Could you master a disaster?

Everybody enjoys a good disaster movie, but how would you enjoy it if it was real life, your business was the setting for the story, and you had the starring role?

Statistically speaking, you have less chance of winning the lottery than you do of having a real life business emergency but you happily spend the money on a ticket, so why not mitigate the odds and spend a bit of time writing a disaster recovery plan.

A good disaster recovery plan will capture all the necessary information to protect your business in an emergency. It should include your IT infrastructure, where you will work if your building is no longer fit for purpose, theft of company computers, damage to essential assets, the list can go on and on.

The aim of your plan is to get you back up and running as quickly as possible with the least amount of disruption. For some lifestyle business models, just having your information backed up onto the cloud and access to another computer should suffice but as your business grows so do the consequences.

In my time, we had our fair share of emergencies and have dealt with IT Ransom Attacks, Critical IT failure, targets of scams with threats of violence, flooding and building structural damage. We had a plan, a simple plan, it didn’t cover every scenario, but the plan was better than having no plan at all.

The trouble was that technology kept evolving as the world kept revolving. New threats lurk with every click. As a small business owner, you have a 50% chance of a Cyber Security breach at some point. Ensure you consider all the risks that could affect your business and your ability to trade.

Top tips for consideration

1. Think about all the potential disruptions your company could face and document what you can do about them in greater detail.

2. Ensure that the important documents to keep your business running are either backed up off-site or keep copies of them in a handy pack just in-case you have to relocate at short notice.

3. Consider and prepare for cyber threats.

4. Talk to your business neighbours about how you could support each other

5. Test your plan and refine where necessary.

6. Communicate the plan to your employees and ensure everyone is aware of their responsibilities.

Once your plan is in place you can look to mitigate the risks or threats and refine your operation. If you have a disaster plan you should review it more often than you think and pay attention to your IT, Cyber Security, and your Insurance policy. Make sure your Insurance policy adequately covers you against all the threats you have identified.

80% of businesses who do not adequately prepare for a major disaster such as a flood or a fire go out of business within a year. If you don’t have a disaster recovery plan or need yours reviewed, please feel free to contact me.

Written by Andrew Hatcher from Swindon Consultants.