A Business Resumption Plan
Or Else

You are in business, operating from home. A well designed business resumption plan will help you recover quickly when sudden, potentially damaging events interrupt your business operations.

Your business income is perhaps your main source of revenue. What do you do if you lose it all - home and business - because you neglected to plan your way out of major adverse circumstances?

Don't lose it … now or then. Plan for the worst, rehearse, update your business resumption plan, and sleep tight at night.

It's Do or Die

With a business resumption plan, you will only experience a temporary setback if bad luck strikes.

Without one, you leave yourself open to disaster.

What follows should not be considered as an all inclusive plan. It is intended as a minimum checklist. Use it to start thinking about your specific situation, and prepare your own personalized plan. Use your own common sense and judgment.

If your livelihood depends on your small home based Web business, do not avoid nor postpone the development of a sound business resumption plan.

Try to think beyond the list and prepare for anything, even the least likely. Brainstorm the plan with the help and cooperation of family, staff, partners, and suppliers.

Do not rely on your usual resourcefulness to pull you out of a disastrous situation on the spot. You cannot predict when disaster strikes, nor how big the impact will be on your business, your personal safety and that of your loved ones and staff.

Kiss And Make It

Obviously, your contingency plan will be a relatively simple one if you are running a one man show, and you operate a Web business as a pure infopreneur. If it's your case, then keep it simple and functional. Do not pay less attention to your plan because you operate a small Web business. Instead, take advantage of the fact that being small means you can be more nimble.

At the other end of the spectrum, the business resumption plan will have to be considerably more involved if you have staff, a store, a warehouse, and regular client traffic.

Some exceptional situations may even require outright evacuation, with subsequent resumption of operations from another location. Other emergencies may only require the activation of the appropriate backup.

You may have to react immediately, or you may have the time to do it progressively, by stages. At other times, you may just have to monitor a potential situation very closely.

It Is Often Lurking Just Over The Horizon

It is worth mentioning that the better prepared know how to recognize impending, potentially damaging events. That is because they are accustomed to thinking ahead. They take planned preventive action to avoid or minimize the negative impacts of any adverse situation.

A well thought out business resumption plan will contain a series of proactive, preventive measures.

In addition, the reactive measures will be planned for execution according to:

• a pre-determined logical sequence,
• involving pre-designated persons for specific tasks,
• within a specified time frame,
• under specific conditions.

Insurance Is Damage Control At Best

Too many small-business people think that, because they are insured, they have everything "covered". Face it. Insurance can only compensate, after the fact, and only to a certain degree.

You can replace your home, your furniture, your office equipment.

However, insurance will not recover your lost clientele or your lost business opportunities! You lose them when you go out of operation for a significant amount of time.

What's significant? You are in a better position than I to judge that. Let me just point out that the higher your business activity is, the less "non-operational" time you can afford. You cannot do any business while you are out of business!

However, you can prevent such business threatening losses from occurring by being proactive.

Save The Show Even Before The Curtain Rises

Your best insurance policy will always be your carefully thought out business resumption plan. You cannot prevent certain disasters from occurring, but you can, at least, have a plan to get back on your feet quickly. You can transform a big hit into a glancing blow by nimbly sidestepping!

The show must go on, regardless of your business size. Use the following lists as food for thought.

While you are brainstorming a plan, remember to identify your "single point of failure". Concentrate on measures that will reduce the negative impact of its failure.

In my case, I am a pure "infopreneur". My broadband Internet access is provided by my local telephone company. Therefore, I have identified my exterior telephone cable as my single point of failure. If a tree branch falls and brings down that cable, I have made appropriate arrangements with my son. My plan is to:

• pick up my laptop (pre-configured and ready for operations)
• drive over to my son's apartment a few streets away
• and resume operations from there until my Internet access and phone services are restored.

Notice that my Web site is where I do business from exclusively. It never goes down. My Web hosting service is fully redundant with "hot backup" servers ready to go on line within moments. My business is always operational. I only ever stand to suffer minor interruptions in my research, content creation, and administrative tasks.

The Emergencies and Potential Disasters:

• Fire,
• Flood,
• Theft,
• Threat requiring emergency evacuation (i.e. a natural gas leak in the neighborhood),
• Sudden incapacitating illness of Most Important Person,
• Vandalism,
• Power failure of unknown duration. If, for example, it happens in the dead of winter, you may have to evacuate.
• Fatal computer failure (i.e. hard disk crash or CPU failure),
• Internet access down,
• Telephone (land line) service down.

The Business Resumption Plan Essentials:

• Emergency alternate office site (and living accommodations).
• Alternate telephone line(s) and phone(s).
• Internet access (can be dial-up for a while).
• Appropriate backups.

The Emergency Procedures:

Remember to remain alert and proactive. You do not have to wait for something to happen to take preventive action. Try and be on the lookout for trouble. Sometimes, you can be forewarned by simply listening to the news! (i.e. a severe thunderstorm watch is in effect).

If a disruptive event does occur, your business resumption plan must include step by step procedures to follow. In an emergency, you must know what to do. Emergency procedures are best developed when you are clear-headed and under no stress. You must not plan to improvise during an emergency.

You will have to be able to:

• Quickly identify the nature of the disruptive event, its gravity, and degree of emergency (i.e. evacuate or not).
• Estimate potential duration of disruption to operations.
• Identify what specific pre-planned procedure to follow.
• In the case of a sudden disaster, implement the appropriate disaster recovery emergency procedures.
• Decide if you evacuate and implement off-site operations, or continue on-site operations.

You will need to:

• Ensure constant availability of appropriate backups, on-site and/or off. Activate as the situation requires.
• Make up a list of important contacts and telephone numbers. Maintain it up to date. Have multiple copies distributed in different places (I keep a folded, plastic-covered copy in my back pocket).

Your business resumption plan must include a list of business-essential contacts:

• Police,
• Fire,
• Ambulance,
• Doctor,
• Insurance,
• Gas co.,
• Power co.,
• Backup personnel,
• Partners and contributors,
• Computer support technician,
• Plumber,
• Electrician,
• Locksmith,
• Mover or shipping co.,
• Major suppliers,
• Media,
• Whoever else the resumption of your business operations might require.

Disaster planning simulation

Perform periodic "dressed rehearsals", at least once per year. It is the only way to ensure that your business resumption plan is adequate and effective. You do not want to find out, under emergency conditions at sea, that the inflatable life raft is punctured!

Stay tuned!

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