If you run your own business, you’ll be keen to see it thrive and grow. But it’s important that growth is built on solid foundations so protecting your people, equipment and other assets is paramount. That means having the right business insurance in place. However, that is only part of the solution. You should also make sure you have a robust disaster recovery plan so that if disaster strikes you know what you need to do in the immediate aftermath and can focus on the priorities. A good and thorough plan will help you back the business back up and running sooner and could make the difference between survival or failure longer term.

As part of the plan, make sure you look beyond the internal walls of the business itself. If you rely on suppliers for the smooth running of your business, don’t forget to take a close look at them when you are developing your disaster recovery plan. How prepared are they to deal with a disaster hitting their own business? Do you have alternative suppliers you can use if they can’t trade for any reason?

You might think that a problem with a supplier could be easily resolved and would have little impact on your business but you don’t have to look back far to be proved wrong. In February 2018 the unthinkable happened to over half of KFC’s outlets: they ran out of chicken. As a result, they were forced to close – it’s difficult to run a chicken takeaway business without any chicken to sell. The situation continued for a few weeks, causing reputational damage to the KFC brand, as well as lost income.  KFC blamed DHL, who had recently won the delivery contract. In turn, DHL blamed one of their own suppliers. In the end, KFC re-appointed their original supplier, who had lost the contract to DHL, and things got back to normal.

This incident perfectly illustrates the importance of checking the robustness of your supply chain. In the KFC example people remember that it was KFC who had the problem, not DHL and certainly not DHL’s supplier.

Ask your suppliers if you can see their disaster recovery plans and make sure you are confident that any impact on your business will be minimal. If you’re not happy, change suppliers. If this isn’t feasible, work with them to come up with a solution that is realistic, deliverable and, above all, satisfies you.