Why You Absolutely, Positively, Without a Doubt Need a Business Continuity Plan

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is one of those things that are easy to overlook until disaster strikes and a company is left to spitball its way to recovery. Or worse, the business simply collapses due to a lack of preparedness and planning. Yes, that is the worst-case scenario, but with the current threat landscape being what it is, the grim outlook is not hyperbolic by any means.

According to FEMA, 40% of small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) never reopen after a natural disaster, and another 25% fail within a year. Staggering numbers, and they only pertain to those environmental threats like hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, and earthquakes. But what about cyberthreats? Ransomware attacks are arguably an epidemic and are bringing otherwise healthy businesses to their knees, even after hackers are paid. Cybersecurity experts report that 60% of small business go out of business within six months of a cyberattack or data breach.

Many business owners shortsightedly believe that their Disaster Recovery Plan is enough to make it to the other side of a catastrophic event. But business continuity and disaster recovery are not the same thing. The purpose of a BCO is to keep a business operational throughout a disaster, while Disaster recovery pertains to the restoration of data and IT infrastructure after a destructive event. Disaster recovery is in fact an essential subset of a comprehensive BCP.

So now is the time to make disaster preparedness a priority in your business.

10 Potential Disasters Facing Small Businesses

The list of potential emergencies is enormous, but most negative events fall within or adjacent to the following:

·       Cyberattacks, computer viruses, and data breaches

·       Global pandemics

·       Natural disasters including fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes

·       Winter storms or heat waves

·       Power outages

·       Interruptions due to human error

·       Employee sabotage

·       Outdated equipment and unforeseen system failures

·       Supply chain interruptions

·       Hostage situations

·       Acts of terrorism

The Purpose of a Business Continuity Plan

A BCP is a documented action plan designed to minimize downtime caused by a negative event and ensure operations run as smoothly as possible until standard systems are up and running again. BCPs act as a guide that includes comprehensive, company-side actions and approaches to numerous disaster scenarios. The goal of a BCP is to minimize the probability of business interruptions, contain the threat as much as possible, and restore standard operations after an incident as efficiently and effective as possible.

First 5 Steps to Creating a Business Continuity Plan

Designing an effective Business Continuity Plan can be a huge undertaking, so many companies opt to engage BCP experts. Cybersecurity firms often include BCP services that are not just limited to technology threats.

Business owners who are willing to create a BCP using their internal resources should consider the following:

1.     Gather a Team. Identify department leaders and trusted advisors who can help you visualize and map the movement of people and processes. This will be your Business Continuity Management Team.

2.     Identify potential risks. This one can catch business owners off guard, as they go into the project expecting a handful of threat scenarios, but quickly realize there are many more potential risks than anticipated. Dig deep with your Business Continuity Management Team and conduct online research on recent emergency events.

3.     Prioritize employee safety. While business operations are important, every BCP should consider employee safety and wellbeing first. Start by creating a list of every employee, along with contact details. Include departments and who they report to.

4.     Design continuity and recovery strategies. This is where you pose threat scenarios, determine how you will meet operational demand or mitigate loss, and map out things like evacuation or remain-in-place directives, emergency communication channels, operational stop-gap measures, and the like. Anticipate spending a substantial amount of time on continuity design.

5.     Test Your BCP. Once completed, every scenario in your BCP should be evaluated for feasibility, efficiency, and safety. Get buy-in from your team and keep an open ear for suggestions and modifications.

While we covered a lot of ground here, make no mistake, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Business Continuity Plan creation is a pretty big undertaking that takes a great deal of sweat equity and forethought.

Interested in more of a deep dive into creating a BCP for your business? Contact me today to see how I can help.