Never-ending Unprecedented Times: Hurricane Sandy. COVID. And a devastating warehouse fire.

Red Hook is more than the quirky industrial corner of Brooklyn. It's a haven for creators, artists, makers, and freelancers. Unfortunately, it's also incredibly vulnerable to a growing number of climate-induced disasters, from flooding to power outages caused by extreme heat and heavy wind.

We know this firsthand. Hurricane Sandy brought the neighborhood to a halt, putting entire blocks underwater and shuttering businesses for months. COVID rippled through the whole city's business community, forcing owners to reinvent how they operate overnight. And most recently, a warehouse fire devastated local artists, resulting in the loss of 287 years' worth of work, a gut-punch reminder that disasters never look exactly the same.  

While many of these instances are labeled 'unprecedented events’, they're increasingly becoming the pattern. And as a small business alliance in a vulnerable area, home to all types and sizes of businesses, we’ve learned the hard way that preparation is one of the biggest assets any business owner can have.

While Red Hook businesses face a unique risk profile, they should serve as a bellwether and example for all small business owners and freelancers. Every business has a unique risk profile. Whether you’re a ceramicist with a kiln, a freelancer working from home, or a small manufacturer with inventory.

Know Your Risk. Know Your Coverage. Know Your Plan.

Using insights from real experiences of our businesses, we built a small business emergency preparedness guide and microsite with educational webinars.

Our guide breaks down preparedness into three simple pillars: knowing your risk, knowing your coverage, and knowing your plan. 

Know your risk 

Risk is more than a number your insurance company spits out. It's the specific set of things that could disrupt your operation and the honest reckoning of what each one would cost you. For some, the biggest threat is water. For others, it's fire, a power outage that spoils a fridge full of product, or simply getting sick with no one else who knows how to run the business. 

Know your coverage

While insurance is a critical part of your coverage, your business continuity plans and resilience measures also factor into how you cover your risk profile. When it comes to insurance, many small businesses learn the most about their policies after something goes wrong. It’s important to be asking the right questions, properly insuring your business (yes, OVERinsuring is possible), and always shopping around for the right policy.

Know your plan

Business continuity planning (BCP) is the process of identifying how your business will keep operating (or safely pause and restart) when something disrupts normal operations. Figuring out how you will get production or service back up and running, keep biz administration going, access critical information, and communicate effectively internally and externally are the basic pieces. We suggest thinking about planning in terms of preparation, response, and recovery. This could look like creating backup systems, having designated response team members, or even just making sure you know what numbers to call in the case of an emergency.

Five things you can do in five minutes

Preparedness can feel overwhelming, so start small. None of these take more than a few minutes, and each one makes you meaningfully more resilient than you were before.

1. Put a value to your valuables. Snap a video of your space. Walk through with your phone and record everything: equipment, inventory, serial numbers, the whole space. If you ever file an insurance claim, this footage is worth its weight in gold. Save it somewhere that isn't only on-site.
2. Read your exclusions and your declaration. Most people are familiar with their declarations but not their exclusions. Check out both and don’t be afraid to reach out to your broker. A good broker is happy to learn more about business to better serve you.
3. Name your person. Write down who has the authority to make decisions and access your accounts if you can't. For solo operators especially, this is the gap most likely to go unplanned — if something happens to you, someone needs to be able to keep the lights on or shut things down safely. 
4. Back up the documents you can't afford to lose. Things like: licenses and permits, insurance policies, your lease, vendor contracts, equipment records, tax records, and account credentials. The rule of thumb is that every critical document should live in two places — a physical copy stored off-site and a digital copy in the cloud. Pick the one that would hurt most to lose, and make sure it's backed up today.
5. Download our small business emergency preparedness guide and check out the materials and resources. Spend a few minutes perusing the materials and saving your copy of the guide. Fill out the worksheets or watch the webinars at your own pace.

Founded in 2019, the Red Hook Business Alliance represents the diverse business community of manufacturers, retailers, restaurants, bars, artists, professionals, and non-profits across Red Hook. Our mission is to ensure the economic vitality of the Red Hook community and the preservation of one of NYC’s most dynamic and unique waterfront neighborhoods.