What is a Business Continuity Plan?

Table of Contents

What is a business continuity plan?
Why are business continuity plans important?
How to make a business continuity plan

You might not like to think about it, but have you considered what would happen to your business if disaster struck?

Say you suffer a fire at your premises, or a catastrophic cyber attack leaves your firm unable to function. In all cases, being prepared for every eventuality could be the difference between your business going under and making a full recovery.

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan is a document which outlines exactly how your business will cope in adverse circumstances. By being prepared in advance, you can give yourself some peace of mind and give your business the best chance of rebounding after difficult times.

In some ways, a business continuity plan is similar to a disaster recovery plan. The difference is that the latter is concerned primarily with maintaining or recovering company IT systems during and after a crisis.

In contrast, a continuity plan will usually incorporate the disaster recovery plan and go much further by setting out contingencies for all parts of the business that might be adversely affected by unplanned disruptions or unexpected events.

As a busy business owner, you may not feel like you have the time or headspace to put together a business continuity plan, but taking the time today could save you an almighty headache in the future.

Without a continuity plan, the business that you’ve worked so hard to build could be swept away or severely damaged by events beyond your control. After all, by failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.

At its most simple, the continuity plan sets out the procedures to follow and the systems to put in place when disaster strikes. From personnel and property to IT networks and supplier risk management, it should contain all that’s needed to ensure the business can keep functioning.

Why are business continuity plans important?

The clue is in the name. Without a business continuity plan, there may be a significant risk of the business being unable to continue trading. No matter the size of your business, your business is vulnerable to various crises and disruptions. A business continuity plan sets out how your business will deal with them.

A company’s ability to handle a crisis can also affect customer confidence and have long-term repercussions for its reputation.

Even where a crisis or a disaster isn’t potentially fatal to your business, it can still have severe consequences: undermining the viability of your business, adding to costs, eating into profitability and resulting in a possible loss of staff and customers.

In the face of a threat or crisis, it’s also important that your business can protect its people and assets. Often, when things go wrong, it’s the plans made well in advance which suddenly become invaluable.

How to make a business continuity plan

To some extent, business continuity planning builds on business scenario planning, which seeks to identify the potential risks facing a company and set out a strategy for dealing with them.

The number of stages in a continuity plan will vary with the size and type of business and the market you’re in, among other factors. However, the key steps are likely to include:

Business impact analysis – identify the priorities in terms of the short-term vulnerabilities and threats, such as the loss of certain functions or operations.
Recovery – assess the resources needed (based on the impact analysis), identify gaps in capabilities and implement strategies to recover critical business functions.
Plan development – develop the continuity plan, establish the relevant continuity teams, create relocation plans and secure management buy-in.
Testing and exercises – train and test the relevant teams, including exercises to be carried out to ensure the strategies work properly.

It may also help to devise a checklist that runs through important details such as the resources needed, where and how data is stored and emergency contact information.

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