How much is too much business continuity

Can there be too much business continuity that a company puts in place?

The aim is to be up and running as quickly as possible in light of any event that occurs which might cause a break in trading.

Such events could be a fire, a rail strike, sickness of key personal, cables such as phone, electrical or internet being cut through, flooding, snow, computer and disk error, accidental deletion or loss of critical files. And there are probably loads of other things that can occur to slow down trading.

So what do we do to ensure we keep trading amidst the turmoil and struggle of any of the above when they hit?

Having a plan is a good place to start and free business continuity plans can be obtained from your insurance company or bank.

Having in place automatic online backup is critical. You need to ensure you can get your computer files back regardless of any issue and automatic data backup software is convenient to use and will ensure the latest backup copy of your files is safe.

Other free business continuity tools include an emergency alert service to allow you to let your customers know when things aren’t great. Sounds odd, but remaining in touch in times of trouble is reassuring to both the posting company and the receiving customers - they’ll know that you haven’t closed down!

If you trade within a flood plain going to the environment agency website is a good place to download a flood planning tool and this is a free business continuity service they offer.

Putting someone in charge of business continuity and ensuring the communication is always there within the company is paramount to keep everyone in the know and aware of systems and procedures in place. Keep testing and updating them and disaster recovery will be swift in the event of that calamity.

So there is never too much business continuity you can put in place, however you do not need to spend a lot of money or effort in sourcing it or putting it in place as much is free and simple to implement.