Small business preparedness is the process of learning how to take preventative actions to help minimize the impact of disaster on small businesses and strengthen their resilience.

Small businesses play a critical role in communities and ultimately in global markers as well, contributing to employment locally and supploy chains around the world. They are an important part of restoring economic activity at a community level following crises and disasters. Small business preparedness aims to address the need for free and actionable guidance to help alleviate hardships on small businesses. The skills learned in the MSME planning tool will help small businesses better understand their business vulnerabilities and hazard risks, and improve their preparedness level for crises though action-oriented learning.

In this toolkit, we have resources for:

1. Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies and other organizations who are interested in providing learning support on small business preparedness to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
2. Small businesses who are interested in self-guided learning on small business preparedness, and accessing downloadable resources to build their own business continuity plans.

Businesses provide employment, a sense of purpose, and essential goods and services to community members. When businesses are impacted by a crisis or disaster, it can have devastating and long-term impacts on the entire community's ability to recover. As such, the RCRC Network sees that a holistic approach to disaster management from preparedness to response and recovery must include the vital role off small businesses.

MSME stands for micro, small, and medium enterprises. While the definitions of these business sizes vary by country, it is generally understood to refer to businesses with 1-250 employees. The terms 'MSME' and 'Small Business' are often used interchangeably.

This toolkit is intended to be a one-stop-shop for your small business preparedness needs. Available on the 'Resources for RCRC National Societies' page, we have developed a curated resource compendium to help facilitate easier access to useful tools and learnings.

Atlas was a small business preparedness app that was retired in September 2024. The tool was reformatted into this toolkit to help MSMEs learn the dimensions of small business preparedness and access resources to help them build their business continuity plans.