Sometimes things happen in the world that negatively affect your skatepark. With the weather events of recent months, and all the fires and other things that are effecting different areas, I thought I would spend a little time going over what you should do to deal with a disaster.
1. Have a plan ahead of time. You need to know the numbers of your lawyer, insurance agent, and key staffers and investors. Keep a sheet at home and in the office of these numbers so that you can act without being inside the building if needs be. Having a calling tree so that you don't have to call everyone on your staff, you call one, and he/she calls the next etc.
2. Let your public know what is happening. Rumor control starts with you. If you didn't suffer any damage, if your place was ruined, let the people know. Sympathy can go a long way to getting help fixing, and to making a reopening an event.
3. Assess the damage, assess how you can recover. Sometimes things are ruined that you can't recover from financially as you were. You have two options at this time, call it quits or try to reopen. If money is the problem and insurance isn't covering it, you can raise money from your members, add investors, or look to the banks for a loan, have a disaster sale etc. There are also community resources available for small businesses (these are very competitive but you should try for them). But the main issue is what you need to do for your sanity. Restarting can be hard and take a lot of energy so you need to either go all in, or not.
4. If people were hurt you need to talk to your lawyer first. You can express to the people who were hurt concern, send a get well card, give them a call on the phone and hope that they are all right. Your lawyer will say "don't ever admit wrong doing". This is possible while at the same time expressing a human hope that the persons hurt will recover. You have to worry about lawsuits when people are hurt, often they will cast a wide net as a matter of practice to see if they can get money to help with their costs. So speaking with your lawyer is a good idea anytime there are "issues" with the park. You should have a working relationship with a lawyer anyway. I know it sucks to go in to the office, speak with this person for 1/2 an hour and get charged like $200. But protecting yourself and your business is important too, and these periodic meetings help ensure a good relationship and ensure that you are addressing your liability and risk issues. If you are concerned about the costs of these visits, have an agenda when you go in, limit non productive time, and get out quick.
5. Clean up and get back to work! With contests, events, and lessons, reschedule these events. Spend some money advertising to get the word out to those people who might not know that you are open yet. Plan a big re-opening event with music, contests, etc. to generate a buzz. Update all your media, website, twitter, facebook, google+, or other forums that you publish. Get the word to the parents that you are safe, clean, and ready to entertain! Getting the word out will take a little more than just opening your door, especially if there was a lot of damage in the area. Spend the time and money to let your constituents know your are doing business. You might have to cut back on some hours of staff at first if business continues to be slow. There is little predicting how the community will react to a disaster and you need to be flexible, proactive, and responsive.
