Open for Business

Welcome to Open for Business, a tool that puts at your disposal the disaster planning and recovery expertise of the U.S.-based Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) and the Canadian-based Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR).

Your interest in this publication clearly reflects the stake you, your family, your employees and even your community have in your business. You’ve worked hard to get the business where it is today, and you want to do everything you can to protect it from risk.

ICLR, an independent, not-for-profit research institute created by Canada’s home, car and business insurers, has brought to Canada through an agreement with IBHS Open for Business a disaster planning toolkit designed specifically for small to mid-sized businesses. The threat of a disaster-related closure is especially great for these businesses because they usually lack the financial resources for recovery, the ability to spread their risk across several geographic locations, ready access to alternative suppliers and other advantages that most large organizations possess. Large firms also have an advantage by possessing the resources and expertise necessary to engage in professional disaster and recovery planning.

Thanks to Open for Business your firm can follow many of the disaster planning and recovery processes used by much larger companies. But, as you will see, you won’t need a large company budget to accomplish the planning and protection basics. You’ll also find that ease of use is a key feature of Open for Business. There is no need for you or your staff to have a background in construction, risk management, property protection or business continuity planning.

Each year disasters such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires force thousands of businesses to close. But even more common events, such as building fires, cause the same result. Our research shows at least 25 percent of those businesses that close following events such as these do not reopen. Many that do struggle to stay in business.

We hope you find Open for Business to be a valuable tool to protect your business, your employees, your customers – and your family - from disaster loss.