In 2017, The Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC) of Revelstoke, a non-profit agency that supports local entrepreneurs, hosted a business continuity workshop. Only two businesses showed up.
When the program originally launched, one of the emergencies it covered was a pandemic. In December 2019, that scenario came to pass with COVID-19, and Carolyn Gibson who works as a coach with Startup Revelstoke, a CFDC program that helps new entrepreneurs through networking, educational seminars, one-on-one coaching and mentoring, said many local businesses were left scrambling without a plan in place. That was the catalyst for Revelstoke Ready, offered as an online tutorial on CFDC’s website, and through occasional in-person workshops.
After looking at the information from the sparsely-attended business continuity workshop, Gibson immediately realized the 77-page document wasn’t going to fly with small business owners.“During COVID, we decided to relaunch this program and rebrand it as Revelstoke Ready to help business owners simplify it a bit more, so they could be ready for any of the emergencies when they might happen,” Gibson said during an interview with the Mountaineer.
How can you be Revelstoke Ready?
The Revelstoke Ready program explores all the possible emergency scenarios that could happen in Revelstoke, from quite likely to rare, and helps businesses prepare for each of these scenarios, Gibson explained. While many people have emergency-related grab-and-go checklists at their homes in case of fires, utility outages or flooding, it’s not always the same case for local businesses. However, Gibson pointed out that many people spend a majority of their time at work, so it’s well worth having an emergency plan in place.
“[Your staff] might not be able to get home,” Gibson said. “You might not be able to get home.”
During the workshop presentations, Gibson said she highlights the importance of having critical business information handy – including a General Sales Tax number, employee contact information, and information on key suppliers and major customers, along with a basic emergency contact list.
She recommended printing out paper copies of these documents and other important information as well, citing a recent visit to the Revelstoke Chamber’s monthly coffee chat, along with representatives from the Revelstoke RCMP and Revelstoke Fire Rescue Services, where they discussed scenarios involving the loss of cell towers and internet.
Revelstoke Ready workshops also include information on preparing evacuation guides, and making sure your business has the right type of insurance as well as other ways to mitigate risk.
“You want to avoid risk, but what we’re talking about are natural disasters, wildfires or something you can’t avoid,” she said.
How can you mitigate risk?
Ensure you have security cameras, back-ups of your computers, up-to-date insurance and the right type of coverage, Gibson said.
It’s also a good practice to go around your place of business with a video camera a few times a year, as a way to document all of the assets.
Perhaps one of the most integral pieces of information centres on knowing how to get information from the city during an emergency. During a recent workshop, Gibson said only a few people were aware of the phone app Alertable, which provides emergency alerts via cell phone notifications.
A good emergency preparedness plan goes beyond knowing where to look for information though. It’s also imperative for businesses to ensure any contact information is updated. Prior to COVID, Gibson was working with other outreach advisors in Merritt and Hope and in one case, the city had out-of-date information, which made it difficult to get critical information out to business owners.
“Maybe your cell number has changed, does the city have that?” Gibson asked. “The other part, I think from Hope, is that some stores were closed and some weren’t. One of the stores after the wildfires, didn’t update [its] online information or voicemail. They were open but no one knew they were open. They got to go back earlier because they were essential, but they didn’t bother updating any of the communication strategies.”
You can find more information about Revelstoke Ready, including the online tutorial, on the CFDC website. An in-person workshop is being planned for spring 2024.
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