To safeguard the future of your business, it’s paramount to identify risks and establish a comprehensive business continuity plan to combat them. The steps below ensure resilience against unforeseen challenges.

 

Step 1: Determine your greatest risk potential. It might come from loss of heat, frozen pipes, or loss of access caused by icy conditions or flooding. What would happen if you had to shut down for several days?

 

Step 2: Establish your Power Needs. Know what kind of back-up generator will work for you, but first find out if you have the landlord’s permission to bring in a generator.

 

Step 3: Create a communications plan. Establish an e-mail alert system to keep your employees and key stakeholders in the loop. Use phone, texting, and social media to provide updates on your recovery process.

 

Step 4: Prepare your supply chain. Develop relationships with alternative vendors, in case your primary contractor isn’t available. Create a contact list of important vendors you plan to use in an emergency.

 

Step 5: Protect your critical data in the Cloud. A good cloud backup provider routinely copies, compresses and encrypts your company’s vital information before sending it to a secure offsite data center. All your electronic records and invoices are safe and available, even if a disaster wipes out your own data center.

 

Step 6: Test the plan. Doing annual drills with your staff will show you what’s effective and where your preparedness plans need fine-tuning