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Participant Worksheet · 4-Phase Recovery Strategy

Build a business recovery strategy before the next storm.

A working document to guide your VOAD or LTRG through indexing local assets, designing a program, marketing it to your community, and deploying capital where verified needs emerge.

How to use this worksheet. Work through Steps 1–4 in order. Capture names, phone numbers, and ideas in the spaces provided — these notes become the seed list for your Long-Term Recovery Group's small-business response. There are no wrong answers. The goal of today is to leave with a draft you can pressure-test with your team this month.

Step 01

Index Your Assets

Map the local and regional recovery ecosystem you can pull on.

Step 02

Build a Program

Decide what to start, fork, or partner on for your region.

Step 03

Market the Mission

Identify the voices and channels that reach affected business owners.

Step 04

Advocate & Deploy

Stay flexible. Listen. Pull resources to verified needs.

01

Step One

Index Your Assets

Before a disaster, map every entity in your region (and outside of it) that could plug into a small-business recovery effort.

1 · Where to Look First

  • Entrepreneur centers — incubators, accelerators, makerspaces.
  • Chambers of Commerce — local and regional, including specialty chambers.
  • SBDCs — usually housed at a university.
  • Local business leaders who already participate in the business community.
  • Local or regional colleges — faculty, capstone, marketing, MBA.
  • Business networking groups — Rotary, BNI, women's councils, etc.
  • Outside your region — out-of-state CDFIs, foundations, peer LTRGs, corporate partners.

2 · Your Asset Index

Fill in the people and organizations you already know — entrepreneur centers, chambers of commerce, SBDCs, local business leaders, colleges, networking groups, out-of-region partners. One per line is fine. Add a sentence on why they're a good fit (capacity, trust, network, capital, expertise).

3 · Stretch the Map

Now push past the obvious. Who are the unusual partners — people not normally at the disaster table — who could matter in your community's small-business recovery?

4 · Gaps & Unknowns

Where are the holes in your asset map? List the categories where you don't yet have a name to call.

02

Step Two

Build a Program

Don't reinvent the wheel. Find out who in your region is already doing entrepreneurship support, and decide whether you partner, extend, or start fresh.

1 · Audit the Landscape

Is anyone in your region already running entrepreneurship or small-business support?

3 · What's Specific to Your Region?

4 · What Else Should the Program Include?

Prompts to consider: childcare during sessions, translation/language access, mental health & trauma support, legal clinics, bookkeeping/tax triage, digital footprint repair, bridge loans & CDFI intros, workforce / re-employment.

5 · Draft Your Cohort Outline

03

Step Three

Market the Mission

Identify the organizations, business leaders, local government, news outlets, and LTRGs that can carry your message to affected business owners.

1 · Channel Inventory

2 · The First-Week Outreach Plan

In the first week of program launch, who will you contact, and what will you ask of them?

04

Step Four

Advocate & Deploy

Stay flexible. Listen first. Pull resources to verified needs as they emerge.

1 · Where will you leave room?

List three places in your program where you will deliberately not pre-plan, so business owners can shape the response.

2 · Verified Needs — What to Capture

When a business surfaces an unexpected need during your cohort, capture it the same way every time. For each one, jot the business / owner, the stated ask, the verified need, and the resource or partner you pulled.

05

Closing

My 30-Day Commitments

Write down four concrete actions you will take in the next 30 days. Be specific. Names. Dates. Phone numbers.

Notes & Questions for the Avante Team