Crisis Communication for Startup Businesses

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As a startup business, having a crisis communications plan may be the furthest thing from your mind, but in this world where anything can go wrong, one of the best precautions that a startup entrepreneur can take, is to have a prepared crisis communications plan handy.  It may not be on the scale of your larger counterparts but preparing for any eventualities can assist you in recovering from any mishaps in the shortest possible time.

A crisis communications plan helps a company to manage any situation that is threatening or could threaten to harm people or property, seriously interrupt business, significantly damage reputation and negatively impact the bottom line. 

The plan specifically addresses how the crisis will impact stakeholders such as your employees, customers, the immediate community in which the business operates, suppliers, shareholders, government and the media.  The plan is about managing the way the company reacts to the crisis and should help defuse the problem and get the business back to work in as quick a time as possible.

As a startup company, you may your business’s only employee/director but certainly what you do must affect at minimum one external stakeholder; your customer, your reaction could either bring the business down or show its resilience.

In writing the simplest crisis communication plan, it is recommended that the following actions are considered:

1.       Set-up a Team – As indicated, you may be your company’s sole director at this juncture therefore your team will require external buffering.  Employ the services of a skillful PR Specialist and have a lawyer on standby in case of any legal issues.  According to the industry within which you operate, consult with industry experts.  Look at how they address crises in their companies and scale to fit your operation.

2.       Get comfortable with the media; you are now your company’s spokesperson – One of the most important elements of an effective crisis communications plan is one, consistent voice.  And in this situation, yours is the best voice.  It is your business and therefore you should be able to articulate a message in a clear and concise manner.  Depending on the issue being faced, you should also be comfortable in front of large audiences.

3.       Establish a media policy – In this age of new media, there must be a policy which speaks to how the media will be addressed both offline as well as online.  Social media has changed the ways businesses respond because it is ‘now media’ and while news travels fast, bad news travels faster!  Also have a plan to address traditional media.

4.       Prepare a statement – Rely on the support of your PR Specialist to prepare a fulsome statement with the facts and your company’s plan to address the affected parties.  Be truthful and transparent. Don’t allow the media to ‘find out’ about the situation.  Address it upfront in a timely manner.  As I always say, in the absence of communication, there is perception and perception can either good or bad, right or wrong.  Also utilize your social media and website (if you have one) to disseminate information in a timely manner.

5.       Test the plan – You won’t know if the plan will work unless you test it.  And testing it in this scenario requires that you consider every possible situation and coin a response to each.  In other words, consider everything that could go wrong and design a strategy to combat each.  It will help your business to know what is required from both a communications perspective as well as a business planning perspective in the event of crisis.

The truth is, you may never use your plan because a crisis may never occur but in business it is much better to be prepared for an eventuality that never happens, rather than to be unprepared and the eventuality shows up unexpectedly.