Is Recovery Assistance Better than Planning?

According to the Louisiana Economic Development Department approximately 100,000 businesses in the state were impacted by recent hurricanes. That doesn't even include what happened in other states, such as Texas and Mississippi.

Louisiana and the federal government have responded to this tremendous impact by setting up a number of centers to help with recovery resources. Let's take a quick look at that list:

• Free Counseling and Technical Assistance
• Disaster Loans for Physical Damage
• Disaster Loans for Working Capital
• Workforce Assistance
• Disaster Unemployment Assistance
• Extension of Federal and State Tax Filing Deadlines
• Temporary Housing
• State and Federal Contracting Opportunities

To be sure, those resources have potential to be helpful. But, they are not conduits to free money as many believe. In most cases, those in need are simply postponing the cost of recovery, which may or may not have interest tacked on to it. In other words, the government is willing to loan you the money to recover, but you will have to pay it back. Moreover, the loan process will be sped up, but that's by government standards, it still takes a minimum of 6-8 weeks before any cash starts to flow.

The lesson here is to prepare for disaster ahead of time. A little planning goes a long way to reduce recovery cost, time, and effort.