PPRR is a 4-step process to business continuityWhat is business continuity planning?
Business Continuity Planning is a form of risk management. It’s important for your business as it sets out a clear process for how you will handle a significant incident and gives you a greater chance of a speedy recovery should the worst occur.
Business continuity planning is a process of identifying the risks in your business, how you can best prevent those risks from having an impact (managing or mitigating them if you can’t eliminate completely) and having processes in place to prepare, respond and recover.
Why Do it?
If you fail to plan you’re planning to fail.
Ok, so it’s not quite that severe but you are leaving your recovery to chance if you don’t have a plan on how you would handle a worst-case scenario. Earthquakes, terrorism and public health emergencies are extreme examples but they are also real scenarios that have caused significant issues for businesses over the last decade.
How do you plan for the unknown?
By being able to identify what parts of your business are at risk, you have a greater chance of being able to put steps in place to protect those. For example, if you are a sole trader and your business is service based then your biggest risk is your own inability to work. So you need to consider having adequate insurance cover for your expenses, not only as a source of income for yourself but also to cover paying someone to continue doing your work for you if you’re incapacitated. That’s a necessity for long-term recovery because your clients will still have their needs and if you can’t provide the service, they’re likely to go elsewhere.
Are there other reasons to have a BCP in place?
My word yes. It can be a good cost-saving measure – by investing in the time to plan appropriately you may well identify areas where you can outsource to save yourself time and money. Having a comprehensive business continuity plan can also assist you to negotiate lower insurance premiums, if you can demonstrate your resilience then you have a lesser risk profile and insurers love that.
Most of all, having a comprehensive business continuity plan gives you peace of mind. It is reassuring for staff to know that you’ve thought about all situations and that they have a clear process to follow. When there is a public health issue, planning out the process for how you will ensure the health and wellbeing of your team can help to address any anxieties.
Not sure where to start in your planning process?
You’re in luck! I’ve got a free template just for you, and a tutorial if you need it too.
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