Our most recent article, "Insuring the Uninsurable: How Safe Are Your Funeral Home's Documents?" was recently published on pages 46 and 47 of the May/June issue of Funeral Business Advisor. It's a topic that became even more important for us to cover in the wake of the tragic effects of a number of tornadoes this spring, and which has us thinking even about our own preparedness plans in the event of a disaster.

Many funeral home and cemetery managers and directors don't consider themselves at risk when it comes to documents being lost or destroyed, either by human error or Mother Nature. Even as buildings and businesses all around them are devastated by storms and fires, it's easy to say, "I don't need to protect my documents." But for those who have been spared, or who are lucky enough to live in areas untouched by storms, is it worth consdering how you're storing your funeral home or cemetery documents?

Hurricane season began last Wednesday, and we began to feel the winds of a stormy summer here in Tampa, as a thunderstorm hit our area late that afternoon. It's expected to be quite a season, with a 72% probability of at least one major (Category 3-5) hurricane making landfall somewhere on the U.S. coastline, a 48% probability of one striking the U.S. East Coast, including Florida, and a 47% of a storm hitting the Gulf Coast, from the Florida panhandle westward to Brownsville.

I know it's impossible to think about protecting your business when all you can do it figure out what goes with you and where to go when you evacuate. For that very reason, you might want to take a look at your plan now, in advance of any disaster, and develop a solid preparedness plan that accounts for all aspects of your business - including your customers' information.

Among the tips discussed in our FBA article are:

1. Determine exactly what information you have stored, where it's stored and its priority.
2. Figure out how quickly you need to recover from an operational outage.
3. Consider how your information is backed up - and how, when and where you'd have access to that backup.

According to the Institute for Business and Home Safety, roughly 25 percent of businesses do not reopen after a major disaster. It's up to you to make sure your business doesn't suffer just because your records are beyond recovery.

For information on how web-based document management can help protect your business records, read about our hosted solutions.