Disaster Preparedness List
for Your Jewelry Business

© by Rena Klingenberg; all rights reserved

This disaster preparedness list covers a few simple things you can do now, so you can avoid a lot of the stress and hassle of an unexpected emergency.

A disaster may be small or large - but whatever its size, you probably won't have enough advance warning to make good decisions or gather the right things to bring with you if you flee to a safer place - or if you need to move things quickly to safer ground.

In addition to doing some personal disaster planning and prep for yourself and your family, I highly recommend that you also take a few steps now to protect your jewelry business in the event of an emergency.

Some of these steps below are systems you can easily set up now, that will enable continue your jewelry business without interruption.

The other steps involve simply gathering and packing some essential things now, so you can just quickly grab them up and go in an emergency.

When I talk about "grab and go", I mean that you may be either:

• throwing these items into the car as you evacuate from a disaster, or
• grabbing these items and moving them to a safer place (such as your basement during a tornado, or - as I recently did - to a higher place in your home during a flash flood).

Either way, you won't have time to make decisions or pack things, so being set up to "grab and go" is the best solution!

Using Internet-based services and file storage is one of the best ways to protect the online aspect of your business.

That way, if your computer is damaged or disappears during a disaster or theft, all of your files, photos, and even email are still intact and readily available to you.

It's a good idea to have your email set up on a web-based account such as Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo Mail.

As long as you have access to a computer and an Internet connection, you can keep up with your email and communicate with your customers.

If you'd be lost without all the bookmarks you've created for the places you go most often online, why not import them into a web-based bookmarking service such as Delicious?

You can choose to make your bookmarks public so other people can see them too, or to keep them private for your eyes only.

Many jewelry artists already upload their photos to an online image storage-and-sharing service like Flickr. If you aren't doing that with your jewelry business photos, you may want to consider it.

If anything ever happens to your computer, you won't lose your jewelry photos - and you can access them from another computer.

You can easily store and access your documents for free online at Google Docs. Choose to keep them private, or to share them with specific people you're working with.

As you check off things on your disaster preparedness list, decide what you'll do regarding your computer in the event of an emergency. Here are some things you may want to think about:

You should always have at least one current backup of your computer files. And in the event of a disaster, you'll be very glad to have a backup that's located someplace that's away from the disaster event.

I use and highly recommend Carbonite, a service that continually and automatically backs up the files on your computer to an encrypted account online.

Once you go through Carbonite's easy setup, you never have to mess with it again - and you'll always have a current off-site backup.

If you have a laptop computer, keep a laptop backpack or carrying case stored handily nearby.

Then in the event of an emergency (and if you have time to do this safely), you can grab your laptop, mouse, and power cord and toss them into the carrying case to take with you or move to a safer place.

If you have a desktop computer, the most important component is the CPU or tower. However, this unit is usually bulky and difficult to grab and go in an emergency.

Someone once told me that the safest place to stow your CPU during a disaster is inside the dishwasher in your kitchen!

The dishwasher is made to keep water in during washing, so it's also going to be good at keeping water (and other stuff) out during a disaster.

You may need to remove the dishwasher's racks so your CPU will fit inside it.

Of course, make sure no one will be turning the dishwasher on until your CPU is safely removed from it again.

Another thing to take care of on your disaster preparedness list is your important printed paperwork and documents.

I recommend deciding ahead of time which papers and files you'd want with you if you had to evacuate or move things to a safer place.

Then always keep those papers and files in a plastic file box with a tight-fitting lid, like the one below, that you could easily grab and run with if you had to:

What papers and files should you keep in this portable file box? You would probably be glad to have things like:

• Usernames and passwords for the sites and accounts you access on the Web.
• Receipts for jewelry business purchases.
• Records of jewelry business income.
• Customer records or info.
• Info for your year-end taxes.
• Contact info for your customers and other business-related relationships.
• Phone numbers, home addresses, and email addresses for family and friends.
• Bank account contact info and account numbers.
• Credit card account numbers.
• Social security cards, passports, and other identification that's essential to have and hard to replace.
• Business and personal insurance papers, including your policy numbers and the contact info for your insurance agent or company.
• Medical records, prescription info, and contact info for your doctors and pharmacy.
• Any other important or hard to replace files or paperwork.

Since this file box contains a lot of sensitive info, it's a good idea to store it out of sight in case your home is ever broken into.

If you need to evacuate to another location, you may be really glad to have some of your jewelry tools and supplies with you.

In A Beader's Hurricane Katrina Success Story, Melanie Solis tells how she grabbed some of her tools and supplies at the last minute before fleeing from the storm.

As it turned out, Melanie was very glad she'd brought her jewelry making stuff. She wasn't able to return home again for a while - but she was still able to make and sell jewelry while living in another citiy as an evacuee.

She says, "NEVER, EVER leave home for extended periods of time without your beads and jewelry making tools!"

Delia Stone, a jewelry artist who had to evacuate from Hurricane Ivan, agrees.

Delia also decided at the last minute to bring her case of jewelry making supplies with her as she fled. She didn't intend to be gone from home for very long, so she had only a small amount of money with her. But before she could return home again, her car needed repairs.

Delia's jewelry supplies came to the rescue. She was able to earn the money she needed by teaching several jewelry workshops in the area where she was staying temporarily.

She says her only regret was that she hadn't also grabbed her finished jewelry inventory before leaving home, since she could have sold several of her pieces in shops and home parties via people who wanted to help her.

Delia agrees with Melanie - "NEVER leave home with out your jewelry and your supplies. They're as good as an American Express card!"

So how can you bring your jewelry supplies with you at a moment's notice - and in a relatively compact container?

It depends on the materials and techniques you use in making your jewelry. There are all kinds of nifty organizers and containers that would work well as a portable jewelry studio.

Here's what I use; you may be able to adapt this idea to work for you, too:

I use two of these 3-drawer plastic containers. The drawers each measure about 8.5" x 11". (If I wanted to, I could also condense my supplies down to just one of these containers.)

You can find all kinds of containers like this in the organizing-container section of stores like Staples, Target, Walmart, etc.

In the first of these 3-drawer containers, I keep:

• Top drawer - cabochons and other wire-wrappable odds and ends.
• Middle drawer - nearly all of my wire collection.
• Bottom drawer - jewelry tools.

  In the second of these containers, I keep:

  • Top drawer - beading supplies (earwires, headpins, leather cord, beading wire, clasps, crimp beads, new mini-ziplocks for packaging sold jewelry).
  • Middle drawer - a variety of gemstone beads.
  • Bottom drawer - a variety of other types of beads.

    I can make and sell a ton of jewelry on the road with just what's inside these two containers.

    The containers stack nicely, keep everything neatly organized, take up almost no space inside my car, and are easy to carry into any place I go. They're also waterproof - an important feature in most disaster situations!

    I keep them fully stocked, ready to grab and go anywhere at a moment's notice.

    Actually I take them lots of places with me, whenever I'd like to make jewelry away from home. I've even taken them on camping trips and made jewelry in the wilderness!

    
    

    Disaster Preparedness for
    Your Finished Jewelry Inventory

    As Melanie and Delia mentioned above, people they met during their temporary stays were very willing to buy their finished jewelry.

    If you're considering bringing part or all of your inventory during an evacuation (or moving it to safer ground during a disaster), keep some of your pieces stored in a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid, ready to grab and go.

    Fortunately, a lot of jewelry can fit in a small space, so you can bring a fair amount of your inventory without lugging huge cases around.

    Consider plastic organizer containers or food-storage containers for this purpose.

    Remember to store each piece of jewelry in an individual mini-ziplock bag to protect it inside the storage container.

    
    

    Personal and Family
    Disaster Preparedness

    Depending on your situation, there are a variety of personal preparations you should consider taking care of - such as medications, pet care, transportation, money, clothes, food, etc.

    You'll find some helpful disaster preparedness lists and tips for your personal and family safety on the Red Cross and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) websites.

    
    

    I Hope You Never Experience
    a Disaster or Emergency!
    However ...

    I've discovered that the best way to minimize how much a disaster affects you is to be prepared ahead of time.

    By having your disaster preparedness list, personal disaster kit, and jewelry business essentials ready to grab and go, you can get to safety quickly without having to think.

    You'll also have fewer regrets later about things you left behind that wind up lost or damaged in the disaster - or things you wish you'd brought with you if you can't return home for a while.

    Taking these few simple steps now will make it so much easier for you to pick up and continue with your life and your jewelry business after an unexpected event occurs.

    ---

    Return to top of Disaster Preparedness List for Your Jewelry Business.

    Learn more about Jewelry Business Security and Safety.

    Return to Home Jewelry Business Success Tips home page.