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Open for Business® Basic and Other IBHS Business Continuity Planning Tools

September is National Preparedness Month, which is an ideal occasion to remind businesses – especially small- and medium-sized owners and managers who struggle to find the time and resources to prepare, or who think that business disruptions won't happen to them – how vital it is that the are ready to confront and bounce back from any emergency which they encounter.

To assist, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pleased to share with you an excellent business continuity planning resource known as Open for Business® Basic, brought to you by the Institute for Business & Home Safety, or IBHS, a Chamber member.

Owning or managing a business leaves little time to devote to planning ahead for a disaster that may never happen. But everything from a natural catastrophe to a power outage or store-room flood could force a business to close its doors. And anything that disrupts operations can mean big trouble for the bottom line or competitive advantage. Open for Business® Basic was created with the small- to medium-sized business in mind, and is also a valuable tool for larger businesses to share with their suppliers and vendors.

Open for Business® Basic: Free, Quick, and Useful

Open for Business® Basic, available free to the general public on the IBHS website (http://www.disastersafety.org/text.asp?id=commlines or http://www.disastersafety.org/), is most appropriate for companies with 50 or fewer employees. Designed to streamline the planning process and maximize your time, Open for Business® Basic provides step-by-step instruction during a series of eight 20-minute-or-less multi-media sessions. This information can help you identify the hazards your business faces, plan for and reduce the impact of disaster, keep your doors open after a disaster hits, and make your business more resilient.

Each session includes:

  • valuable planning worksheets in Microsoft Word and PDF formats allowing you to save and print your completed plan;
  • business continuity and disaster recovery tips;
  • peril-specific property protection information; and
  • the option to receive e-mail reminders to incorporate the planning process in your daily schedule.