Disasters come in all shapes and sizes. Some, like hurricanes, earthquakes and floods, affect
entire communities and states. Others,
like fires, power outages and robberies,
may involve only a few people and
businesses. Despite the size of the
disaster, the result is usually the same:
an interruption in your business for an
undetermined amount of time, loss of
contact with consumers and clients and,
ultimately, a big dent in your bottom
line.
Just as you would not operate
your business without a business
plan, you should not operate your
business without a disaster recovery
plan. According to the 2009 Disaster
Recovery and Business Continuity
Survey conducted by the Hughes
Marketing Group and Agility Recovery
Solutions, 52 percent of businesses
experienced an interruption or disaster
of some kind within the last two years.
Continuity plans are so important to a
business’s health that clients increasingly
require collection agencies to have a
disaster recovery/business continuity
plan in place.
“There is a growing number of
customers who say, ‘Before I do business
with you, I want to know what your
plans are if something bad happens,’”
said Bob Boyd, CEO of Agility Recovery
Solutions, a disaster recovery provider.
“Today, client RFPs often include a
requirement for a recovery plan.”
While you can’t prevent many
disasters, you can mitigate their effects
on your business. But to do so, you need
to start planning now—not after the
disaster strikes. A comprehensive loss-
prevention plan should address potential
risks, technology, staff issues, insurance
considerations, communication
strategies and continuity services. A
well-crafted plan can be the difference
between being down for a few days and
being down for good.
“When you come up with crisis
management strategies ahead of time,
then whatever you do during a crisis will
be better, faster, more meaningful and
less confusing for everyone,” Boyd said.
Potential Risks
Every business, depending on its
purpose and location, faces special
risks. To create a disaster management
plan, you should start by identifying
all the risks inherent to your particular
business. If there are geographic
risks, you should address the obvious
threats. For instance, Texas, California,
Oklahoma, Florida and New York top
the Federal Emergency Management
Agency’s list of states with the most
declared disasters, and business owners
in those states are often well-aware of
the natural disasters most common to
their area.
But other risks may not be so obvious
or easy to anticipate. Disaster plans
should also detail procedures for other
problems that would disrupt your daily
business activities, such as electrical
fires, flu outbreaks, water leaks and
computer crashes.
“People think about the big disasters
that hit communities—Hurricane
Katrina or the earthquakes in Haiti—
and they think that’s why they should
have a disaster recovery plan,” Boyd
said. “But well over 70 percent of the
recoveries we make every year are
isolated to just one business.”
Boyd described one of Agility’s
clients, a bank in New Mexico, that
had to deal with the aftermath of a
building fire. “There were water damage
issues, smoke damage issues, police
investigations—just a lot happening out
of the blue,” he said. “They came to
work one morning only to discover that
they were locked out of their building
and didn’t know when they would be
able to come back in.”
Your disaster recovery plan should
document how common disaster
scenarios should be handled. It’s
important to be specific. For instance,
your crisis management team would
react to a robbery after business hours
very differently than it would react to
a fire during business hours. Note the
location of all safety items in the office,
such as fire extinguishers, first-aid kits,
etc. Designate a safe place for staff to
meet outside the office if the crisis hits
during the workday.
While you can’t prevent
many disasters, you can mitigate their
effects on your business. But to do so, you
need to start planning now—
not after the disaster strikes.
