1 April is April Fool’s Day, a day when people traditionally play tricks on each other. It’s a chance for a bit of light-hearted relief and many businesses make the most of it, coming up with clever spoofs to fool the public while promoting their brand at the same time. You may well have been caught out by some of these jokes yourself over the years.
When it comes to your own business, don’t be a fool. Don’t allow yourself to get caught out by not planning for unexpected events that could strike at any time. Do you have a disaster recovery plan? If you don’t, the impact could be much worse than a simple April Fool’s trick.
If you do have one in place that’s great, but when was the last time you checked it to make sure it was up to date? An inadequate or out-of-date plan is not much better than no plan at all.
A disaster recovery plan is all about supporting and guiding a business in its actions and decision-making in the crucial hours immediately after disaster strikes. A disaster can strike at any time, not just at a set time once a year like April Fool’s Day. Disasters can take many forms, be large or small and be caused by natural or human actions. Examples of natural disasters include flooding, lightning strikes and sink holes. Human activity can result in disasters such as terrorist attacks, vandalism, theft, arson and cyber-attacks. Whatever the cause of the disaster though, they all share common features: they tend to be unexpected and the disruption they cause can result in a business having to cease trading for a period of time.
In fact, the stark truth is that up to 80% of businesses that suffer a disaster will fail in the long term. Those that have a disaster recovery plan significantly improve their chances of survival, although research by the Federation of Small Businesses found that only around a quarter of small businesses have such a plan.
A robust disaster recovery plan will set out exactly what your business priorities are and therefore what actions you need to take and in what order, depending on the type and severity of the disaster you’ve been hit by. It will help you keep calm and stay focused and will ultimately help you to get the business back up and running faster. This is vital as experience shows that the quicker a business is able to start trading again, the better its chances of long-term survival.
With that in mind, we’d suggest that employing the services of a disaster recovery specialist, such as First Recovery, is a good investment. With packages priced at just £625 + VAT for businesses employing up to 20 people, and £895 + VAT for larger businesses with up to 100 employees, you’d be a fool not to get in touch to find out more.