SPOKANE – The Washington Small Business Development Center (SBDC) recently partnered with Disaster Resistant Business (DRB) Toolkit® to help small businesses develop their disaster plans.
The Disaster Resistant Business (DRB) Toolkit®, a comprehensive software tool, is free to Washington businesses. This cutting-edge tool is 100 percent customizable, designed to help all small businesses build their emergency programs – including creating, enhancing, updating and testing their disaster plans.
The toolkit was developed through a unique and unprecedented public-private partnership of subject-matter experts in Washington to insure that it is both comprehensive and user-friendly.
“We consciously combed through the materials to eliminate wherever possible all overly technical language. It is written in a language that all people can understand,” said Ines Pearce, founder and president of the DRB Toolkit Workgroup.
“I am a Washington native and am proud to be partnering with Terry Chambers of the Washington State SBDC, as the SBDCs are a vital resource to businesses,” she said. “I’m even prouder to be giving this back to the people of my home state. Washington has always been at the forefront of technology, so it makes sense that we started here.”
The primary purpose of a disaster plan and program is to first ensure the safety of the employees and then ensure the continuation or re-instatement of time-sensitive business operations after unplanned disruptions such as fire, power or communications blackout, hurricane, flood, earthquake, civil disturbance, etc.
The DRB Toolkit® provides a comprehensive yet simplified approach for businesses using a software application that is interactive and has video prompts to guide the user through information input. The information input into the application produces a disaster plan created from the knowledge provided by the user.
No prior experience is needed to use the Toolkit.
“The best thing about the DRB Toolkit® is that no one need be an expert in business continuity in order to use it,” Pearce said. “All of that expertise is built into the tool itself. You only have to be an expert in your own organization; the toolkit does the rest.”
After going through the toolkit, a company will have a disaster program (also known as a business continuity program) and plan that address critical elements, such as employee training.
Businesses interested in working with the SBDC to develop a disaster plan, or to receive a code for a free copy of the DRB Toolkit®, should contact their local SBDC adviser. Advisors can be located on the website. For more information about the toolkit itself, visit www.DRBToolkit.org.
The SBDC provides no-charge confidential advising and low-cost training to current and prospective business owners. It is a cooperative effort between WSU, community colleges, economic development organizations, and the U.S. Small Business Administration. For more information on the mission and services of the SBDC, visit the network website.
