With parts of the UK already hit by floods this year after the devastation 2007 brought, small business owners in parts of the country likely to be affected would be well advised to take a few precautions to ensure their company would survive if it too fell victim.

A recent workshop held at the Business Continuity Institute found that the main message from companies affected by flooding was the importance of communicating with other staff who were off-site during the crisis and the risk of mobile phone networks also failing during inclement weather.

The workshop produced a list of tips to help businesses prepare for their premises to be hit by flooding:

• Make sure you have all relevant contact details for members of staff. The main lesson that came out of the flooding conference was that most staff lists were out-of-date or defunct

• Make sure you are aware of any medical requirements which people may have

• Ascertain the impact of both a potential loss of water and a loss of electricity on your business activities and respond accordingly. Should you stockpile water? Should you purchase an electricity back-up generator?

• Accept the fact that your company will not be high up the priority list of the emergency services and consider any measures which should be taken in light of this
  A recent workshop held at the Business Continuity Institute found that the main message from companies affected by flooding was the importance of communicating with other staff who were off-site

• Stockpile key items on site (in a safe location, not on the ground floor). These might include water, food, bedding, torches, medical equipment, soap etc

• If you have set up an emergency hotline facility in advance, make sure that all staff are aware of this and carry the number on them (either put into their mobile telephone or carried on a separate card)

• Provide all staff with a brief summary of the main points of the business continuity management plan that will affect them, for example, who is in control, what the key contact numbers and details of rallying points are etc

• Consider setting up a series of mobile telephones on different networks which are stored permanently in the office. If one network goes down you may be able to communicate on another network

• Make sure that you are aware of and, where necessary, signed up to all relevant information channels

• If key documents or IT servers are stored in the basement, consider moving them to a higher floor to avoid damage from flooding

If you would like to find out more about how to avoid becoming a victim of the floods and other incidents that impact the everyday operations of your organisation, register for free entry to Business Continuity Expo 2008 at www.businesscontinuityexpo.co.uk [1]