If only.
Two words that can be the difference between smoothly riding out a potential business disaster, and having your business fall (sometimes literally!) down around you.
Make this month ‘if only’ month. Mark down one thing you can do to ‘disaster-proof’ your business every day until the end of the month. Don’t be one of those people who says ‘it can’t happen to me’ – it can – ever hear of ‘Murphy’s Law’?
Yes this will take some time and effort to complete, but think about how much time and effort you will save should the worst ever happen.
Here are some things to add to your list:
- Write down as many different disaster scenarios as you can think of, and what they would mean for your business. For example – a fire, a flood, a power surge, theft, technology and communication failure, earthquake.
- Write down a plan to avoid or overcome each of the scenarios, including the steps to getting systems and processes live again, and how business operations will continue.
- Prepare a ‘register’ of all the important suppliers and partners to your business so you can quickly contact relevant parties if needed – including telecoms suppliers, staff, clients, insurers, product suppliers, landlords. Be sure to include account identifiers. Store this in a safe place, readily available at all times.
- Ensure you have sufficient insurance not just on your assets, but all your business processes. Also ensure you have an ‘emergency’ cash account at the bank to make sure you can stay liquid through any serious problems. Make sure you and your staff have income protection should you need to wait out any lengthy issues.
- Ensure you have off premise back-ups of all your important business documents.
- Ask your suppliers and business partners how they have prepared themselves for a potential disaster – you may be able to learn some handy tips.
Developing a robust disaster recover plan just makes good common sense. Effort and time spend now could save you countless hours and cost down the track.
