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Surveys of Staten Island Accounting Firms and Small Businesses
Contingency planning is a process through which businesses develop a strategy to deal with unanticipated events that would impede daily activities or normal operations. Although planning for the unexpected sounds like a contradiction, it is a sound business practice. A key part of this planning is the identification of a business's risk exposure, which can result from a variety of factors, including economic conditions, geographic location, financial health, political environment, technology, data integrity and security, natural or environmental challenges, and prior disaster experiences. Risks vary by business size, location, and industry.
Once the areas of risk exposure for a particular business are identified, a plan of action should be outlined in order to facilitate the recovery from unexpected disruptions and the resumption of normal business activities. These disruptions can range from a minor power outage to a major natural disaster.
Unfortunately, most businesses are ill prepared for any type of unexpected event. According to the 2013 Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council Survey, 72% of businesses worldwide earned disaster readiness scores of either a "D" or an "F." A September 2013 survey of 100 small business owners in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut after Hurricane Sandy revealed that more than two-thirds of those businesses did not have disasterrecovery plans in place (Wakefield Research, http://www.wakefieldresearch .com/blog/2013/10/07/small-bizunprepared-for-next-hurricane-sandy).
A One-Year Study
In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused major devastation in New York, particularly in the borough of Staten Island, and many small businesses are still struggling to recover. After the storm, small business owners made assessments of their losses, identified requirements to reopen their businesses, and applied for available financial assistance. After attending several post-Sandy forums and interviewing struggling small business owners trying to reopen their businesses, it became evident to the author that planning is necessary to help facilitate the recovery process and prepare for future disasters. It was also evident that many business owners were overwhelmed and unprepared. In an attempt to understand the state of small business disaster preparedness, this author conducted three separate surveys of Staten Island businesses, starting approximately four months after Hurricane Sandy and culminating in February 2014.
Survey 1: NYSSCPA Member Firms
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were more than...