The beach town where my hotel is was completely destroyed by an earthquake last month. My hotel is fine, but how do I survive as a business?

This one has an obvious answer. Construction crews will be most of your business for the next year or more. It might not be as high-margin as family and tourist business, but it will be steady (and if you have a seasonal location, year round).

Take the money you’ll save on renovations (you won’t be doing much redecorating over that year, except replacement of bare essentials), and hang on to it to work on some renovations of your own as the construction business starts to wind down, and to do a little extra marketing to let the world (starting with your past regulars) know that you’re still there, that much of the damage to the surrounding places is fixed, and that your town is coming back bigger and better than ever . . .

Originally appeared on Quora