The unfolding tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to affect—and is already affecting—thousands of small business owners, from fishermen to hotel and hospitality providers in states along the Gulf Coast. Sadly, it’s also a reminder, belated for some, of the need for disaster planning in small businesses.
Disaster preparedness and recovery is this month’s featured front-page topic on Business.gov, an official site of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Business.gov provides small business owners with information and resources to comply with laws and regulations, and to take advantage of government programs and services to help them start, expand, and run their businesses. It’s the only government service to provide access to federal, state and local governments from a single website. This month’s feature includes a series of videos on small business disaster planning. One video focuses on last year’s Small Business Week Phoenix Award winners, Juan and Luis Yepez, with SBA disaster program info shared by public information officers Olivia Humilde and Alex Contreras from Disaster Field Operations Center West . It’s a very helpful way to be introduced to this great website linking small businesses to resources across governments.
—Kathryn Tobias