Prepare your business

Careful planning is the most effective way to reduce the impacts of a disaster.

Follow our 10 tips to prepare your business:

Business continuity planning

Creating a business continuity plan will help prepare your business and reduce the impact of a disaster.

To help you create a business continuity plan, you can:

We have developed a guide to help tourism operators plan for, respond to and recover from disasters.

A disaster plan will help your business and your visitors during disasters.

We have developed a guide to help community centres plan for, respond to and recover from disasters.

A disaster plan will help community centres to support their communities to recover from a disaster.

To help prepare your staff to respond during a disaster:

register for Logan Early Warning to receive alerts about dangerous weather and bushfires in your area
keep staff informed about the situation
have a list of tasks to do before, during and after a disaster and make sure you review it regularly
make an evacuation plan for your business. Test and review the plan regularly to make sure all staff are aware of it
work out primary and secondary evacuation routes and exits.
have a list of emergency phone numbers, including staff contacts.

Plan the stock and equipment your business will need during a disaster:

make sure you have enough stock on hand to supply your business and customers after a disaster
identify where equipment and vehicles can moved to and protected
keep enough spare parts on site to make sure equipment remains operational
plan for power cuts and move perishable stock to an alternative location
get a generator, if applicable, and fuel to keep your business running during a power cut
set up arrangements with other local businesses to support each other during and after a disaster.

Consider whether your infrastructure is well prepared:

check your building and make sure it is in good condition, especially the roof and eaves
trim overhanging branches, and clear out gutters and downpipes
remove rubbish near your building.
clear your property of loose items that could cause damage if blown around in strong winds
treat windows to reduce the damage from flying debris e.g. tape windows or fit them with metal screens or shutters.

To prepare for a disaster:

make sure that your insurance can cover your business in the event of a disaster
check with your insurance company whether there are any specific preparations you need to make before extreme weather
regularly review and update your insurance, especially when your business grows or changes.

Be aware of the documentation you may need after a disaster:

keep insurance, financial, legal and identification documents in a portable, waterproof container
back up your critical data to a portable storage device and store it in a secure location or use cloud storage
identify what data is important to keep and what you need to recover to make sure your business can operate.

For more information, please visit the Queensland Government’s Preparing your business for natural disasters website.

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