When it comes to managing your business, the day to day operations are obviously important and can take over when it comes to your time. However, it’s just as important to take some time to think about what would happen to your business if disaster were to strike. When we talk about disaster this could range from a weather-related event such as a flood in your business premises, ruining your stock and making your premises unusable, to a fire, theft or human error all of which can stop your business in its tracks.
The risks are far ranging so you can see why it so important to carry out a risk assessment and put thought into planning for what you would do if the worst should happen. There are many ways to prepare and different types of plans that you can put in place as well as insurance covers to consider.
Here we look at the A,B,C.D (or actually the B,C,D, A) of how you can ensure you put your business in the best possible position to deal with a disaster, if (or when) it strikes:
B is for Business Interruption Insurance
Business interruption insurance is an insurance product designed to cover your business’s lost revenue and income if you are unable to trade following an insured event. Whilst you can put robust plans in place and invest time and effort in planning how you would recover from different types of disaster, in many situations that recovery will inevitably take time.
A few hours or a couple of day’s downtime, whilst inconvenient are unlikely to have that much of an impact on your business and you may be able to cope with the lost revenue. However, a larger scale disaster which leaves you unable to operate for weeks, months or even years could be devastating to your business.
In many cases business interruption insurance can make the difference in whether your business survives the effects of a disaster, especially if you run a small to medium sized business where resources can be more limited.
C is for continuity planning
Business continuity planning is the process of looking at your whole business and setting out processes and procedures which will be undertaken if disaster should strike. Taking a longer term view than a disaster recovery plan, the ultimate aim of a business continuity plan is to consider everything that would need to be done to be able to return your business back to the same level of operation that you were at before the disaster.
Take at our recent blog about the 4 key stages of creating a business continuity plan if you don’t have one in place or are looking to review yours.
D is for Disaster Recovery
A disaster recovery plan will typically look at business critical functions and how to get these back up and running as quickly as possible when disaster strikes. Whilst not limited to, disaster recovery plans will often focus on IT systems given how important they are to the ability of a business to operate. A disaster recovery plan should set out the procedures you take in the immediate aftermath of a disaster with the aim of minimising any disruption to your business and customers.
And finally, A is for All of these in combination
Whilst all of the above hold value in their own right, looking at these alone or in isolation means you risk having an area of weakness in your planning. Having a disaster recovery plan that sets out how to get your IT systems back up and functioning alone isn’t enough – you need your business continuity plan to work in tandem and inform how you get your business functions and the people responsible for these functions back in a position whereby they are able to make use of the IT systems.
Likewise, just having insurance in place won’t give your business the foresight to approach a disaster calmly and effectively – remember the actions you take in the first 24 hours after a disaster fundamentally affect the long-term outcome of whether your business fails or survives. Ultimately you need to bind all of the 4 factors above together to set your business on solid foundations when it comes to coping with the impact a disaster can have.