Power outages can happen to anyone, especially a small business. When an outage occurs at home, you can rest easy knowing that power could potentially return to your home soon. At a small business, however, it could be a minor or major setback depending on how bad the outage is. When a power outage occurs make sure you follow this guide to prevent any further hinderances at your small business.

Preventative Planning

A power outage can occur at any time within your small business. That’s why it’s best you implement an emergency plan in the case that this does happen. Having an emergency plan discussed with your employees grants them the readiness they’ll need to make themselves safe. Some preventative measures you could use in the event of a power outage include having flashlights handy or having a standby generator. If you live in South Florida, you can avoid the issue entirely with a standby generator from Rack Electric. If none of those accessories are at your disposal continue reading below to see what should be in your emergency power outage plan.

Employee Safety

In the event that a power outage does occur, the first thing you should do is ensuring the safety of your employees. The lights will go out and that means accidents are more prone to happen. If your small business consists of areas where injuries are likely to occur in the event of darkness, instruct your employees to stay in place if possible. Don’t have them move until they have a light source ready and available for them to use, such as a flashlight. Also, if elevators or escalators are at your job, instruct them not to take them. Account for every employee and make sure that they are in a safe place during the outage.

Customer Safety

Just as equally as important as the employees are the customers and you’ll want to ensure their safety, too. Make sure you account for every customer in your business and guide them to a safer spot in your building if needed.

Call the Utility Company

Once the well-being of everyone in the store has been assessed, call utility company that supplies your power and inquire about the cause and recovery time of the power outage. They may or may not be able to offer you the reason behind the outage and can estimate when power will be restored.

Prevent Surge Damage

To prevent surge damage, have all of your equipment that was turned on before the outage to be switched in the off setting. As an extra preventative measure, unplug all equipment that relies on power from an outlet. Leaving them plugged in doesn’t only put you at risk of losing costly equipment but can also cause fires.

Producing Sales

If your business survives due to in-store purchases, try to still do transactions with your customers if possible. Cash registers can be open using a key and you can use a calculator to aid you in the transaction if you have one handy somewhere.

Should You Send Employees Home?

Depending on the severity of the outage, consider if you should send employees home. If they’re not able to produce work then there’s no reason to keep them there. Depending on what sort of business you have, your employees could do work at home if possible.

After Power is Restored

After power is restored, tally the damage and setbacks caused by the power outage. If the outage only took place within a short span of time, this may not be necessary. However, if longer, assess what losses occurred during the outage. How much in sales did you lose? What damage occurred to equipment? Questions like these should be taken into consideration as well as other relatable ones. Once these questions have been assessed, plan out how you can recover from these losses.

Rack Electric Can Aid You in Preventative Measures

If you want to take extra steps in preventing a power outage from hindering your business, consider hiring Rack Electric to get a generator installed at your small business. Rack Electric has been in service for over 20 years and has been trusted by many South Florida residents to supply them with backup power. If interested call us at (561) 391-3550 or visit our contact page.