Advice for Businesses

Could your business continue to operate if you were unable to access your property? Or would your business survive a major fire? And how would you manage with a large number of staff absent from work due to a flu pandemic?

Would your business survive a crisis?

Every year 1 in 5 businesses face a major disruption to their services. Of these 1 in 10 will cease trading. If your premises were to suffer a crisis, how would you maintain your essential business activities? The answer lies in business continuity planning.

What is business continuity planning?

Business continuity is about anticipating what crises could affect your business (for example a fire, a power cut, flooding, an IT systems failure, theft, restricted access to your premises) and identifying processes which will allow you to keep the disruption to a minimum and ensure that you recover from the crisis quickly.

Why is business continuity planning important?

Experience shows that businesses are more likely to survive a crisis if they have prepared for it. Business continuity arrangements also build customer and insurer confidence in your business. The Manchester bomb in 1996 demonstrated that 80% of firms with no plans in place who are affected by a major incident, do not re-open, or close within 18 months of the incident. The World Trade Centre 9/11 tragedy saw a virtual repeat of these statistics!

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan will identify all the requirements that are essential to keeping your business running. It should include a set of instructions about what to do at the time of a crisis in order to allow your critical functions to continue.

You should consider issues such as:
• How would you evacuate your premises in an emergency?
• How can you contact essential staff outside of office hours?
• What are your critical business activities?
• What software and hardware does your business rely on?
• Do you store back-up data and can you access this outside of your premises?
• What telecommunications does your business rely on?
• Do you have any alternative premises you can operate from?
• Can your insurance details be accessed outside of the premises?
• Do you rely on suppliers, and can you access details of these outside of your premises?

How to start business continuity planning?

In order to assist local businesses with this process, Epping Forest District Council has produced a booklet that sets out the key steps in business continuity planning and provides a template plan for your use.

Could your business survive a crisis? pdf 602 KB

This booklet is aimed at small to medium sized business and will assist you in preparing your own business continuity arrangements. The information is relevant, no matter what size business you have, whether or not you employ staff and whatever type of business you operate.

Remember that business continuity planning is not a complex science. It is largely based on a common sense approach and having in place practical measures. You may already be doing without realising it, such as making regular back ups of your critical data and keeping them in a safe place away from your normal business premises.

Where to find further information?

You may find the following websites useful.

Essex Resilience Forum website

A multi-agency information website for Essex about emergency and business continuity planning.

London Prepared website

A UK Government information website which is a central reference point and directory for use during wide-ranging London emergencies, including information on business continuity planning.

Business Continuity Institute website

The BCI was established in 1994 to enable members to obtain guidance and support from fellow business continuity practitioners. The wider role of the BCI is to promote the highest standards of professional competence and commercial ethics in the provision and maintenance of business continuity planning and services.

UK Resilience website

The UK resilience website provides information on emergency planning and cross government resilience activity. It is run by the Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, a central reference point and directory for use during wide-ranging national emergencies.