Small businesses face unique challenges when it comes to building resilience, particularly in the context of risk and emergency management. Limited resources, tight budgets, and a need to adapt swiftly can make resilience-building seem daunting. In this listicle, we present seven practical and cost-effective trainings, exercises, and processes that small businesses can implement to enhance their resilience. By focusing on risk and emergency management, small businesses can better prepare for potential disruptions and safeguard their operations.

Before we get started, we wanna tell you why we’re uniquely qualified to give such a list. After a decade in the disaster management space, we’ve seen just about everything. From deployments and exercises to planning and after-action reporting, we’ve worked with all kinds of businesses, big and small, public and private, in a variety of industries. These are some of our biggest takeaways from our experience with resilience-building. And if you’re interested in learning more about our own resilience-building offerings, head here.

1. Business Continuity Planning: You might think that being a small business makes you exempt from thinking about business continuity, but having a plan that futurecasts and accounts for a variety of incidents is important for any business, no matter how small. Develop a business continuity plan that outlines procedures to follow in the event of a disruption. Identify critical business functions, establish backup systems and data storage, and create a clear communication strategy. This plan will serve as a roadmap for maintaining operations during unexpected events, ensuring quick recovery and minimizing downtime. A business continuity plan is one of the most effective ways for you and your team to build resilience into your processes. Here is a template from FINRA to get you started.

1. Emergency Response Training: This one is rapidly evolving giving the growing number of remote companies. For in-person working situations, provide employees with basic emergency response training to equip them with the necessary skills to handle crises effectively. This training could include first aid/CPR certification, fire safety protocols, evacuation procedures, or communication protocols during emergencies. Regular drills and simulations can further enhance readiness and response capabilities.

However, your business might be remote, in which case it might not make a ton of sense to have your employees go through basic emergency response training. Cybersecurity training (which we’ll discuss later) is one way to prepare your team for emergencies. Additionally, encouraging your employees to understand their own surroundings (their own evacuation procedures, wifi backup plans, local resources, etc.) is a great place to start when training your team for emergency response. Check out this article to learn a little bit more about emergency preparedness in remote work.

1. Risk Assessment and Management: Merely assessing potential risks to your business is setting yourself up to be more resilient. Conduct a comprehensive risk assessment to identify potential vulnerabilities and threats specific to your business. Evaluate the likelihood and potential impact of each risk and develop risk mitigation strategies accordingly. By proactively managing risks, small businesses can minimize potential disruptions and increase their overall resilience. Here’s a good resource to get you thinking about potential risks.

1. Cybersecurity Training: This is a top priority for any business owner looking to make resilience a top priority. Data breaches are only getting more frequent, and with the rapid rise of AI tools, it’s more important than ever before to invest in cybersecurity training. Cybersecurity training aims to educate employees on best practices for data protection and cyber threat prevention. Train employees to identify phishing attempts, use strong passwords, and handle sensitive information securely. Regularly update security protocols and stay informed about emerging cyber threats to maintain a robust defense against cyber attacks. Start with this resource from CISA to learn more and go from there!

1. Incident Management Training: This might sound similar to emergency response training, and that’s because it is. But they’re not quite the same thing. This kind of training would look like training in the form of workshops and potentially simulated scenarios. Implement incident management training to enhance your team’s ability to handle unexpected incidents effectively. This training should include incident response protocols, escalation procedures, and clear roles and responsibilities. By ensuring a structured and coordinated response, small businesses can minimize the impact of incidents and restore normal operations swiftly. We run an ICS Bootcamp for those serious about learning incident management.

1. Solution Review Panels: Audits are a great way to assess what you have and what you might be missing. Solution Review Panels are specifically geared toward finding out what technology is serving and what technology isn’t. To do this, engage external experts to conduct solution review panels to evaluate your current processes and technologies. These audits provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your risk and emergency management practices. The experts can offer recommendations for improvement, ensuring that your small business is utilizing the most efficient processes and technologies to protect its resilience. We’ve run solution review panels for a number of organizations and would be happy to do so for yours!

1. Cross-Training and Succession Planning: Lastly, one way to build resilience is to continually strengthen the connective tissue between you and your team members. Encourage cross-training among employees to ensure that essential skills and knowledge are not reliant on a single individual. Develop a succession plan that identifies key roles and potential successors, enabling seamless operations during employee absences or transitions. This approach builds resilience by reducing the risk of operational disruption due to personnel changes.

Building resilience for small businesses can seem like a daunting task, but by implementing practical and cost-effective risk and emergency management strategies, it becomes more manageable. The seven trainings, exercises, and processes outlined in this listicle provide a solid foundation for small businesses to enhance their resilience. By investing in these measures, small businesses can prepare for potential disruptions, safeguard their operations, and navigate challenges with greater confidence. Resilience becomes not just a nebulous term but an actionable goal that can contribute to the long-term success of small businesses.