AMU Emergency Management Opinion Public Safety

Small Businesses and Emergency Management

The Importance of Emergency Management Plans

Many people think of large-scale disasters when they hear about the field of emergency management. After all, the federal government of the United States has an [link url=”https://www.fema.gov/” title=”agency”], the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), completely dedicated to emergency management. And there been many, many news reports in recent years to include events like [link url=”http://www.history.com/topics/hurricane-katrina” title=”Hurricane Katrina”] in the mix of emergency management issues, not to mention the myriad pieces of emergency management legislation that has been passed to close loop holes in emergency management.

When people think of emergency management, they often think of the large scale disasters for how they will affect a town county or state, but small business can often be an afterthought for how large scale disasters may affect the local economy and business.

U.S. Small Business Administration

The [link url=”https://www.sba.gov/managing-business/running-business/emergency-preparedness/emergency-preparedness” title=”U.S. Small Business Administration”] details several important factors as it relates to emergency management.

The Administration’s website is detailed to include numerous important pieces about managing a disaster for a small business. They recommend that small businesses put together emergency plans, test their business systems and create an emergency operation plan.  In doing so, the small business may be able to withstand the emergency without the crisis impacting their finances too much.

Taking out Problematic Single Points of Failure

While emergency management plans are particularly important for the recovery of a disaster, it should be noted that emergency management plans also take the [link url=”https://amuedge.com/the-single-point-of-failure/” title=”single point of failure”] out of an equation.

Businesses are designed to run a certain way. However, a disaster can make the business struggle as they’re suddenly thrust into a situation that they simply weren’t planning on. Thus, emergency plans remove the single point of failure out of the equation helping a business to remain flexible during a time of a crisis.

One Small Part in Managing a Large Scale Crisis

Large-scale emergencies are particularly hard on an economy and can take years for a community to completely recover from it.

Small businesses often get sucked into the mess of them making it difficult for them to muddle through potentially putting the business on the track to coming apart. If a small business prepares for emergencies and how they’ll manage certain aspects of it, not only will the business be in a better position to recover, but it will also help the community to recover faster, too.

Ultimately, it is particularly important for a small business to prepare for a disaster. Not only does it give a small business owner the framework for managing their organizations in the midst of a crisis, but it also allows for them to figure out where their own single point of failures may exist in the management of their businesses.

Emergency management plans simply allow for them to recover faster in the wake of a large scape disaster.

Allison G.S. Knox

Allison G. S. Knox teaches in the fire science and emergency management departments at the University. Focusing on emergency management and emergency medical services policy, she often writes and advocates about these issues. Allison works as an Intermittent Emergency Management Specialist in the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. She also serves as the At-Large Director of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, Chancellor of the Southeast Region on the Board of Trustees with Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society in Social Sciences, chair of Pi Gamma Mu’s Leadership Development Program and Assistant Editor for the International Journal of Paramedicine. Prior to teaching, Allison worked for a member of Congress in Washington, D.C. and in a Level One trauma center emergency department. She is an emergency medical technician and holds five master’s degrees.

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