Expecting the unexpected: Safeguarding your business

Even though you cannot predict the unexpected, you can plan for it. One of the best precautionary measures that you can adopt is developing a business continuity plan.

A business continuity plan provides you with thorough guidance on how to recover the most vulnerable parts of your organisation after a business interruption occurs, such as a fire or natural disaster. Yet government research suggests only 27 per cent of SMEs have a business continuity plan in place, compared to 68 per cent of medium-sized businesses and 75 per cent of large organisations,

If implemented and maintained, a business continuity plan can be the difference between successfully recovering from a business interruption and going out of business. In fact, every year about 20 per cent of UK businesses face a potentially devastating challenge. Unfortunately, 1 out of 4 organisations impacted by a disaster never reopens their doors.

To ensure that your organisation can stay open after a business interruption, follow these six steps to develop your own plan:

1. Examine your organisation to determine your minimum and desired level of service.

2. Assess the potential risks to your organisation.

3. Develop a strategy to deal with the immediate aftermath of a disaster or other incidents.

4. Prepare a business continuity plan to summarise how your organisation will deal with a disaster and recover to its desired level of service.

5. Rehearse your business continuity plan to identify any gaps.

6. Annually review your business continuity plan to ensure it is up to date.

Whilst you never know when the unexpected will strike, you can be sure that your organisation will be prepared. In addition to a thorough business continuity plan, you may also want to supplement it with business interruption insurance.

For more information about business continuity planning and insurance that can help, contact us at Alan & Thomas Insurance Group today.