Disaster strikes!

Swine flu. Hurricanes. Earthquakes. Wildfires. The sudden death of your server.

业务灾害的人y forms, and like death and taxes, it's sort of inevitable that you'll be confronted with some variety of disaster at some point. The question is, what's your game plan for dealing with them?

If you haven't asked yourself how your business would keep going if half your employees came down with swine flu at the same time, now's the time to ask that one, because that problem is already here. AtWashington State University'shometown of Pullman, Wash., for example, this week more than2,000 peoplewere out with the flu. And we're not expecting vaccine for this charming bug to be available for at least several more weeks,possibly too lateto make a difference.

To give you a quick crash course, disaster planning falls into a few basic categories:

Replace your people.Who could sub in for your workers if needed? It might pay to offer a few extra job applicants a paid training day in case you ever need them.

Safeguard and access your data.TheNew York Timesrecently reported that data loss is themost common business disaster. What's your backup system? Can your home computer run your business functions, or your laptop? It might be worthwhile to find a server company you could use in a pinch.

Communicate with workers, vendors and customers.If you don't have a phone tree in place with a list of all vital home and cell phone numbers, and haven't done a dry run on using it, for shame. They really come in handy. For instance, when I wrote for thePuget Sound Business Journal,we needed to use ours after theNisqually Earthquakehit in 2001. Brick buildings were down near the office in downtown Seattle and transit was difficult. Because we'd practiced, we were able to be in touch and decide who would go out and cover that story instead of all of us running to the site. As a result, most of us were able to carry on from home, filing for our website and getting stories up despite the logistical problems.

If you haven't done disaster planning, now is the time--it's even National Disaster Planning Month. And there are good resources out there to help you plan: TheSBAhas aguide,as does the federal government atReady.gov.