9 hurricanes have been predicted for this year’s Atlantic hurricanes season. With only Irene hitting so far, if forecasts are right that is 8 more devastating hurricanes that could hit the east coast in the next 12 weeks. Is your real estate investing business prepared?
There are plenty of resources for telling you what you need to do to physically secure any homes controlled by your real estate investing company, what you should stock up on and how to deal with shady insurance companies but what about keeping your business running?
Can you really afford not to do any real estate investing deals for the next 90 days? What if your operations grind to a halt, all of the marketing that you have out their now is wasted, all the deals currently in your pipeline fall apart and your employees quit because they are worried or you can’t afford to pay them? Will you survive?
Just talk to some of the big real estate investing players of the past who had their businesses wiped out or crippled by hurricanes. Properties can be fixed, insurance companies can be battled with but it is those critical weeks of no movement in your business and resulting months of no income that are the real killers.
The thing is, this can all be avoided by planning ahead, setting up emergency protocols, and having a business model impervious to disasters whether they are hurricanes, earthquakes or terrorist attacks. How can you do this? With basic tools like toll free numbers, call forwarding to Internet phone services, utilizing cloud computing database and collaboration solutions and having virtual staff on call in remote locations. This will enable you to keep on operating without skipping a beat, no matter what is thrown at you. You can’t blame your demise on bad luck, only not being adequately prepared for your real estate investing business to handle anything.
