How long does it take a business to recover from disaster?

Posted By on March 26th, 2019

Just over a year ago, on 4 March 2018, Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury. Fortunately, they both survived the attack but the ramifications for Salisbury-based businesses were severe. It took almost a year for Salisbury to fully re-open, but footfall remains lower than before the attack happened and the effect on local businesses will be felt for a long time yet.

This act of terrorism, in a provincial English town, perfectly illustrates the fact that no business, wherever it is located, is immune from a disaster event. This is true whether that’s terrorism, flood, fire or anything else. It also demonstrates just how long business disruption can continue, in this case for up to as long as a year.

While businesses in Salisbury had no control over the events that closed them and certainly had no control over when they could re-open, in many situations it is possible to have an influence over closure time. The key to reducing the closure period is to have a disaster recovery plan in place. Experience suggests that those businesses with a clear focus on their priorities in the event of disaster have a better chance of getting back up on their feet faster. Speed of recovery is crucial and could mean the difference between long term survival or business failure.

Despite this, 25% of small businesses don’t have a disaster recovery plan. The shocking truth is that as many as 80% of businesses never fully recover from a disaster. It’s reasonable to assume that the more severe the disaster, the greater the impact on the business and the longer it takes for the business to recover. However, the actions taken in the first 24 hours after disaster strikes can shape a business’s longer term fortunes. This is because making contact with customers, suppliers and other important stakeholders to provide reassurance and present a “business as usual” face can help to keep the fabric of the business intact.

If a business can hang on to its customer base and keep its supply chain, then it has a fundamental chance of survival. And if it can find alternative business premises and get basic office functions back up and running, it can to all intents and purposes carry on as normal.

This is where First Recovery can help. A specialist business recovery service, First Recovery will deploy a Disaster Event Manager to affected businesses and get them installed in new premises with IT systems, telephony and administration capability in place, all within 24 hours of receiving the call for help.

If you think your business would benefit from this service, why not get in touch today or visit the website to find out more? Support is tailored to small businesses and SMEs and doesn’t cost the earth. Not only that, with a First Recovery contract in place, you could find the cost of your business insurance is reduced.