The winter weather possesses many potential problems to businesses hat aren't properly prepared to deal with them. 

No mater where your business is located, it's important to have an extensive disaster recovery plan in place. In 2011, just two inches of snow brought Atlanta to its knees because it wasn't prepared. While location will factor into your final plan, every company should be ready for the winter.

Here are some tips to help you in your disaster recovery planning process:

Prepare for the worst

Obviously, no one can control the weather, so you never know when Mother Nature is going to send a blizzard your way. When building a disaster recovery plan, it's always best to start with the worst case scenario and work down rather than starting with something more routine and working up.

When you plan for the worse possible outcome, you're ready to handle anything that can come your way. That way, when a lesser situation arises, it is easy to isolate what you need from your large plan to deal with the present incident. If you plan in the other direction, it's more likely that you may miss something along the way.

Work from home

One of the worst parts about a winter storm is snow removal from both road and walkways. While, if you own your location, this should be done as soon as possible, it doesn't have to be as big of a deal as it seems. With new technologies, it's easier than ever for employees to be just as productive at home as they are in the office. 

While planning, identify key personnel that need to be in the office, but consider letting everyone else perform their job functions remotely. 

Communication is critical

Early on in the planning process, it is important to make sure that considerations are made to keep means of communication up and running. This will ensure that all efforts in the recovery process are coordinated properly and will eliminate the potential for redundancies. This will also help you relay information to and receive information from those employees working remotely.

Keep the lights on

Winter storms can result in widespread power outages. High winds and frost buildup on power lines can lead to outages very quickly. Your business needs to make sure that it has backups in place for when the power goes out. Things like backup generators and off site data backup can go a long way towards getting your business back up and running as soon as possible.

Don't fear implementation

The purpose of disaster recovery planning is to deal with scenarios that could derail a workday quickly and efficiently. These plans are put in place to be implemented immediately. Any hesitation prior to putting a plan into affect will not only delay recovery time, but it may actually make the situation worse and more complicated to resolve than it needs to be.

There are many factors to keep in mind when disaster planning that it can help to have an extra pair of hands working on the problems. Investing in disaster recovery consulting is the best way to bring experts in to ensure your strategies are up to par.