Business Back-up

It was the first global wake-up call that dramatized not only our reliance on technology but also how vulnerable we can be to the design flaws and weakest links in the technology chain.

Last August, the United States had another rude awakening when The Great Blackout of 2003 hit several states in the Northeast.

This electrical outage avalanche put millions of consumers in the dark, and humdreds of thousands of businesses out of business for several days. Indeed, business owners were reminded that they were one squirrel in a transformer away from computers and other essential assets becoming about as productive as a fern stand.

While Y2K was a once-in-a-millennium event, a recent survey discovered that 80 percent of U.S. small businesses experienced at least one electrical outage in 2003.

The 2004 Small Business Power Poll, commissioned by Emerson, a U.S. manufacturer of power technology, , provides illuminating, if not alarming, information about how vulnerable small businesses are to power outages. For example, 75 percent of small business owners believe they will experience an outage this year, only one in five is prepared for such an event.

No longer just mom-and-pop storefronts, in the 21st century, America’s entrepreneurs produce more than half of the $10.3 trillion U.S. Gross Domestic Product and sign the front of 70 million paychecks weekly. Today, big businesses are more likely to depend on small ones as integrated partners than merely as vendors.

When you combine all this small business critical mass with last year’s 80 percent outage experience and this year’s 67 percent outage expectations, it’s easy to see why it’s important for small businesses to focus on emergency backup power capability.

The good news is that those “big business” backup power technologies are now available and affordable for small businesses. These include the uninterruptible power supply, or UPS, which are battery units, and gen-sets, which are diesel or gas generators with automatic power transfer switches.

Here’s a four-step approach to identify your backup power requirements:

 1. Calculate what it would cost if your business couldn’t serve your customers in the event of a power outage.

 2. Walk around your business and identify the computers, equipment, lights, etc., critical to continuous operation.

 3. Talk with electrical suppliers about the UPS option and electrical contractors about the gen-set solution.

 4. Make the investment.

If you’re tempted to say you can’t afford it, reread Step 1.

For more information, here’s a site to visit where you can get educated without getting a sales pitch: www.gotoemerson.com

Write this on a rock -
The question is not whether you’re going to experience a power outage; it’s whether you’ll be prepared to conduct business during the next one.