Among businesses that close due to a major disaster, roughly one in four never reopen — and only 54% of organizations have a documented disaster recovery plan in place. For small businesses in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area, where seismic activity, wildfire smoke events, and cyber incidents are all realistic threats, those odds deserve serious attention. Emergency planning doesn't require a specialist or a large budget. It requires deciding — before the crisis — what you'll do when something goes wrong.

Start with the Risks Specific to Your Business

Not every hazard affects every business equally. Cal OES advises California small businesses to identify region-specific threats — including earthquakes, wildfires, cyberattacks, and supply chain disruptions — and develop a Business Continuity Plan that outlines how operations will continue during and after a disaster.

In the Bay Area, that means accounting for seismic disruptions, wildfire-related road closures and air quality emergencies, and the elevated cyber exposure that comes with operating in a tech-heavy economy. Businesses in financial services and healthcare face particular risk: the SBA notes that these industries are more likely to be targeted by cyberattacks, and recommends every small business develop an industry-specific plan tailored to its operations and geographic risk profile.

Write the Plan Down

A mental checklist isn't a plan. A written response plan should document:

• Evacuation routes and assembly points for your location

• Who is responsible for what during each type of emergency

• Protocols for notifying customers and vendors about disruptions

• Steps for securing equipment, inventory, and cash

FEMA's Ready.gov offers free business continuity templates covering communications, IT recovery, and operations continuity — a solid starting point that takes less time to customize than you'd expect.

Build an Emergency Communication System

When a crisis hits, your team needs a pre-established way to reach each other — and you need to reach customers and vendors quickly. The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services recommends designating an out-of-town phone number where employees can leave an "I'm okay" message during a catastrophic event, especially when local networks are overwhelmed.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation identifies maintaining an up-to-date emergency contact list — employees, vendors, and key stakeholders — as one of the five core disaster preparedness steps every small business should take. Build that list before you need it.

Back Up Your Data — and Verify the Backup

Critical business records — client lists, contracts, financial files, employee documents — are often the hardest things to reconstruct after a disaster. Regular cloud backups protect against both physical damage and ransomware. Store copies offsite or in a cloud service, and periodically confirm that backups are actually accessible and complete.

If your emergency documentation exists only on a single hard drive or in a folder on your desk, it isn't really backed up.

Train Your Team Before the Emergency

Drills convert a paper plan into muscle memory. Employees need to know where emergency exits are, how to reach the designated out-of-town number, and what their specific responsibilities are if you're not on-site when something happens.

Training doesn't need to be elaborate. A 20-minute walkthrough once or twice a year, combined with written procedures posted in your workspace, covers the essentials for most small businesses.

Print and Distribute Your Emergency Procedures

When power goes out or systems are down, a printed document is often the most reliable reference. Design a one-page summary of your emergency procedures that employees can keep at their workstations or posted near exits.

PDFs are the most portable and printer-ready format for distributing these materials. If your emergency maps, floor plans, or diagrams are saved as PNG image files, here's a solution — Adobe Acrobat's free online converter lets you drag and drop PNG files and convert them to PDFs instantly, with no software installation required.

Stock Basic Emergency Supplies

A modest kit costs very little and goes a long way:

• First aid kit

• Flashlights and extra batteries

• Basic food and water for 72 hours

• Printed copies of critical documents in a waterproof bag

Store these where they're accessible to everyone, not locked in a back office.

Review Your Plan Every Year

Your business changes — staff turns over, locations shift, systems get replaced. A plan written two years ago may reference people who no longer work for you. Build an annual review into your calendar, ideally tied to the start of a new fiscal year or following any significant operational change.

Local Resources Worth Knowing

If you're in the Bay Area and a disaster hits, there are financial resources most owners don't discover until after the fact. San Francisco's Office of Small Business offers a fire disaster relief grant of up to $10,000 for businesses affected by a major fire, along with a separate vandalism grant of up to $2,000 available up to three times per year.

For Danville-area businesses, the Danville Area Chamber of Commerce connects members to regional resources, business networks, and community support programs. Preparedness is also good community citizenship — a business that recovers quickly is a more reliable neighbor and employer when the broader community is under stress.