What Business Owners Should Know in Case of an Emergency

1/8/2018 (Permalink)

We all know accidents happen, especially when you least expect them to. Being prepared to respond quickly can help you mitigate the damages and save yourself time and money. For example, imagine the sprinkler system in your building malfunctioned or was initiated accidentally. What would you do? Do you know how to turn off the sprinkler system? What if you were not there? Do any of your employees know how to turn off the sprinkler system? Not responding to this accident in a timely manner can result in excessive water damage to your property. This scenario happened to a client of ours earlier this year. Only one employee was present when a sprinkler head was broken and starting spewing water at an impressively fast pace. For the next thirty minutes, said employee ran around the building searching for the shut off valve for the sprinkler system. In that time, about 100 gallons of water were released into the building. Luckily, after the water was shut off the general manager called us to swiftly extract the water and start the drying process.

Being prepared as a business owner or property manager means having a general understanding of your building. You should know how to turn off the main water supply, sprinkler system, and the gas line. You should also know who to call in case of an emergency. Do you have a vendor list prepared for your building? Again, if you were not present and your employee could not reach you, then who would they call for help if something like a pipe were to break or the sewage system backed up? We often receive phone calls from business owners who are on vacation and learn an emergency has happened to their property. Trying to facilitate the clean up and restoration while unprepared and out of state or country is no easy task for a business owner. 

SERVPRO of Greater Covington and Mandeville can help you be prepared for an emergency by creating an Emergency Ready Profile for your business. This is a free service we offer to all local business owners in St. Tammany Parish. Our marketing coordinator, Kayla Theriot, will help you create a plan for your business in case of an emergency. This process takes less than an hour and can help save you time, money, and the stress of not knowing what to do when something goes wrong. If you are interested in learning more about an Emergency Ready Profile, please send an email to kayla@SERVPROofcovington.com.