Pub. 4 2015-2016 Issue 4

22 San Diego Dealer Handling Disaster – When it Happens to Your Dealership By Susan Morgan T omorrowmorning, a little while before it’s time for your alarm to go off, the unthinkable happens: it’s an earth- quake, the big one that experts have been warning us about. You’re lucky. Incredibly, your house is still standing when it’s over, damage is minimal, and your entire family is safe. Your dealership isn’t so lucky. As you look at the damage later that day, you realize that it’s going to be awhile before you can open your doors for business again. The building is only partially standing, the computers look like they are going to be a complete loss, and the cars on your lot…well, let’s just say cleaning up is going to take some time. What are you going to do now? Start by thinking about what’s at risk if a disaster occurs. Your assets can be tangible, like the dealership where you open the door every morning, or intangible — such as the knowl- edgeable, skilled employees who do a great job of representing your dealership—and they can also consist of intellectual property. According to the Strategic Research Institute, you only have ten days to get your doors open again; miss that window, and chances are your dealership is permanently out of business. Say that somehow you manage to pull that off. The clock is still ticking. Two years after a major disaster, the Association of Records Managers and Administrators has found that 60 percent of all businesses have closed their doors for good because they can’t handle the costs associated with the recovery. Say that your disaster isn’t an earthquake. For 91 percent of those currently living in the U.S., many things can potentially go wrong. An earthquake is a big one in the western U.S., but the University of South Carolina’s Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute has a scary list of other disasters to contemplate. A volcano could explode, for example, or there are tornados and hurricanes, epidemics, flooding, terrorism, wind damage, and wildfire to think about. Continued on page 24