very fast paced, near exhausting, activity.  In the end, I met with about twenty businesses and organizations.  With some there was clearly interest, with others – not so much.  But that’s how things go in the business world.  I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get to meet with the other business representatives who were the ‘movers’, as I was.  I’m not sure how they would make that work… likely some complex algorithm of some sort which is well beyond my understanding.  Still, it was an engaging opportunity to meet with these businesses and pitch my services.

I’ve been to quite a few business networking events, all of which seem to be a bit awkward as people tend to gravitate to those they know.  You hate to break into a conversation at the risk of being rude or appearing overly pushy.  Once in a while you’ll get introduced to someone, which is the best opening, but that’s a fairly rare occurence.  The structure of the speed networking forces you to engage with someone new, and you are both there for the same purpose – what a great idea!  There was even someone attending who I have met with several times before to discuss partnering up and making mutual referrals.  Since we already knew what the other did, we took the opportunity to discuss what our next steps would be, which included a meet and greet with their top clients – score!

If you ever have an opportunity to take part in one of these events, I strongly encourage you to do so.  It’s a great deal for small businesses, especially new ones.  They are fun, engaging, and the best bang for your buck in terms of meeting people.  FYI – the chamber charged $10 for the event, which included lunch.  How can you go wrong?

Red Cross ReadyRating Program

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager Leave a comment

I recently sat through a webinar on the Red Cross ReadyRating Program.  Admittedly, I’ve perused their site before, and even recommended their services – which I certainly understood – but I never realized how in-depth their program goes.  The webinar was hosted by Agility Recovery, who regularly puts on brief and informative programs of good quality. 

The ReadyRating program is a web-based service, absolutely free of charge, that provides businesses, organizations, and schools with a free disaster readiness assessment tool.  The tool seems to be useful to entities large and small, even allowing larger businesses or organizations with multiple locations to conduct an assessment for each location folded in under the same account.  The user answers questions and the tool quantifies the entity’s measure of preparedness and provides customized reports showing various data in a variety of formats (charts, report card, etc).  ReadyRating apparently even grades the amount of community participation the entity has relative to preparedness efforts (see my previous post re: Public-Private Partnerships).  The tool also enables creation of a customized emergency response plan – something I’m a little cautious of (generally speaking, I’m not in favor of ‘fill in the blank’ planning) – but I’ve not actually used the tool, so I can’t speak from direct experience on it.

ReadyRating refers to their users as ‘members’ – and they have a fairly impressive membership, both in numbers (2,689 businesses and organizations, 570 schools) as well as in names (they list the likes of Anheuser Busch, Grainger, Monsanto, and others).  Feedback from members is very favorable, and the tool provides for the ability to do re-assessments and showing progress to the user – that’s great encouragement to them!  They even show comparisons with other members (anonymously) (comparisons are provided nationally, state-wide, number of employees, and by industry).

ReadyRating is quite an impressive tool – and it’s free!  I have it listed on the links page of my company’s website – Emergency Preparedness Solutions, LLC along with other resources.  Check it out!

Every Business Should Have a Plan to Stay in Business

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager Leave a comment

Over the last few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of making a number of presentations to and connections with businesses and organizations over the topic of Business Continuity.  I’m thrilled that people are thinking about this and that my interactions brought about some great discussions.

Businesses can and do fail in the aftermath of a disaster!

Let’s look at some numbers:

  • Over 25% of businesses do not reopen following a major disaster (Institute for Business and Home Safety)
  • 70% of small firms that experience a major data loss go out of business within a year (Price Waterhouse Coopers)
  • 80% of companies that do not recover from a disaster within one month are likely to go out of business (Bernstein Crisis Management)
  • Of those businesses that experience a disaster and have no emergency plan, 43 percent never re-open; of those that do reopen, only 29 percent are still operating two years later (The Hartford Financial Services Group)

The Institute for Business and Home Safety says that each year disasters such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires force thousands of businesses to close.  But even more common events, such as building fires, cause the same result.  So what can you do?

  • Ensure that your building meets local code and safety standards, including electric, plumbing, chemical storage, and fire safety (don’t forget the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers!).
  • Check your insurance plan to ensure that you are getting the best coverage possible.
  • Back up computer data and files regularly to an offsite location.
  • Create a disaster plan for your business to address life safety issues.
    • Create a business continuity plan to address how you will stay in business after a disaster.

There are a number of resources for business preparedness available at the following:

TR