Introducing Fortify Christian County

If a significant event shut your business down completely, would you be able to continue critical operations? When a natural disaster, data breach, tragic event, or community disruption occurs, your business’s ability to make a full recovery will likely depend heavily on the level of preparedness you and your team have implemented prior to any major interruption. 

 

The community of Joplin, MO recently observed the ten year anniversary of the deadly EF5 tornado that devastated the city and surrounding areas in 2011. According to the community’s Economic Recovery and Resilience Strategy report, 553 businesses in Joplin’s commercial corridor were significantly damaged or destroyed. However, the community experienced much success with economic recovery, existing business expansion, and new business attraction in a short time, with more than 150 new businesses established by December of 2014. 

 

Many larger employers in industries like healthcare, national retail, and manufacturing were able to rely on established business continuity plans to help get operations in Joplin back on track. However, being proactive and investing time into disaster response and business continuity planning will pay dividends for businesses and organizations of all sizes. In our area, the relevance and urgency of a coordinated business resilience effort was highlighted by the emergence of a global pandemic, as we saw first-hand how quickly “normal” operations could be completely interrupted even in our own backyard. 

 

As part of our five-year strategic action plan, Show Me Christian County has identified business resilience and continuity as a key factor in business retention. In response, we are creating Fortify Christian County, a multi-layered program to better prepare Christian County businesses for resilience. Incorporating financial analysis, business continuity planning, e-commerce training, small business coaching through the Missouri Small Business Development Center, and more, you will hear much more from SMCC in the coming months about FORTIFY programming and services available for all Christian County businesses. 

 

If you have any questions or would like any additional information about business retention and expansion, or any other Show Me Christian County initiative, please contact me at anna@showmeccmo.com or give us a call at 417-212-0699.

 

Anna Evans

Vice President - Business Retention & Expansion

Certified Business Resilience Manager

anna@ozarkchamber.com