Business Recovery After the Hurricane: A Checklist

Let’s talk about business recovery after a major weather even.

We still have six weeks to go in the hurricane season! But many of our clients have already experienced physical damage as well as interruption to their businesses including loss of revenue.

What are the Most Important Tasks for Business Recovery?

Communicate with Your Lender!

• Believe it or not, if you have commercial real estate, contact your lender right away.
• Let the lender know about any damages and how you think this might affect your business. Be honest about what the challenges could be in terms of both revenue and expenses.
• Your lender may reduce or delay your regular mortgage payments for a short time.
• If GRP Capital helped you find a loan, we are happy to work directly with the lender on your behalf, so you can attend to your business recovery needs.

Determine Physical Damage and Engage Insurance

• First, determine all of the physical items that need to be repaired. It’s critical to obtain multiple quotations.
• If your repairs are extensive, you may want to hire an attorney who specializes in real estate, insurance and contracts. Critically, this attorney will work directly with the insurance adjuster.
• On the advice of an attorney, you may want to hire your own “public adjuster”. A public adjuster works for you and not the insurance company.
• Find out the procedures for paying for repairs. Some insurance companies have preferred providers. They may have their own forms and secure links for invoices.
• If you were already considering renovations, consider combining hurricane repair with renovations. Click here for more information on this business plan.

Loss of Income or Business Interruption

• In addition to physical damage, how is your business functioning?
• Have you suffered business interruption because your business had to close due to damage or power failures?
• Were you unable to operate at capacity because your employees were unavailable?
• Make a list of all of the ways your business had economic injury. If you have business interruption insurance, you can provide this list to your agent.

Apply for SBA Disaster Loans

• The Small Business Administration sets aside money in cases of major weather events.
• In order to apply for help following Hurricane Milton, click here. For Hurricane Helene, click here.
• You can receive low interest loans to cover uninsured losses, whether they are physical damage or economic injury.
• GRP Capital can assist with applying for SBA help. Please contact our team to start the process.