Does your business rely on a steady flow of customers walking in the door every day?  Bet your store is too quiet for your comfort this week.  Do you rely on logistic capabilities to deliver services or products to your customers? Difficult to deliver to your clients when the snow plows can’t even keep going.  Have the airport closings and cancelled flights kept your employees getting to customer meetings or getting home?  Does your business require employees to be outside exposed to the cold?  Ironically, most businesses consider severe winter weather as a very low risk.  I would guess this week some business leaders are wondering if they should update their risk assessment. 

The good news is that it will warm up (at some point).  The bad news is we still have a lot of winter still ahead before spring and more winter headaches are coming.  So while we’re all waiting to thaw out, take a few moments to address what challenges your business had to overcome with this weather and also what went right.  No matter the size of your business I am sure you could list two or three problems you had to deal with either due to snow, ice, or ridiculously cold temperatures:  damaged infrastructure, employee injuries, or closed businesses are all impacts from this weather.  Now here’s the important part – before you dismiss this as a one-time event, take that list of problems and your actions and update your winter weather checklist in your continuity plan.  Don’t have a winter weather checklist in your continuity plan you say?  Well, go make yourself a big mug of hot chocolate to warm up and then get those lessons learned documented so next time you’ll have a better start of dealing with the teeth chattering challenges.  And if you don’t have a business continuity plan, this is as good of a place to start as any.  It may seem like small issue, but as I’m fond of saying, small actions make big gains.  Kind of like shoveling snow – it’s a lot easier to shovel 2 or 3 inches a couple of times than wait until the storm is done and shovel 2 feet. 

If you would like to start working on those small actions to make big gains making your business more resilient, please contact me, I know I can help. 

As always – Be Aware, Be Prepared, Be Safe.