Business continuity advice

  • Would you know what to do if your staff couldn't get to work due to transport disruption or severe weather?
  • Where would your business operate from if your premises were inaccessible due to fire or flood?
  • Could you operate your business if your computer equipment was stolen or damaged?

Business continuity involves thinking ahead and identifying potential threats. Planning ahead helps to ensure your business survives and incident, by identifying priorities. This will help reduce disruption to the services you provide, while promoting continuous improvements.

The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) website contains useful features for organisations including:

Why is business continuity important?

  1. Experience shows that businesses are far more likely to survive a disaster if they have a plan in place.
  2. Banks, investors, insurers, customers and suppliers look at a company more favourably if a business continuity plan is in place.
  3. Business continuity plans build employee confidence. Employees appreciate a workplace that is doing all it can to protect their safety.
  4. In the end, business continuity is about responsible management. It makes a business a safer place to work and contributes to financial stability.

A more thorough account and guidance about business continuity can be found at: Expecting the Unexpected (Gov.uk).

Do I need a Business Continuity Plan?

Any size emergency or incident could affect the day-to-day running of your business. Your business might not be the cause of the emergency, or directly affected by it, but it may experience the knock-on effects. For example a key supplier might go bust, ending your access to their products or services which you rely on.

Businesses that lack a 'robust and verifiable' business continuity plan are at risk. 90% go out of business within two years of a major disruptive incident. This statistic comes from the London Chamber of Commerce.

Whatever type of business you are, continuity management can help you plan for disruption. To implement Business Continuity Management into your organisation use this toolkit.

How to develop a Business Continuity Plan

The risk to your company can be considerably reduced by taking the time to develop a simple Business Continuity Plan. You are advised to keep it somewhere other than your place of business.

There are many resources available to assist in developing a Business Continuity Plan. Depending on the type and size of your business you will need to consider different aspects of your business.