What is the purpose of a business continuity plan?  Very simply, it is a guidance document that aassists you and your staff to rapidly respond to emergency situations and recover from them.  The faster a business can recover from any disastrous situation, the better the chances of your business surviving in the long term.  A business continuity plan is intended to reduce the potential for business interruption and reduce the time of interrutption.

Print this page and take a few minutes to answer the questions.  Share the questions with your key staff and compare the results.  After considering your answers, you will have a clearer view of whether or not your business is one of the 6 percent that will survive a disaster.

1.    How long could your business remain viable if you could not provide your service or
       product to the market place?

2.    If your business was forced to close for an extended period of time because of an
       emergency situation, what would happen to your employees?  How would they support
       their families?  Would they be available to return to work when you were able to open
       again?

3.    Are your employees prepared both in the workplace and at home for a disaster?
       Will they know what to do and where to go?

4.    Do you have plans in place to support your employees when they are unable to work
       because the business is closed?  If so, for how long?

5.    Have you taken steps to protect your business from disasters?  (e.g.  structural
       strengthening of the building(s), purchasing an emergency generator if your business
       depends on electrical power, etc.)

6.    Can your business operate from an alternate location?  If so, have you identified that
       location?

7.    Your business has not been damaged and you can continue production.  How about
       your suppliers?  Are they prepared?  Do they have a business continuity plan? 
       Do you have sufficient supplies on-site to continue production until your supplier
       has recovered?

8.    Do you provide a service or product that would be useful to government at the time
       of an emergency situation?  If so, have you considered a partnership with your local
       government?  Would you be willing to assist your local government by providing
       some of your employees to assist with their needs?

9.    Do you have backup copies of critical records, files, software, and/or data store in
       a safe location that is easy to access?

10.  Do you have emergency communications in place to be able to communicate with your
       clients, suppliers, customers, and employees?

11. If your employees were unable to leave work after a disaster because roads were down,
      or weather conditions did not allow travel, do you have plans in place to feed and
      house them?

12.  Your building has been hit by a disastrous event (earthquake, tornado, huricane, etc.)
       and is serously damaged, trapping and possibly injuring employees.  Do you have
       procedures in place to begin search and rescue operations and provide first aid
       assistance, or will you have to wait for the Fire Department to be able to respond to
       your location?

This ends the questions.  Please "click" on the "next" button to move to the next page and the rest of the discussion.