Business Continuity Planning Strategy

Entrepreneurs need to develop a business continuity planning strategy as part of their overall business plan.

Planning for emergencies is important.

When you run a business, you need to be able to provide services or distribute products to your customers, even when the unexpected happens. The goal of business continuity planning is to have policies in place so that the company can continue to provide some level of service while staff and management take steps to bring operations back to normal.

When you take a proactive attitude and steps to put a business continuity plan in place, you are demonstrating to your customers, employees and shareholders that your company will be a stable one, no matter what circumstances lie ahead. Since you have taken time to consider how the different parts of your business are connected, you can achieve greater efficiency in the company, whether you are faced with a business interruption or not.

No matter what type of business you run, be aware there are several potential risks that can impact business operations:

• Accidents
• Power disruptions
• Sabotage
• Natural disasters (flood, fire, earthquakes, tornadoes, blizzards)
• Pollution
• Hazardous materials spills
• Acts of terrorism
• Computer hacking

When you take the time to map out a business continuity planning strategy, you ensure that you will have the necessary resources to deal with these types of situations, should they arise.

If a business interruption occurs, your company's response will take place in three steps:

• Responding to the immediate situation
• Continuation of some level of services
• Restoration to a full level of business services as soon as feasible

When disaster strikes, your first step is to evaluate the situation and communicate with managers, employees, and shareholders to advise them about what has happened. Once you have a clear understanding of what has transpired, you can take appropriate action.

Part of the initial response procedure may be to deal with the media and/or emergency services personnel. You want to avoid having rumors circulating about your company. Provide your suppliers, customers and employees with accurate information about the situation.

The next step involved in getting your business back to normal after an emergency is to focus on the most pressing and time-sensitive services. These should be restored first.

The ultimate goal after disaster strikes is to restore normal operations as quickly as possible. As part of the process, you may need to re-assign employees to other duties or find a temporary location for your business until you can make repairs. You may even be faced with making a permanent move to a new location. With a detailed plan in place beforehand, you will know what needs to be done and what role your staff members will play in restoring normal operations.

The job of preparing a business plan continuity strategy will fall to senior managers and executives within the company. Company security personnel should provide information about how the proposed plan will affect the business.

The most critical components of the business must be determined and company executives must have a clear understanding of how long customers can be without products or services before it would have a long term impact on the business.

An estimate of lost revenue in the event of company shut down (complete or partial) will need to be calculated, along with information about the need to hire additional personnel to get operation up and running.

The business continuity plan can be used to determine which portions of the business should be covered by interruption insurance for businesses and what level of coverage should be put in place. A thorough review of your existing insurance will help to determine what losses are already covered and where you need to buy additional coverage to protect your business.

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