Executing your interruption of business plan
"Well, what we hoped would never happen," you say to an employee, "has happened."
Any one of the following would qualify as the object of your lament:
extended electrical outage, fire or storm, hard drive crash, computer virus, (your nightmare here). And whether the problem is an act of God, malevolence or just life, you're now out of business until you execute that recovery plan we talked about a few weeks back, which includes three recovery categories. For our purposes, let's assume the interruption is significant.
Operational recovery: Doing what it takes to get back to serving customers.
1. Develop action items, giving priority to those that minimize the impact on customers and protects assets.
2. Let your team focus on the operational details of getting the business back online while you focus on the big picture issues.
3. If key people have to work off-site, start maximizing any capability you duplicated and/or migrated to web-based, cloud applications.
Financial recovery: As the owner, it's your job to keep cash flowing.
1. For extreme physical damage, spend the first day estimating extraordinary expenses and the impact this emergency will have on your cash picture as the estimated timeline plays out.
2. Develop a cash flow spreadsheet showing the emergency's impact on cash.
3. Contact your insurance company about the business interruption rider on your property and casualty policy to see if this emergency qualifies.
4. Contact your bank and let them know you will - or may - need help. Take your emergency cash flow spreadsheet with you.
5. Contact customers about what's going on, and thank them for their help by paying on time.
Data recovery: Simultaneous with dealing with loss of physical assets, which are probably insured, tend to the recovery of digital assets, which are not.
1. Check for data loss and begin the process of restoration.
2. Check on the security and condition of customer data.
3. Make sure new digital assets you're creating are being secured and backed up.
Finally, if the disaster is community-wide, your customers are likely affected. Contact them to see what you can do. In the past they've wanted your products; now they're looking for leadership - deliver that, too.
Write this on a rock ... The question is not whether your business will be interrupted, but when.
Jim Blasingame is creator and host of the Small Business Advocate Show.
Copyright 2010, author retains ownership. All Rights Reserved.
