Weather can be unpredictable, but what is predictable is what it can do to your business. Power can go out, fires can spark, and electronics can short-circuit. An interruption in your everyday business operations, big or small, instantly results in a loss of revenue. When the interruption is caused by damages to your building or assets, the resulting loss in income compounds exponentially.

This year, in August in particular, many New England businesses were affected by significant building damage as a result of a series of severe storms. Basements and storage areas along exterior walls are always prone to this damage and are considered a high risk area. This doesn’t often factor into the decision-making process when deciding where you want to store information, documents, or other things that arent needed on a daily basis. Fires like the three-alarm fire in Scarborough this September can be caused by something as small as a malfunctioning electrical wire. In Bar Harbor, an early September fire resulted in the demolition of the Portside Grill.

Fires and storm damage are both year-round dangers, and are only two of the many ways in which your daily business operations can come to an unexpected halt. Far too often, a disaster can send business owners scrambling to find out whether or not they’re covered for the damages. At United Insurance, we know that disasters are not something you can predict, but they are certainly something for which you can plan and prepare.

The best way to prepare against an interruption is to ensure that your agent knows your business inside and out. Your coverage is comprehensive, but as a small business your company is constantly changing and even the smallest changes could matter in a big way. Although these changes may seem inconsequential—especially something like moving a box of files to the basement—when the basement floods and those files are lost, the consequence can far outweigh the time it takes to call your agent to make sure you really understand your coverage.

With fourth quarter upon us and 2014 drawing to a close, we encourage you to take a few minutes to review your coverage with your agent to make sure that events outside your control don’t prevent you from getting back to business as usual.