Last year, the U.S. was hit by a record 28 hurricanes and, with the first anniversary of Katrina coming up next month, financial advisors who sell insurance might want to take a good look at the small business market.
Seventy-seven percent of small businesses, according to a recent MasterCard survey, are not as prepared as they should be for disaster. Can that be because, as the pollsters also found out, 84 percent of those surveyed didn't think that they were going to get hit? They may be right not to worry, but if they are wrong the consequences could be fatal for their business.
Forty percent of all small companies that experience disaster never reopen, according to the poll's results, and 25 percent of those that do survive go under in two years.