When people think of power outages, they typically think of losing electricity during a severe thunderstorm or a city-wide blackout. While those things can certainly cause them, the truth is, power outages in places such as North Georgia often occur for a more mundane reason: a transformer blows or your building is not capable of handling the wattage you are running. Today we are going to discuss the effect a power outage has on a business and what you can do to protect yourself – and yes, part of that has to do with a backup generator!
Power Outages in North Georgia
According to some research, the average power outage rate has doubled every five years over the past 15 years. This increase of power loss should be a wake-up call, regardless of where you live, but especially in rural areas such as Gainesville, Flowery Branch, and regions surrounding Hall County. Our infrastructure is not the same as, say, Atlanta, and getting power back up and running may take longer than it would in a larger city.
Because of that – and because of the damage a power outage can have on small business in general – it is essential to have a plan in place. Most business owner’s plans are reactive instead of proactive; that is, they wait until there is a problem to solve it. While this tact may save you a little upfront money, the truth is, it can significantly damage your bottom line and revenue.
Worse than that, it can damage one of the most important assets a business has: it’s customer trust.
How Do Business Lose Money During a Power Outage
There are several ways that a business can lose money during a power outage. For starters, often equipment will experience a power surge before an outage occurs and yet another once the power gets restored. These surges can damage all manner of equipment, including heavy machinery, computers, telephone systems – the list goes on and on.
Along with the physical damage to equipment and machinery, a company may face collateral damage as well. Customer information, inventory data, and personnel records can all be lost if the power suddenly drops, causing catastrophic damage to your business and crippling your ability to “get up and running” again.
Another way a corporation loses money during an outage is because you still have a full-time staff that you have to pay. These workers would typically be productive and helping to earn revenue. When the power is off, however, odds are, all they will be able to do is twiddle their thumbs and eat into your bottom line.
Finally, as your business grows, customers learn that they can depend on you for your services, goods, and advice. It takes time and considerable investment to earn each of these customers and to replace them is an expensive proposition. When customers come to your store and cannot make a purchase or seek counsel, odds are they will seek your products elsewhere. That means that they will shop at your competitor’s store and there is every chance that they may never return to yours. This is a situation to be avoided at all costs.
Generators for Business in North Georgia
Fortunately, business owners in Gainesville, Flowery Branch, Hall County, and the surrounding areas have access to some of the best local business back-up generators in the country. If you are a business owner in North Georgia that needs a power generator or a custom electrical solution, contact Caldwell Electrical Contractors today and see how we can help prevent downtime and loss of power for your business.
