Business Continuity Plan: 4 Key Factors You Cannot Ignore
Success and failure are two different sides of a coin that cannot be ignored – both in life and in business. One of the definitive factors that decide which side you topple to is how you handle your risks.
While somxe risks can be unexpected (like a deadly pandemic), some risks can be studied, predicted, and prevented with an effective business continuity plan. And this global crisis seems to have taught us the difference between the two.
In the case of the present global crisis, the well-established companies are continuing business working from home while the non-IT and small-size businesses are the worst-hit. In fact, over 99 percent of America’s 28.7 million firms are small businesses and have less than 20 employees.
And the uncertainty around the whole situation has raised concerns about hiring new talent which is why a lot of the startups are turning to temporary remote teams to reduce risks and still get things done.
Understanding Risk: The First Prerequisite to Business Continuity
Businesses are expected to make decisions that directly impact the future.
Learning about risks that might affect your business and preparing against them is what stands your company apart from the competition. There are a few risks that every business should be aware of, no matter the size:
● Strategic Risk
● Operative Risk
● Financial Risk
● Unexpected Risk
Business Continuity: Business during and after a disaster
Business Continuity is a set of strategies that help you run your business efficiently even during a disaster or after.
Ensuring a business runs smoothly after a disaster, a set of strategies is quite essential. It helps businesses reduce recovery time and losses. The strategies are usually concocted in advance and often involve inputs from stakeholders.
Additionally, for a business continuity plan to work effectively, every person on the team needs to understand the factors that define the business continuity process.
4 Key Factors you can’t Ignore to ensure Business Continuity:
Preventing a disaster:
Taking action today to prevent the risk of an incident that may happen in the future is a sure way to success.
Though the types of risk vary for every business, preparing a fool-proof plan always comes in handy. The risk management process for every business is almost the same
Additionally, a specific amount of time, budget, and resources should be put aside so that the business is armed with an attack plan in case of an emergency.
The prevention process:
● Recognize the potential risks your business might face due to a disaster.
● Plan some strategies beforehand to avoid risk.
● Take advice from your business mentors and other advisors.
● Execute the risk-preventing strategy you chose to make sure they work.
● Revise the strategy from time-to-time to ensure they are up to date.
Proper risk management is the only solution to prevent a disaster beforehand and make sure your business stays safe during that time period.
Being Prepared to Face a Disaster
Taking steps to avoid an incident requires being fully prepared for any outcome. And this can be done by analyzing the risks.
Analyzing business functions and processes help make accurate data-driven decisions. Using relevant information, businesses can identify any disruptions and prioritize processes of sectors that make the most impact on a business.
You need to take a note of some critical business activities such as:
● Records of day-to-day operations.
● Equipment required to run day-to-day operations.
● Knowledgeable staff to run the operations.
● Information about the stakeholders who rely on you.
● Legal obligations.
● Impact of a disaster on an everyday operation.
By analyzing these critical activities you can help your business stay stable in adverse situations.
Effectively Responding to a Crisis
A proper crisis management plan should outline all the consequences beforehand and how to deal with them. The plan should be able to limit loss and property damage.
A response plan should include:
● Disaster activation details like who will authorize the recovery plan if the time arises
● Active remote teams to handle critical business processes
● A plan for communicating procedures
Re-Entering Your Business with a Bang
Finally, after planning how a business responds to a disaster, an effective re-entry plan is required to bring the business back on track. A re-entry plan helps businesses respond effectively to the changes in the industry and the market. It aims to shorten the time to recover while minimizing losses.
Things to consider in your re-entry plans:
● Plans to recover your business in the least time possible.
● Educating your staff on how they should respond to the recovery plan.
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