Irish writer Oscar Wilde advised us to "expect
the unexpected." He would have made a good disaster planner. Small
businesses are the most impacted because they do not usually have a formal
disaster recovery plan. As a result, 40 to 60 percent of small businesses close
permanently after a disaster, according to Liberty Mutual Insurance.
Don't be a part of that statistic. Now is a great
time to review your business' disaster recovery plan, or to make one if you
don't have one. By focusing on some of the most critical elements of a disaster
plan, you can avoid being overwhelmed by the challenge.
Set your roster
The
first step in your disaster plan should be to determine what skill sets you
will need in a disaster, and who should be part of the team. The size of your
team will vary, but could include IT, HR and operations personnel. Determine
who your backups are and what outside resources and personnel you can use.
Assess your risk
You
need to understand your risks before you address them. Consider your physical
locations and determine the hazards unique to your region – floods, hurricanes,
tornados, earthquakes, etc. Focus on the events most likely to occur, but also
save some time to consider outside possibilities.
Create your plan
Determine
and rank the most critical functions and processes for your business. Next,
determine how these could be affected by the risks you've identified. You
should end up with two lists: your most important business factors, and those
most at risk. Now you are ready to create a recovery plan that focuses on
critical business functions and applies them to the various types of possible
business interruption. Your plan should:
·
Consider offsite backups and vendors to help assist with
implementing a data storage backup plan. Assess where you store the critical
information upon which each of your business functions rely.
·
Establish alternative or remote work arrangements for
employees, including their physical, logistical and data needs.
·
Create an annual review of your insurance policies. Evaluate
the worth of business interruption coverage within your property and casualty
insurance. You may wish to offset some of the potential loss of both business
income and recovery expenses within these policies.
·
Consider any opportunities for tax relief from losses
sustained as a result of a disaster. Have a plan to keep detailed records and
build the appropriate supplier team to help determine the best approach for
your business.
·
Make sure you plan for a variety of losses. This can be loss
of electricity, a fatal crash of your business systems or material damage to
inventory and production capacity.
Communicate
Document
your plan so it is clear, accessible and easy to implement. Share it with
everyone on your disaster roster so they know who is responsible for what and
how they should act. Review and test your plan at least annually with your
roster, and distribute any changes to keep everyone informed.
With luck, you will never need to use your business
disaster recovery plan. Although we can never prevent disasters, we can do our
best to reduce the impact they have on business operations.
Call us at (219) 769-3616 with your
questions, or email them to gward@swartz-retson.com.
