I had a customer whose backyard area drain was plugged during a heavy rain. As a consequence, the water accumulated and entered the house through a slightly mis-aligned sliding door that opened to their patio. The water soaked nearly 2000 square feet of hardwood flooring, and the customer was not home. Once the floor is wet, it's too late. A few weeks later, the floors began to discolor and buckle. It was a costly replacement that the insurance company didn't want to pay for. Their standpoint was that the homeowner did not perform "reasonable maintenance" on their home and therefore deflected responsibility back to the homeowner. To make a long story short — the customer ate it. Thousands of dollars, weeks of hassles, etc., etc., all caused by a drain that could of have been serviced for only a few bucks. These horror stories are common in areas that don't experience much rain. But, this is El Niño, the biggest storm prediction in a long time.

Start thinking about El Niño. It can represent a boon to your business if you handle it properly. I live just northwest of LA and am seeing contractors do some unusual things already. A plumber in my neighborhood called me and offered to clean my gutters in anticipation of the rains. Flyers are beginning to circulate from roofers and others. Landscapers are calling me to grade my home's lot for runoff. Carpet cleaners are intensifying their coupon advertising. Exterminators continually remind me that in heavy rains, bugs look for high ground — like my house. Television and radio newscasts make daily references to El Niño. Today's radio news is talking about the "Commotion in the ocean."

What does this all mean to a business? It means that there is a rising wave of the public's awareness of the El Niño hazards and that makes your marketing efforts much easier because consumers' minds are prepared to consider your offerings.