Nearly every day many unpublicised disasters, man-made and natural, devastate small businesses. Whilst insurance helps to reduce the financial impact, the true loss is usually far greater than that insured. Damage to a company's reputation for reliability will often be the greatest loss. In some circumstances, the loss incurred is so great that the business collapses.

The biggest threats to most organisations apart from theft are; vandalism, fire, computer failure and power loss. Serious storms, floods or water escape from other sources can also have a major impact. Some businesses are at risk from pressure groups or even terrorists. All premises and employees are at risk, albeit very slight, from air crashes, chemical or nuclear pollution, disease or personal attack.

To stay in business after disaster strikes requires careful planning. A Business Continuity Plan is essential to minimise the time, effort and cost of keeping your business running after a disaster. The plan should concentrate on critical business functions.

Risk Assessment
Analyse the main potential hazards facing your business. Look at your environment; try to assess where the danger will come from. Is your business particularly susceptible to vandalism, cuts in power or water, or to malicious damage? There are many events that you cannot predict, such as transport accidents or terrorist incidents. However, you can look at your business and judge how it might be affected by such disasters. What are the critical business functions and how vulnerable are they?

Having determined the main dangers, you may find that simple measures taken now can lessen the chances of those events occurring.

Recovery Procedures
Clearly identify in advance, how you will cope with the inevitable disruption to your critical business functions if a disaster does occur.

Business Continuity Plan

• Crisis Management Team
You may wish to form a Crisis Management Team to be responsible for ensuring that the recovery process is co-ordinated. A point of contact for outside agencies should be designated.

Draw up individual task lists for the recovery of the key elements of your business. For instance, there may be a list of tasks concentrating on premises, computers, communications and public relations. These task lists can be used as checklists for staff to use.

Decide who will activate the Plan, and when. The circumstances in which the plan will be activated and the callout details for key staff should be clearly stated. Details of key holders and building owners/facilities managers should be compiled and included, together with any other organisations and individuals who need to be alerted at the early stages of an incident.

• Communications
In an emergency, it is essential that your organisation communicates speedily and effectively with many different groups of people including: Employees, Local Authorities, Customers or Clients, Suppliers, Shareholders, Local media.

The Plan will need to cover both emergency communications for the immediate aftermath of the disaster (e.g. radios and mobile telephones) and longer-term measures such as diverting calls to other locations and diverting mail to other premises.

Key points to consider are:

- Internal and external communications

- Location of existing facilities

- Sources of supply for additional cellular telephones or two-way radios

- Telephone procedures and duties of switchboard operators

- Arrangements for informing all staff if the disaster occurs outside working hours

- Arrangements for informing the media

• Inventory
A full inventory of equipment should be kept in the Plan. This will be invaluable when dealing with insurance companies and assessing what your priorities are for replacing equipment. This is significantly helped by asset tagging your equipment (see page 19).

• Duplication and Protection of Essential Records
Duplicates of building plans, wiring diagrams, leases, contracts, legal documents, client records, staff records and the Business Continuity Plan itself should be stored away from the site.

• Information Technology
It is crucial that a system of back-up and retrieval of computer data is devised and full details included in the plan.

• Essential Service Information
If your premises need to be connected to temporary power or water supplies, details of any technical requirements should be kept in the plan.

• Temporary Accommodation
Possible alternative accommodation should be identified in advance. This may take the form of portable offices, sharing with neighbours or short-term rental. It is useful to define your criteria for temporary accommodation at the planning stage &endash; will you need car-parking facilities? Are there any special security requirements?

• Furniture and Equipment
Sources of essential furniture and equipment should be identified in the plan. What tools does your business need to function?

• Financial, Insurance and Legal Matters
Any relevant legal and financial issues should be specified in the plan. There is likely to be an increase in expenditure as a result of the disaster and possible sources of this funding should be identified. It is also best to notify your insurance company as soon as possible.

• Staff Welfare
The disruption caused by a major emergency or disaster can be very disturbing for staff. The loss of personal possessions, ongoing work, vital notes and records can have a detrimental effect on morale. It is important that staff concerns are acknowledged and that a structured return to normal business is made. Counselling, both short term and long term may also be needed and should be considered when drawing up your plan.

• Salvage
Specialist advice should be sought in dealing with the after-effects of an incident. Remember that it may be some time before access to a damaged building is permitted. Salvage is often a long-term exercise and should not be relied upon or considered effective for recovering critical business equipment and information. Premises may have to be inspected to ensure that they are structurally sound.

Preventative measures may need to be taken to halt the onset of mould and fungal growth in areas, which have been exposed to moisture.

It is often possible to salvage and restore documents and books that have been damaged by charring, smoke, mould or water. The cost of restoration should be weighed against the cost of replacement.

It may be necessary to let this aspect of the recovery process be dealt with by specialist document recovery firms. Include their contact details in the plan.

Unsupervised salvage can negate any insurance cover. It is therefore best to agree the name of the Loss Adjuster with your insurance company beforehand to save any disagreements later. Keep the number of the authorised Loss Adjuster in the plan so that they can lead the salvage effort.

Media Liaison and Public Relations
Poor handling of the media can sometimes cause more damage to the company than the actual disaster. This is especially true if the cause of a disaster can be attributed, rightly or wrongly, to an act or omission of the company. 'No comment' is often misinterpreted as an attempt to hide something sinister. Skilful handling of the media is essential.

Key steps to consider include:

- Nominate an official spokesperson, preferably trained in dealing with the media

- Co-ordinate information by liaising with emergency services and other affected organisations to ensure that messages given out are not conflicting

- Place advertisements in local or national newspapers to inform customers (and potential customers!) of the situation

- Produce regular bulletins for staff, suppliers, regular customers etc.

- Prepare background facts on the organisation, functions, safety record etc. (doing this now will save a great deal of time - but remember to keep them updated).

Testing and Updating the Plan
The plan should be reviewed at least annually. This will allow new contact details to be inserted and any new legislation or changes in the organisation to be reflected.

Where possible, the component parts of the plan should be tested throughout the year. Many continuity plans fail when tested, often because of incorrect assumptions, oversights or changes in equipment or personnel. Testing should help to identify these issues and will keep the plan fresh in the minds of staff.

A test schedule, indicating how and when each element will be tested, should be drawn up and inserted as a section of the plan. A named individual should be responsible for updating the plan. In addition to the annual review, the plan may need re-assessing in other situations, such as:

• Acquisition of new equipment, or upgrading of operational systems

• New problem detection and control technology e.g. fire detection

• New environmental control technology

• Staff or organisational changes

• Changes of contractors or suppliers

• Changes of addresses or telephone numbers

• Changes to business processes

• Changes in operating practices

• Changes in legislation