Small firms unprepared for disaster.

According to a national survey, 40 percent of small U.S. businesses admit they are not prepared for a disaster-and one-third said they have no plans to prepare.

Of those businesses indicating they were not prepared for a natural disaster:

* 37 percent said they had not taken the time to do so.

* 17 percent indicated it was too expensive.

* 11 percent claim not to know what to do.

The survey of 5,000 small business professionals, commissioned by Office Depot, did show that small businesses located in natural disaster-prone regions (coastal areas or the Midwest) are far more inclined to prepare for disasters. But nationally speaking, a full 25 percent of business owners said they would rather deal with a disaster when it occurs than get ahead of a potential problem.

"What's most alarming about these new survey findings is that small businesses still have strong misperceptions about what they can do to help prepare for a disaster so they will be ready to handle any potential business interruption;' said Tom Serio, director of global business continuity for Office Depot. '~A $1 piece of media, like a CD-R, to store data such as contact information and important presentations, could make a big difference in being able to keep your business running. And it only takes minutes to back up your data on a regular basis."

In fact, the Office Depot survey found that nearly two-thirds (61 percent) of respondents who have a disaster protection plan in place stated that they have taken steps to safeguard their business this year because they realized that it doesn't have to cost a lot of money or time.

To help educate and motivate small business owners to take the steps necessary to protect their business from a disaster, Office Depot, with technology and data storage expert Jon Toigo, have compiled a free brochure: "Expecting the Unexpected: Disaster Preparedness Strategies for Small Business." It can be downloaded at www.officedepot.com/getprepared.