What does it mean when people talk about business continuity? Why is it important?

Posted By on March 6th, 2019

If you are a business owner and don’t know what business continuity means then it’s time you found out. Business continuity means having the ability to continue essential business operations during and after a disaster occurs which negatively impacts your business in some way. If you are focused on growing your business but haven’t given any thought to business continuity and don’t have a disaster recovery plan in place, you will be totally unprepared for dealing with any kind of disaster that could strike your business. Whether this is a physical disaster such as a fire or flood, or an online cyber attack taking down your website and IT systems, this could have a devastating effect on your business.

If you’re still struggling to understand what business continuity planning is all about, think of your business as a bit like building a house. You wouldn’t start building up the walls of a house without first putting in solid foundations. Your business continuity plan is the foundations for your business and gives you a robust base on which you can grow your business, secure in the knowledge that if something goes wrong you have a strategy to fix it, and quickly.

Research suggests that as many as 80% of businesses never recover from a disaster, either never getting back to their pre-disaster levels or completely failing to re-open. The longer it takes to recover from a disaster, the less chance a business has of fully recovering. However, having a disaster recovery plan in place and being focused on the priorities in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, gives a business a fighting chance of recovery.

Hopefully we’ve convinced you as to the merit and importance of having a business continuity plan in place. But if you haven’t prepared one before, where do you start? While no two business continuity plans will be the same, after all your business is unique and will need a plan tailored to your own particular set of requirements, there are some guiding principles you can follow and even templates you can use to get you started and put the structure in place.

There are two practical steps you can take to get your own business continuity planning process underway: appoint a team or key person to take responsibility for business continuity; and undertake a risk assessment, identifying the particular risks faced by your business. This should include everything from geographic factors (for example, is there a river close by that could increase the chances of flooding?); through to IT (do you store customer data? How much do you rely on your online presence and IT systems for the smooth and successful running of your business?); and everything in between (what equipment do you use? Is it easy to replace? What functions do your employees undertake? Are their dependencies between different departments or divisions?)

Once you have completed your risk assessment, you will have a clearer idea of what your business continuity plan needs to look like and you will be in a good position to create the plan. We’ve written before and in detail about what the plan should include and you might want to take a look to help you get started.

Once you’re happy with the plan you have created it’s important that you test it. Only by putting it in to action will you discover whether there are any holes in it. The old adage “practise makes perfect” is definitely true in this case.

But even once you’ve practised the plan and are happy that it meets your current requirements, remember that it is just that – meeting the requirements for your business now. It doesn’t take account of your business as it will look in the future. As your business grows and becomes more complex, it’s important that you make sure your business continuity plan continues to evolve and covers all the changes – and put it to the test regularly. Don’t fall in to the trap of leaving it sitting in a drawer only to discover it’s no longer fit for purpose when the time comes to use it.