Small business is big business in this country - accounting for 99.7 percent of all employers in the United States, according to the United States Small Business Administration. But unlike their larger counterparts, small businesses are especially at risk from disaster, since few have the resources or knowledge to develop full-scale property protection and continuity plans.

That's why the Institute for Business & Home Safety created Open for Business^sm , a comprehensive disaster planning toolkit. The easy-to-use guide helps business owners reduce the potential for loss should disaster strike, and reopen quickly should they be forced to close. This creates a savings for the business, and also benefits the employees and customers who rely on it.

Open for Business^sm includes an assessment tool that helps the business determine its susceptibility to disaster wherever it has facilities and minimize its risks.

The toolkit also includes materials to help organize the business' critical information and review its essential operations, both of which lead to developing a continuity plan.

The Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI) provided a grant to support the publication of Open for Business^sm . PERI's mission is to serve public, private and nonprofit organizations as a dynamic, forward thinking resource for the practical enhancement of risk management.

See the box at the top right of this page to download Open for Business^sm.