The Worst That Could Happen

Your Company Is Decimated by a Natural Disaster

Whether your office building is buried under a landslide or hit by a hurricane, there are three immediate steps you should take, says Dave Bowe at Crisis Management Worldwide in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Prevention is the Best Medicine:
You can't stop a tornado, but you can create a contingency plan and ensure you have insurance.

Your Company Is the Target of a Large Lawsuit

>Maybe you've heard of the lawsuit that Kellogg's is fighting. Seems a Pennsylvania woman left a Pop-Tart in her toaster last summer before driving her kids to school. When she returned 10 to 20 minutes later, smoke was pouring from her house, and firefighters were on the scene. The woman is now seeking $100,000 from Kellogg's for damages to her house, and is also suing Black & Decker, the makers of the toaster.

If you're hit by an out-of-left-field lawsuit, consider some free advice from Patricia Eyres, attorney and president of Litigation Management & Training Services Inc. and author of The Legal Handbook for Trainers, Speakers & Consultants :

Think you'll never be on the receiving end of a lawsuit? Don't be so sure. "Regrettably, lawsuits are a byproduct of doing business," says Eyres. "Control it like a business, and select the best business outcome to meet your needs. This means reacting rationally rather than emotionally-not easy for entrepreneurs who have built their own businesses from the ground up. Don't make litigation personal."

Prevention is the Best Medicine:

• "Establish personnel policies and enforce them consistently," says Eyres.

• "When creating business records of any type, including formal letters, contracts, memos or informal e-mail," explains Eyres, "keep in mind, those documents may one day provide the basis for reconstructing the events that may be the subject of a dispute."

This article was originally published in the July 2002 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: The Worst That Could Happen.