Prepare your Office for Hurricane Season 2010
Everyone within the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama tri-state region are aware that Hurricane Season is upon us!
A lot of us have a Family Plan and a Survival Kit put together, but, how many of us have a Plan for our Office?
I am the owner of a Century 21 office in Central Louisiana and I must say quiet honestly that I didn't have an Office Plan....until now!
The first step is to make sure that everyone in your office has their family plan in place as well as their survival kits put together in a location everyone is aware of. It is much easier to take care of your business when you know that your employees and agents are alright!
We all learned lessons from Hurricane Katrina, and the NOAA Climate Prediction Center are predicting an extremely active hurricane season for 2010.
Don't wait until the last minute - Pre-stage what you can! If the weather reports are predicting that a Hurricane is headed your way, don't wait until the last 24 hours to take action! Go ahead and get any employees whose responsibilities can be put on hold out of harm's way. Let them go home to their families so they can implement their Family Plan! Move work processing to alternate location when possible. In this day of technology a lot of what we do can be handled from remote locations. Make sure that all of your backups are up to date. This type of situation is the reason that I have an online back-up storage site! It doesn't help you to back-up to a local location, only to have it destroyed in a storm.
In the days before the Hurricane - don't forget to check on your Clients and Customers. Make a point to check on any vacant homes, make sure they are secure. If they have refrigerators in them, you may want to go ahead and unplug them, empty out the ice bucket and prop both of the doors open; there is nothing worse than a stinky refrigerator that has been closed up with the electricity off and believe me this will happen even when they are empty! Once the storm has passed go back and put it all back together! Your clients will greatly appreciate your taking pre-cautions with their property!
Make sure to take down your real estate signs temporarily to avoid any broken windows or other damage they could cause if they go airborne!
TIP - Once it is obvious the storm is headed towards my area I will go ahead and forward my office phones out to my cell phone. That way when we lose electricity I don't miss any incoming phone calls to the office after the storm. Sometimes you can be without electricity for a week after the dust settles. This way I'm not scrambling to get my phone service transferred afterwards due to the fact if you don't have electricity you don't have telephone service!
You may want to check in on your clients to make sure they are secure and not in need of any assistance! It would be very helpful to already have a Hurricane Preparedness Flyer put together to email to each of your clients in advance of the approaching Hurricane. Make sure you include phone numbers for the RED CROSS and other organizations that would lend help if needed!
As with your home you should make sure you have an updated inventory of all FF&E in your office, supply a copy of this with pics to your insurance agent for his records.
You may also want to scan each of your signed listing agreements as well as your contracts into a folder that you back up on a consistent basis and definitely when a storm is on the way.
If we learned anything from Hurricane Katrina - we know circumstances can change quickly! Take care of your family, make sure your neighbors are safe, and protect your business!
Above all Prepare and Be Safe!
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