Could your business operate without power?

In 2016, the whole of South Australia lost power. 

Adelaide and the suburbs close to the city had power within a few hours, but some parts of the state had no power for almost a week.

It’s easy to take it for granted that power will always be available. 

These days, there’s not much we can do without power. We need it to run machinery or equipment, charge our devices to answer calls or check emails – and literally to keep the lights on. 

But could a power outage put you out of business, even temporarily? Would you be able to absorb the financial loss from not being able to operate your business?

With the right planning and preparation, you can lessen the impact of power outages. 

Preparing your business for a power outage – a case study

Kate Witter is a tattoo artist and the owner of K.T.Tattoos on the main street of Kyogle, NSW. Power is so essential to her work that she has invested in a generator in case of a power outage. 

“Power is critical to my business because I need it for my computers and my machines. I can’t really stop halfway through inking a tattoo because there’s no power!” says Kate. “In the past I’ve been in a blackout while working, so now I try to keep ahead of what could happen by having a backup source of power.”

The investment wasn’t very expensive and it provides a level of safety and security for customers as well as Kate. 

“I just dropped into my local Bunnings store and bought a small petrol-run generator,” Katie explains. “It’s not heavy to carry, it’s easy to start and I just attach it with a long extension lead to my station.”

“In fact, I recommend it for all tattoo studios, particularly larger ones with more customers,” says Kate. “If the power goes out for more than half an hour it can hurt the customer more to come back to finish the work. Also there is at least four weeks’ healing time before a customer can come back for me to work on it again.

“Having the generator provides me with peace of mind that I can continue working when there’s a power outage and I won’t suffer from any loss of business.”

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