Have you thought about how your business could continue to operate if disaster struck? For example, what would happen if you became ill and could not work for several months? Or your warehouse was hit by a fire or flood.
To avoid losing customers, goodwill, and revenue, you must have a business continuity plan (BCP) in place to face any potential threats.
To help you set one up, we have answered some common questions on the topic below.
What is a business continuity plan?
A BCP goes further than a natural disaster recovery plan, although disaster recovery forms a significant part of the strategy. It contains business processes and procedures for every aspect of the business that may be affected by an unforeseen event. This includes sales and marketing, HR, finance, and operations.
What are the key requirements of a business continuity plan?
To be effective, a BCP must be:
- Accessible to those who need to implement it
- Well-communicated to all teams affected
- Clear, concise, and practical
It is best practice to establish a emergency management team who can carry out the functions of the BCP and adapt it to the current situation should changes be required in the contingency planning.
What should a business continuity plan contain?
Your BCP needs to cover the following:
- Details of the business continuity management team
- Critical business functions
- How data is to be backed up and the locations of the backed-up data
- Contact information for emergency responders, key personnel, and backup providers
- A strategy for dealing with a cyber attack, including policies and procedures to be followed concerning reporting a data breach and getting systems back up and running
- Manual workarounds to ensure the business can continue whilst computer operations are restored
- Who is responsible for carrying out certain parts of the plan and risk management, and what are their contact details
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Almost every business is reliant on digital functionality. Unless you have an old-fashioned till and paper ledger tucked away somewhere (and an employee who knows how to use them), you cannot carry out key business functions if your power or IT systems are interrupted.
Therefore, it is important to have a smart and understandable, BCP in place. In this way, you can maintain your business operating regardless of unexpected events, as well as a recovery strategy for a quick business recovery when something that disturbs your business occurs.
LawBite has years of experience helping startups and small business owners achieve their commercial ambitions. To find out how we help expand your business and provide affordable and easy to understand legal advice, book a free 15 minute consultation today or call us on 020 3808 8314.
