Maybe Patricia Dunn, the chairwoman of Hewlett Packard (HP), just wanted to know who was talking to reporters so she could be sure they had the most accurate information. It is more likely, however, that she wanted to find out who had loose lips so she could have them removed or at least silenced. Instead, she just made a bad situation worse.

Dunn wasn't entirely wrong, however. She was trying to control communications about the company being made by persons not authorized to make them. One of the biggest challenges companies face in crisis situations is that communications about the situation are coming from everyone, not just the people responsible for communicating it. In some cases, particularly those involving smaller businesses, this can happen because there is no official crisis management plan. Couple that with a high level of perceived "ownership" which often occurs in small business where employees are more like "family", or at least "close friends" and therefore feel able and justified in addressing the situation publicly or even just answering questions when sought out by journalists and things can get out of hand fast.

In order to prevent crisis situations from becoming larger than they are or need to be, businesses of all sizes, but especially smaller businesses without an official public relations department or even person, should follow a few simple rules:

- Act quickly to begin resolving the situation.
- Tell the truth and communicate status changes as soon as possible
- Show confidence and compassion, especially to internal audiences
- Be accessible to the media.

Crises don't just happen to large corporations like HP. They can happen anywhere, at any time. The best anyone can do is try to be prepared.

Read the entire article "Communicating During a Crisis Without Making it Worse",
Click Here.

The Small Business Reauthorization and Improvements Act of 2006 (S. 3778), would create a private disaster loan program allowing private lenders to make disaster loans with a government guarantee. Introduced by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and recently voted out of Committee by a vote of 18-0, the language of the legislation specifically states that businesses will be eligible if the county in which the business is located was declared a disaster area anytime in the last 24 months.

The creation of a private disaster loan program will give the Small Business Administration (SBA) the opportunity to work with private lending institutions to improve the lending process in the wake of another devastating disaster such as 9-11 or Hurricane Katrina. These private disaster loans could be made faster and more efficiently that loans made directly by the SBA, which is the current process. The legislation also addresses some of the problems found in the Supplemental Terrorist Activity Relief (STAR) loan program implemented in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001.

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