How well do you handle emergencies as a business owner? An adaptable entrepreneur considers crisis management strategies
 before they become necessary.

If you haven’t considered creating a crisis management plan for your business, now is a good time to start. Here’s what you need to know.

How to Create a Crisis Management Plan

There are many potential crises a small business might encounter over a typical year, both big and small: employee misconduct or firings, product failures, cybersecurity breaches, workplace accidents, or even global events such as natural disasters, supply chain disruptions, or a PR scandal.

Any of these emergencies could cause irreparable damage to a small business, but planning for them in advance can give you an advantage if and when they arise. Here are 7 key crisis management strategies to help you prepare.

1. Identify potential crises: The first step in effective crisis management is knowing what you’re planning for. The types of emergencies your business will likely face depend on its industry, workflow, and other factors. Analyze your internal operations to identify potential weaknesses, considering both the routine and the unusual.
2. Document response procedures: Once you have a list of emergencies you’re likely to encounter, create a step-by-step process for dealing with each. This includes documenting who will make the decisions for each department, how you will communicate, and how you will allocate resources in a crisis.
3. Keep communication clear: When your employees and stakeholders are kept in the loop during the good times, the bad times become more manageable. Although you want to control the tone of your messaging so no one panics, a culture of transparency builds trust and strengthens these crucial relationships.
4. Train your team: Emergency training should be part of the onboarding process for new hires and an annual requirement for all employees. Your team must know how to react when a crisis occurs.
5. To avoid additional noise: part of your crisis response strategy should be to appoint a single person to correspond with suppliers, stakeholders, and the media in an emergency. Having a designated point person to handle these communications can reduce crossed wires or misunderstandings.
6. Back up everything: Having multiple backups of all necessary documentation is crucial. One vengeful employee or technological malfunction cannot torpedo your business.
7. Ask an expert: A professional mentor or business coach has likely seen their share of business disasters throughout their career. Seeking outside counsel can help you gain perspective and get sound advice on effective crisis management.

Combining all these tactics will make it much easier to remain calm and confident when facing an unexpected challenge.

Want to learn more about surviving and thriving through crisis management strategies? As a coach, I’ve helped many clients build their resilience and become more adaptable leaders. Sign up for my weekly blog articles about maximizing your leadership skills and more.

Coach Dave