40 percent of US small businesses not prepared for disasters

A new US survey reveals that a large number of small businesses remain unprepared to face potential future disasters. Commissioned by Office Depot the survey of small businesses found that 40 percent of small businesses admit that they are not prepared for a disaster and one-third indicate that they have no current plans to get prepared.

Of those businesses indicating they were not prepared for a natural disaster:
- 37 percent said they had not taken the time to do so;
- 17 percent indicated it was too expensive; and
- 11 percent claim not to know what to do.

"What's most alarming about these new survey findings is that small businesses still have strong misperceptions about what they can do to help prepare for a disaster so they will be ready to handle any potential business interruption," said Tom Serio, director of Global Business Continuity for Office Depot. "A $1 piece of media, like a CD-R, to store data such as contact information and important presentations, could make a big difference in being able to keep your business running. And it only takes minutes to back up your data on a regular basis."

The Office Depot survey did show that small business owners living in natural disaster-prone regions (Coastal areas or the Midwest) are far more inclined towards disaster preparation. But nationally speaking, a full 25 percent of business owners describe their attitude towards disaster preparation as ‘live and let live,’ explaining they would rather deal with a disaster when it occurs than get ahead of a potential problem.

Office Depot provides a free advice document for small businesses. Entitled ‘Expecting the Unexpected: Disaster Preparedness Strategies for Small Business’, it is available at www.officedepot.com/getprepared

•Date: 28th May 2008• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: BC statistics
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