Why you need a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

As a business owner, you know that unexpected events are inevitable, so it is crucial to understand how resilient your business is.  

While a business cannot plan for every possible scenario, as a business owner you can be prepared by creating a BCP.

Below, find some essentials to create your BCP and learn how it can help you prepare for business disruptions that may come your way.

A BCP is a roadmap that outlines how to handle disruptions to your business. It explains how your business will function during and after an emergency.

The global COVID-19 pandemic was an extreme example of a business disruption. It forced many companies to find new ways to deliver their products and services, organize staff, and accommodate changes in customer demands. In severe cases, many businesses had to close their doors due to restrictions and other circumstances beyond their control.

While pandemics don’t occur often, there are several other circumstances that have the potential to cause disruptions to your business, like power outages, employee strikes, natural disasters or cyberattacks. Creating a BCP is a proactive step to prepare your business should one of these events occur. 

A BCP is not the same as a DRP; while both plans are valuable, they have different purposes. A BCP looks at the big picture and considers all of the risks that could disrupt the operation of your business, the purpose of the plan is to restore all critical functions to allow the business to perform successfully in the face of sudden unforeseen circumstances.

A DRP focuses on restoring IT systems and infrastructures during a disruption or disaster. Its primary goal is to determine how to get your business’ infrastructure back to normal as quickly as possible in the event of a crisis.

The BCP takes a holistic approach to recovering from a disaster or disruption, while the DRP targets its focus on the platforms and infrastructure. 

Creating a BCP takes time and resources, but the value of having a plan established is worth the effort.

Consider the following benefits:

To create your plan, start by assembling a BCP team. The size of your team will vary depending on your business, but it should include individuals from all critical departments.

Next, brainstorm potential threats to your business. For instance – a flood, ice storm, water shortage, power outage, supply-chain issue, cyberattack, key person injury or crisis, or a global pandemic.

Once the preliminary steps are complete, proceed to the 'prepare, plan and practice' framework below:

The first critical step is to prepare. If your business has many employees, multiple locations, or critical technologies, several factors must be considered.

• Identify essential services. Think about how your goods or services reach your customers and what you depend on to deliver them. What will you do if your building or equipment is damaged? What are your essential services and operations to keep the business running? How long can your business and its clients tolerate downtime of sales and/or operations?
  
  Ask your Business Advisor how a business line of credit or overdraft protection can help.
  
  
• Identify key individuals. Who is essential to keep your business running? Consider your vendors, suppliers, and emergency contacts. How will you handle staff shortages? Can you cross-train employees to handle the jobs of others?
  
  
• Assign roles and responsibilities. Who is responsible for each task if you experience an emergency or disruption? Who takes the lead in activating the BCP? At this stage, you can create a contact list with the names, phone numbers, and emails of key BCP members.
  
  
• Business continuity response. Develop a high-level communication strategy with employees, customers and other key stakeholders. How will your business respond to short-term or long-term outages? How do you return to normal operations?
  
  Ask your Business Advisor how Scotia Business Loan Protection¹ Insurance can protect your business.

After brainstorming and preparing in step one, formalize your ideas by creating a plan.

• Document the plan. Where will your plan live? Consider the differences between using third party tools or applications vs. a more traditional paper plan to see which best accommodates your business.
• Keep it simple. Write your plan using clear and straightforward language. Keep digital and paper copies, and ensure everyone can access them.
• Update regularly. To ensure the plan is kept up to date, assign someone to own it, update it regularly, and sign off on any changes. 

It’s not enough to have your plan in place. Implementing and running through your BCP will help identify missed steps, train staff, and deepen your team’s understanding and confidence in responding to an unexpected event.

Examples of what you can practice include:

• Consider an alternate site for business. Test essential business operations from a designated alternate location.
• Talk through efficient downtime scenarios. Schedule an informal meeting with key employees and contacts to discuss roles and responsibilities during a crisis.
• Test your communication plan. Are you able to contact your employees by phone or text outside of regular business hours?

As part of this phase, establish a BCP testing schedule to ensure that you and your team regularly practice and update your plan.

Whether your business is hit with a flood, power outage, or cyberattack, you don’t want to wait until something happens to create a plan. A BCP is a proactive way to protect the business you’ve worked hard to establish and grow. To be most effective, a BCP requires continuous training, practice and updating. 

We recognize a BCP is just one of many considerations you have when running a business. We have prepared some helpful resources as you begin building your BCP: `

• Protecting your business – Scotiabank security hub
  Learn about how to manage your cybersecurity and prevent cyber-attacks, including how to develop a cybersecurity plan, tips for improving your business’s security controls, educating your employees, and how to recognize the most common business scams.
  
  
• Scotiabank Advice+ centre for business
  Find informative business articles, such as Protect the business you’ve worked so hard to build
  
  
• Partnership hub for Scotiabank Business clients provides access to exclusive partner offers with resources like cloud based service to ensure your business can continue to operate from alternate locations with your data always backed up.

Speak to your Business Advisor about strategies, banking solutions and resources that can help your business be more resilient during an unexpected event or crisis.