Business Resiliency

As a small business owner, I sometimes wonder what I have gotten myself into. Can you relate? I have been an entrepreneur for many years and I have struggled to keep myself positive and proactive even in the face of major adversity.  I thought nothing bad could happen to me, until it did. I had a successful business then on August 23, 2005, my business was gone. Why do I remember that day? It was the day Hurricane Katrina hit my hometown, New Orleans, Louisiana.

From that day forward, I had to rebuild my business what I was doing was no longer a viable option to me. Can’t happen to you? Well I said the same thing. Here are some stunning statistics:

·         15-40% –The number of businesses that fail following a natural or man-made disaster.*

·         35% –The number of small to medium-sized businesses that have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. **

·         94% –Number of small business owners who believe a disaster could seriously disrupt their business within the next two years. ***

·         51% –Number of Americans who have experienced at least one emergency situation involving lost utilities for at least 3 days, evacuation from their home or office, loss of communications with family members or had to provide first aid to others.****

*Insurance Information Institute, **Gartner, ***American Red Cross and FedEx Small Business Survey, 2007, ****American Red Cross/Harris Poll Survey, 2009.

With those statistics, I began to understand that many times business owners, like me, needed both help and advice to keep their businesses operational. So I became the founder and Managing Partner of The Resiliency Institute, LLC (TRI). TRI is a full service consulting firm specializing in comprehensive solutions for small/medium size businesses (SMBs), understanding the role they play in community preparedness and resiliency.

In the following blog posts, I hope to share both ideas and concrete examples of how to create a truly resilient business. Our goal is to help YOU.