It's 3 a.m., and the phone is ringing. That's never a good thing unless it's a wrong number. As soon as the caller asks for you, you know this is serious. A quick inventory of where your loved ones are fills your mind, and then you learn it's your life's work—your company is in trouble.

Disasters take on many guises: a flood, tornado, hurricane, fire, a key staff member takes ill, a high-powered salesperson leaves, or a power outage hits—not to mention some dreaded computer virus. The best way to move from disaster to recovery? As Mom and Dad, the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts all have touted: Be Prepared.

It may sound laughable, but don't have your first disaster before completing a recovery plan. In other words, Do it now, and do not take this project on yourself—unless you want it to take forever, you enjoy doing a zillion rewrites, you aren't concerned with being accurate, or it's no big deal if you ever get started. As you read the steps below, write down the names of those staff members on your team that should handle that specific task(s). Advise those people of what you need and how soon you need it.

The cover page of your Disaster Recovery Plan should contain important contact phone numbers and cell numbers. The owners, as well as the general manager, should have their home and cell numbers noted. Include the Police and Fire Departments' emergency numbers (not just 911), hospital, ambulance, your insurance agent (include account information), and a list of your company's Emergency Response Team. These are your trusted and trained staff members who will take on specific roles in case of a disaster. This list generally includes the owners, general manager and all other department managers or team leaders.

This section includes the location of all exits and fire extinguishers, a list of potential fire hazards and where they are located in the facility.

Here you note any special needs or action steps to recover from a disaster based on your location in the country (Tornadoes—just about anywhere; hurricanes—either coast; earthquakes—primarily the West Coast, etc).

This portion makes up the bulk of your recovery plan and consists of seven important subsections.

Emergency Action Plan : Covers emergency escape procedures, how you will account for all employees after an evacuation, a list of personnel responsible to assist in emergency procedures, the procedure for training new employees about the disaster/evacuation plan, and the next review date required for the plan.

Damage Assessments: Determine the personnel qualified to assess the continued operations of your equipment, what their specific role is, how it is reported and to whom.

Clean-up and Salvage Operations: This part should list qualified companies for general clean-up, electrical work, water clean-up and salvage tasks.

Press Release: As soon as practical after a disaster occurs, and the safety of all employees has been ascertained, a press release should be written and sent to the appropriate media. The company president, owner or spokesperson should be prepared to meet the media.

Generally, the local TV and newspapers will only be interested based upon who you are or just what the disaster was, but don't forget our industry and your customer's industry media. A copy of the media list from the Marketing Department should be included in this part of the plan. Make the press release available to employees, customers, suppliers and relevant media requesting it.

Customer and Supplier Information Process: Here you need to decide the best method for your company to get the information out to your customers. It's also a place where an updated customer list is invaluable. Keep it current. I suggest a monthly or quarterly update with a copy of the information kept off-site.

Emergency Production Process: Break this otherwise formidable task down into three sections: limited damage—where only a few pieces of equipment are involved; moderate damage—where a greater number of pieces of equipment are involved; and extensive damage... (You get the picture).

Insurance: List your agent's contacts, your account information, the person in charge of insurance claims, and most of all, remember to take pictures of everything before it's moved or cleaned up.

Recovering from a disaster, whether minor or major, also requires you to prepare for long-term restoration. Here are three suggested subsections:

Government Relations : Select someone to primarily work between your company and any government agencies (federal, state and local). This can be of great value if you need to file for extensions and waivers of payments due, as well as speed the processing of paperwork for disaster relief.

Internal Communications & Employee Notifications: Once your staff knows the disaster has occurred, you must maintain open communications with them until you're back to business as usual. This means determining how you will stay in touch with staff members, how often that will occur and who is responsible to make sure it happens.

Mutual Aid Agreements: This is the subsection in which to place contact information for friendly competitors who you've spoken to at length, in advance of any disaster, and hopefully while writing the plan. These competitors would agree to act on your behalf in meeting client needs during your reconstruction process. If possible, the terms of each agreement should be noted as well. In some cases, a written agreement may be in order, and if it is, copies should be included.

Chiefly, there are three places to locate help: refer to the Online Guide to Contract Converters from Converting (www.convertingmagazine.com); contact the TLMI, FTA or IoPP associations by phone or online; or talk to your friends in the industry for recommendations or for their help.

Have an updated list of all your current suppliers' contact names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, account numbers and any other pertinent information to assist you in continuing business operations. The aforementioned trade groups can help locate suppliers near you.

Tally all production equipment, including brand name, serial and model numbers, date of purchase, current value and equipment location.

An inventory of all computer-related hardware and software, including brand name, serial number and model numbers, date of purchase, locations of printers, laptops, PCs, mainframes, servers and LANS should be maintained.

This final section of your recovery plan consists of a complete employee contact list, home addresses, phone numbers, etc. Update it every time a new employee is hired—or at least quarterly.

• Review your recovery plan with the Employee Response Team each year for necessary revisions.
• Be certain that each Employee Response Team Member has a current copy of the plan and knows the role they play in executing it.
• Be sure the owner's copy is safely off-site. It's no help to have a disaster with the plan in your office at the disaster site. It's been suggested to our company that the best place to maintain an off-site copy is about 30 miles from the plant. Some disasters affect wide areas, and if the owner lives a few minutes away, his or her home may also be affected.
• Give your local Police and Fire Departments the appropriate sections of your plan each year.

Is your staff aware of the recovery plan and their role in deployment? If planned well and done properly, all these 10 steps can be handled, in most cases, simultaneously.

As with everything life presents, you have a choice. Whether you're an optimist or pessimist, the following situations still apply. Without a disaster plan, how would you answer these additional questions?

The computer is the Holy Grail of every business today. When was the last time all of your computer-related files were backed up? (Include the art department). From time to time, it's a good idea to try and restore a file or two using this backup tape or CD-ROM. It certainly would be more than aggravating to diligently back up files and later learn that there was a problem with the storage medium.

What system is in place that quickly verifies that all employees have evacuated the building? That means also setting up a reporting system for those who may be sick, on vacation or out of the office on business. Be aware at any point in any day where your staff actually is. You don't need a hero running back into a burning building to search for a colleague who's off that day.

Are you able to determine, within hours, what was work-in-process, what is due to ship, which jobs have been lost because of the disaster, and how you will arrange to reprint them? Also, do you know your current inventory of finished goods and raw materials, and what equipment is not operational?

Our industry has a proud history of supporting those in need, but God helps those who help themselves. The TLMI, FTA, IoPP and Converting are but a few resources to keep in mind. If done properly, a plan will keep you focused and moving in a positive direction, especially in those crucial first days.

Devise a disaster-recovery plan now, and then hope, as we do, that it will be like your personal will—looked at periodically, updated but then hopefully never opened again until the next review.

None of us are immune. Be prepared to take disaster planning seriously. Well, that's it for this year. Enjoy the holidays.