When we think about disasters we tend to think about the kind that hit the headlines. The floods that engulf whole towns, with cars floating down the high street. Sink holes that suddenly appear, swallowing buildings. Terror attacks that bring panic to people, who, just moments before, were going about their normal daily life. Or fires that turn the sky black and can be seen for miles around. Events like these often have a major impact on the businesses and people based within close proximity to them. The physical evidence from them and their legacy can linger for many months.
Most of us watch these events unfold with morbid fascination, while feeling secure in the knowledge that nothing like this will ever happen to us. But have you ever considered that in business, what might first appear as a small and inconsequential event, could actually have far-reaching and devastating results.
When it comes to preparing your business continuity plan it’s likely that you will take in to account all the big events that could hit your business: floods, fire, theft, vandalism, perhaps even terrorism. You may do this even if you think it’s unlikely you’ll be hit by such an event. But do you take in to consideration all the small events that could have a big impact? A small human error or a momentary lapse of concentration could have devastating consequences.
Such events could happen at any time. If you haven’t planned for them and thought through how you will deal with them, it may delay your business recovery. It could even result in business failure. Experience shows that the longer a business is unable to trade, the greater the chances that it will never recover and may end up closing for good. Experience also shows that businesses have a greater chance of opening faster and, therefore, surviving long term, if they have a robust business continuity plan in place.
But if you don’t have one and have never created one before, how do you go about it? Where do you start? The first thing you need to do is appoint the team who will take responsibility for building it in the first place and managing it on an ongoing basis. In a small business this may just be a couple of people; in larger businesses this may involve a team who each take responsibility for a different aspect. This could include the safety of employees, the building and business equipment, customers, suppliers, IT and systems.
The next stage is to undertake a risk assessment. While the risks faced by your business will be particular to you, it is possible to find risk assessment templates online which may help. Alternatively, your business insurer may be able to help you here.
Finally, once you’ve created the plan it’s important that you test it. By doing this you will be able to identify whether there are any gaps or flaws in it, which can then be rectified. A flawed business continuity plan is potentially only marginally better than no plan at all in a crisis situation.
You may want to consider employing the services of a specialist disaster recovery provider. First Recovery are one such provider. Focused on providing support to the SME sector, packages are priced at an affordable level. Surely worth investigating if ultimately they could mean the difference between business survival or business failure?