Originally published in The Canberra Times

By Bruce Billson

Over the past five years there have been 13 declared natural disaster catastrophes.

The devastation caused to our communities by these terrible floods, storms, cyclones and bushfires strikes is just as hard on our small and family businesses. And already, we have seen and marvelled at communities already dealing with nature's fearsomeness so early in the season ...

Businesses can be directly damaged or wiped-out, or they become an indirect victim surviving the disaster only to have no customers or no meaningful local economy to service because of the impact on their town or region.

It is happening too often for small business to ignore. But only one in four small businesses have a current business continuity plan.

It is time for small business to be prepared for natural disasters. Or to make this even more immediate, personal and necessary, another lens might be preparing for an awful event such as a critical health episode that might take the business owner or leader out of the business for a period of time.

An inquiry I conducted into the impact of natural disasters on small businesses found that taking simple steps to be better prepared, sensible risk mitigation action and bolstering resilience can help reduce the impact of these extreme weather events (or some other critical event) and support small and family businesses to get back on their feet quicker.

Just like the businesses they run, small business owners are the lifeblood of our communities. They are often community leaders too - the first to volunteer to lead and contribute to local emergency response and business support groups, giving generously of themselves to help make preparations for the community such as laying sandbags, fighting fires and moving stock and people to higher and safer ground.

But often our business leaders are not as diligent in getting their own business as prepared as possible, so they can be best placed to navigate a critical event, respond and recover.

That's where an up-to-date business continuity plan is important so owners can contemplate the things that might knock them off course, whether it is a natural disaster or something that might happen to them personally such as a health episode or accident, and reduce their capacity to contribute to their business and enable the livelihoods that they and their team rely upon.

There are easy steps that can make so much difference if disaster strikes and help aid recovery.

This can be as simple as ensuring your record keeping is up to date and that critical information is at hand and, where possible, digitised so you can retrieve it if your premises are destroyed.

Small business owners can use the following checklist:

• Do you have the contact details for your customers, suppliers, staff, accountant and other important people in a safe place and how might you maintain communications?
• Do you have copies of relevant accounts, passwords and backups of important operational data?
• Would it be feasible to continue operating from another location?
• Can you keep working if the power or communications network goes down?
• Who will be in charge if the owner is unable to lead?
• Are your payments to relevant bodies such as insurers, lenders and the Tax Office up to date?

The Small Business Natural Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Inquiry recommended the creation of an opt-in My Business Record to allow a small business to digitally store all relevant government-held and other vital information it might need after a disaster.

It is clear from our work that preparation is key to small and family businesses building resilience and coming through natural disasters in the best possible shape.

It is equally clear the small business community cannot do this on their own and when a natural disaster strikes, certainty of response and certainty of support must be provided.

By this we mean small business owners should automatically be engaged in local place-based planning and support services and be elevated and front of mind in disaster response, recovery and funding arrangements. This must include indirectly affected businesses.

Immediately after a disaster a business support hub should be established to provide a single point from which to seek help from government and non-government agencies.

A tell-us-once triage system should be adopted to save small business owners the trauma and time associated with repeating their story.

Ongoing support is needed in the aftermath of a disaster. When a small business receives an Australian government grant, an additional amount should be made available six to nine months later for a business health check and longer-term recovery action. Disasters can have long-lasting effects for communities and small businesses.

An integrated response is needed to disaster risk management for identified disaster-prone areas that incorporates priority access to mitigation expenditure, co-ordinated planning across levels of government and infrastructure hardening.

Critical road upgrades should require that verges are cleared sufficiently to allow access or evacuation. Similarly, where telecommunications infrastructure upgrades include taxpayer support, funding should be conditional on it being durable in the face of a natural disaster.

An ongoing problem is that many small businesses in elevated disaster-risk area are often denied accessible and affordable insurance. Our inquiry found many businesses cannot secure appropriate insurance at an affordable price, some are uninsured or underinsured or have eyewatering excesses that would preclude any claim being made. The insurance sector needs to do better.

Frustratingly, insurers seem uninterested in the steps individual small and family businesses take to mitigate disaster risk. Individual businesses do everything they can possibly do but it has zero impact on the availability and the pricing of their premiums.

We're told this is because the insurance companies look at risk across a broader pool - it is community-wide or industry-wide or neighbourhood-wide analysis. Yet the narrative, amplified through advertising, is often about what individuals might do.

Natural disasters can cause lasting harm to the enterprising people who build businesses, employ local community members, and create vitality in our towns and communities.

I urge small and family businesses to have a plan and be ready. There are detailed checklists and resources to help small business prepare for a disaster and, if needed, to recover after one, available at www.asbfeo.gov.au/disaster-preparation