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Most businesses don’t start planning to have a temporary shutdown, but as the global pandemic has revealed, things can happen outside our control. Knowing what to do when unforeseen events occur is critical. It’s a good idea to plan for all contingencies and remain flexible.

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Protect Your Business from Unforeseen Events

Business interruption insurance can help if your business has to be shut down. This can mean the difference between temporarily shutting your doors and going out of business.

Finding a policy that protects your business at an affordable price is easy. You can bundle policies to save even more and avoid paying for coverage you don’t need. You are maximizing your protection without paying high prices by getting a custom-tailored policy for your business.

A policy that covers a business interruption can make it so that your employees still receive a paycheck and your lights stay on. Without the revenue coming in from your business, you could experience severe cash flow issues if you aren’t protected by business interruption insurance.

Get your policy today. It’s important to stay flexible and plan for unanticipated catastrophes and life events.

10 Things that Can Temporarily Shut Down Your Business

1. Pandemic

These don’t really happen, do they? But, all joking aside, the Covid19 pandemic caught many businesses completely unprepared, and it could certainly happen again. In fact, many scientists say that we should expect it.

Over 40% of businesses in the U.S. had to close temporarily due to Covid19. About 600,000 small businesses fail each year, but because they weren’t prepared, 200,000 more businesses failed due to the pandemic.

2. Theft

Businesses are subject to property destruction and theft, and these have caused many businesses to close at some point temporarily.

Sometimes, the theft is cash. This can keep you from operating until it is replaced. Other times, it is inventory. In both cases, you have to be able to replace your cash flow and inventory to resume business. So again, a commercial crime insurance policy could be right for you.

3. Natural Disasters

Natural disasters can destroy businesses almost faster than anything on this list. Whether localized to your building or your region, fires can put you out of business for months. Likewise, flooding, tornadoes, and even large amounts of snow can cause temporary business shutdowns.

These disasters are outside of your control and can negatively affect your business, but they are the easiest to protect yourself against. Sometimes, a natural disaster will cause an extended power or water outage, keeping you from reopening. Contact your insurance provider to make sure you are covered against these types of disasters.

4. Military Deployment

Life as you know it stops when you or a spouse is deployed to the military. This can mean a complete rearrangement of priorities, especially if you have children. How you close your business and whether or not you will be able to reopen when your deployment ends depends largely on how well you plan.

5. Remodeling

Remodels vary in size and scope, but you might have to close your entire business if you do a large remodel. Make sure you have a plan to communicate fully to customers, employees, and everyone else to get back to business when the remodel is over.

Remodels can sometimes take longer than expected, so be prepared to extend your temporary closure if necessary and have a plan to communicate that as well.

6. Moving to a new location

This is similar to the remodeling situation, but moving can create another set of challenges. When you reopen, people will still be looking for you at your old location. Try to ensure that you have updated your social media and internet links with your new location data.

7. Business License Failures

Failure to obtain or renew your business license isn’t uncommon for temporary business shutdowns, but it is easily preventable.

8. Cash flow problems

This is one of the most common reasons that businesses fail. If cash flow problems are the reason, you are considering a temporary closure, closing your business for good might be a better option. It is going to be hard to bring your business back to its previous levels. You can look at reopening when you have a better opportunity to do so.

9. Slow business periods

Some businesses close temporarily every year during certain times of the year, like seasonal businesses in resort towns. If this is part of your business plan, you are probably prepared for it, but make sure that you have systems in place so that you remain successful.

10. Illness

No one plans on getting sick, but you can still plan for it. Severe health issues of an owner or one of their family members can mean a temporary shutdown for a business, so it is a good idea to have a plan of what to do if this happens to you.

Planning is Key

If you have to close your business for any of these reasons, seek help and guidance. Don’t try to do this alone. There is just too much to handle, and resources are available to you. There is a lot that goes into planning a temporary closure correctly. You want to reopen your business at some point, so a temporary closure has to be done right.

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Image by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s to always expect the unexpected. Thriving economies can be stalled at a moment’s notice, lucrative deals can fall apart at the final hurdle, and even the most stable businesses are vulnerable to external pressures. In other words, all business leaders eventually have to address an organizational crisis. The good news is that being prepared for this moment will help you meet it and protect your business from any potential threat. To that end, here are five crisis-management tips all business owners should know:

Install Safeguards

Many business leaders are, by their very nature, optimists. After all, you have to possess a certain amount of self belief to become an entrepreneur in the first place. Nevertheless, even optimists should have contingency plans and internal safeguards ready to go should a big problem arise. Never embark on any project unless you have a backup plan in place. Otherwise, you could end up scrambling to address an issue you don’t know how to solve.

Assemble a Winning Team

The best leaders understand how to delegate important tasks effectively. Of course, in order to delegate assignments, business leaders need to first surround themselves with capable colleagues. So making quality hires is essential to long-term business viability. Ideally, a business leader should feel comfortable trusting their team to handle any major issue that may come up. And if they’re not, they should reconsider their internal structure.

Remain Solutions Oriented

When a big project goes south, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with panic or fear. However, business leaders need to remain calm and solutions-oriented when addressing a serious issue. Staying positive won’t make a problem go away, but it will help you salvage what you can even when things look bleak.

Innovate

New tech, procedures, and ideas could –– in some instances –– provide business owners with a solution to a potential crisis. Naturally, adopting a new methodology at the 11th hour won’t be easy. That’s why business leaders must be willing to embrace innovation and to remain patient with a new process.

Pull Out All the Stops

It should go without saying, but when their organization is in trouble, business leaders should spring into action and do whatever it takes to improve the situation. For example, booking private jet rentals to set up time-sensitive meetings could give you a way to broker an important deal. Or, hiring a third-party expert like a lawyer or financial consultant could help you navigate a tricky set of circumstances. Regardless, going the extra mile could very well prove the difference between saving your business and losing it. So when things get tough, make sure you get going!

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