Disaster…
The word alone conjures images of chaos, so imagine how disorienting and fearful it can be when it actually hits. Disaster is a potential risk for all businesses. While you should try to minimize the risk when at all possible, it’s also your responsibility to know how to face it.
Whether you’re dealing with damaged or failing infrastructure, a PR scandal, a hit to your finances or any other emergency, there are some business continuity planning steps you can use to build a bridge and get through it.
If disaster strikes, take action with the tips below.
The Necessary Business Continuity Planning Steps
Your response to disaster is known as a business continuity plan. If you need to put one of these plans together, these are the core steps.
1. Analyze Your Risks and Liabilities
Before you create your disaster recovery plan, you need to lay the risks and liabilities out on the table.
You will need to know ahead of time what you have to lose with your business. This takes the element of surprise out of a disaster, so you can quickly accept the current state of things, and then execute your plan to address it.
Every business has varying degrees of liabilities, so the more honest and aware you can get about them up front, the better you will be able to put a plan together.
2. Find Out in Detail How a Disaster Will Affect Your Business
Once you know about the kinds of hits your company can take, you will need to know how it will affect your business for the long haul.
Analyzing the risks is analogous to having been burned by fire. The second step of assessing how the disaster will affect your business is like working out the degree of the burn and choosing the right treatment.
3. Figure Out Some Recovery Strategies
Now you need to determine the exact strategy for recovery.
Start putting together teams that represent each department, and deep dive into what it would take to solve the problems that a disaster would cause. By laying out these steps in detail during moments of calm, you’ll feel confident about following those steps once disaster actually strikes.
4. Put Together the Details of Your Plan
Put every facet of your plan into writing. This means adding details such as points of contact, chain of command, what to avoid, emergency contacts and so much more.
Your plan will go through several drafts, and it pays to get a third-party set of eyes to make sure that you are accounting for every important detail, while also expressing the plan in a way that is crystal clear.
5. Test and Recalibrate the Plan
You don’t have a plan until it’s put to the test.
Run through it with a fine-toothed comb, and create mock scenarios that can highlight the strengths and weaknesses. This will bring checks and balances to your plan, and let you fine-tune them until you have a plan that works.
Create the Plan You Need
These are the business continuity planning steps that will protect your company. You can also reach out to a company that can help you create the best plan possible.
Consider these tips and start putting together your plan for disaster recovery.
