Small businesses advised to prepare and insure

Operators of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are being urged to take disaster preparedness seriously and ensure their properties and their contents are adequately insured.

The caution came on Thursday from insurance officials during the Small Business Association (SBA) members’ information forum for June, which examined the theme Mitigating the Risk of Natural Disaster.

The session comes amid an Atlantic hurricane season that forecasters say has a 65 per cent chance of being above normal, with 14 to 21 named storms, including six to 10 possibly becoming hurricanes, and three to six possibly becoming major hurricanes.

Vice President of Commercial Sales and Broker Engagement at the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Ltd. (ICBL), Maya Wiltshire, said the hurricane season was a critical time for everyone, and she urged business leaders to be prepared.

“We know that our micro, small and medium enterprises play a major role – they play many roles in our communities, circulating money and resources into the local economy, affecting local culture, influencing the quality of life for their employees – and your strategy for dealing with natural disaster will depend on your unique business operations, your assets and your needs,” she said.

Wiltshire said their natural disaster preparedness plans should include updating employee contact lists; protecting important files, building infrastructure, vehicles and mobile equipment; and ensuring that emergency generators and full fuel tanks are in place before and after a storm, as she pointed to the importance of being back in business soon after.

“You need to make sure you check on these things and not wait until something happens, go to utilise it and recognise it is not working,” she said.

“I know this is not new information to most of you. However, sometimes we take these things for granted, so I just want to reinforce now, especially based on the season we are in, that you are taking the necessary precaution and that you are protecting the equipment.”

Wiltshire also called on the small business community to have in place contingency plans that include evacuation routes, emergency equipment, and backup power sources.

A continuity plan and provisions for adjusted operations in the event of a reduced workforce are also vital, the insurance executive advised, as she noted that MSMEs usually have a small number of employees.

“That is a real scenario. During this period… your employees can be impacted which means they cannot come out to the office. If you have an impact on a critical worker, what is your contingency plan? What will you do if you lose a critical member based on them not being able to come out because something happened at their home? So this is where you also need to look at what is your backup for this,” she explained.

During Thursday’s presentation, the SBA members also received information on the various types of insurance available, as they were encouraged to have insurance for both property and inventory.

The SBA and the ICBL have entered a partnership that will give the association’s members access to a range of discounts on ICBL product offerings in the coming weeks.

Chief Executive Officer of the SBA Dr Lynette Holder, who added her voice to calls for business people to be prepared, reminded of the risks associated with weather systems.

“We can all appreciate that natural disasters have become very common to us on this side of the Atlantic and within recent years we have been seeing some intensification of the storms and hurricanes that have been passing through this region,” she said.

Holder, therefore, challenged members to “pay attention to this time and to do whatever you need to do to prepare and mitigate the risk of a natural disaster and to put in place the systems needed to be able to withstand the impact from a storm on your businesses and lives”. (MM)