Is Your Salon Disaster Ready?

“I kept thinking I had certain insurances to cover me, only to find out that I did not.” Jennifer explains, “Now I have everything: flood, wind and hail, hurricane, workers comp, content, business interruption, car insurance for when employees run to the bank, disability, and life.” As a Summit Salon Consultant, Jennifer gets to share her knowledge and experiences so other salon owners do not have to learn these lessons the hard way.

Top 10 Tips to Set Yourself up for Success:

 1. Electronic copies of all major documents.

Pictures of everything, insurance policies with phone numbers. Receipts (scan copies or I keep records off site.)

 2. Computer back up

I discovered that the external drives only work if the employees actually do it correctly and back it up to the drivenot the desktop. Therefore, after Gustav, I chose to pay Envision a monthly fee to back it up nightly in case something happens I can be back up and running within hours.

 3. Insurance policies.

Make sure the business interruption is up-to-date and find out the criteria to redeem. You may need tax returns as well as proceeds and proof for several months prior.

4. A list of everything itemized with replacement value.

This is where the pictures come in handy.

5. Hurricane plan/disaster plan for the employees.

Ways of communication, point of contact and when to call in etc. with social media this is easier than when Katrina hit and it took three weeks to find all of my employees. In the recent floods several people have no phone service and could only communicate through Facebook. Our policy is once the storm hit everyone has to contact me within 24 hours to let me know they are OK and where they are with a second contact number. Once the damages have been accessed I will let the team know through our secret Facebook page.

6. Have numbers for a clean up crew and get on it as soon as possible.

7. Have a contractor who is licensed and insured picked BEFORE a disaster because once the disaster hits you are put on a list. I have several contractor’s names and numbers in my phone just in case.

8. Your personal banker’s cell phone number
After Katrina, my banker was able to put money in my account and cover payroll and other bills for over a month. (The deposit I had made before the storm hit never made it to home office and was locked in a safe at a branch that’s was not able to open for six weeks due to flooding and damages.)

10. Brainstorm a back up location

If my place was destroyed where would I go? Where would my team go?