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Print ArticleIf the power goes out, will America's small businesses be prepared? Not really, according to the results of a recent survey commissioned by Emerson Network Power.
The survey results indicate that the issue is not really "if" the power will go out but "when." Consider these statistics:
- 79 percent of the small-business decision-makers surveyed experienced at least one power outage in 2007.
- 67 percent of respondents anticipate experiencing outages again in the next 12 months.
- Even more alarming is that of the small businesses that experienced outages in 2007, 42 percent had to close their businesses during the longest outages.
And while small-business decisionmakers ranked outages above fire, government regulation, weather damage, theft, and employee turnover as threats to their businesses, only 39 percent of them have back-up power systems, leaving 61 percent vulnerable to the negative business impacts of outages.
"Keeping the lights on, the computers running, and employees working during a power outage is important for any business, but particularly for small businesses," said Ed Feeney, an Emerson executive vice president who heads up Emerson Network Power's Systems business, which provides back-up power technologies. "Their margin for error is thinner and the competition's tighter, so even a brief outage can do significant harm. This makes back-up power systems a fundamental part of business continuity."
In a tight economy, a plunge into darkness could put a small business in the red. On average, power outages cost about $80 billion each year, with most losses — 98 percent — borne by businesses, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
