Jon Toigo, a disaster recovery expert at Toigo Partners International, has put together nearly 100 disaster recovery plans. His clients include Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) over the past twenty years.

"The bottom line in disaster preparedness is to protect your most irreplaceable assets – your people and your data," said Toigo.

People
Employees will want reassurance and direction. If not, things can fall apart pretty quickly.

As a result, Toigo recommends building solid contact lists. They should include at least five different points of contact -- say, phone numbers, mobile numbers, email, SMS and also information on relatives.

Data
"You may be astonished to learn that nearly 20 percent of small businesses do not back up their data," said Toigo. "With businesses relying on technology now more than ever, it's my job to remind professionals that if you lose your data, you can lose your business."

Thus, he recommends a data back up at least once a week – and there should also be an off-site storage facility.

Fortunately, storage technology is getting much cheaper. For example, Toigo likes small flash drives like Ativa's 8GB system (which can store up to 320,000 pages) and can be put in your pocket when you leave the office.

"The truth is, more than one in four businesses will experience a significant crisis in a given year, and of those businesses that experience a disaster and have no emergency plan, 43 percent never reopen," said Toigo. "But with a plan in place, the overwhelming feeling should be greatly reduced because you'll know you are covered."

Thanks to Tom Taulli of Entrepreneur's Journal

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive