Every day, your business faces potential disaster from many different threats. By taking a few minutes to assess the potential risk your company faces on the average day, you will be taking the first step to creating a disaster plan.

Disaster Planning 101

Every business needs a disaster plan to address what will be done in case a disaster occurs. A disaster plan is a set of steps that is customized to address the unique needs of your individual business and guard against:

• business downtime
• revenue loss
• information loss
• loss of business’s reputation
• loss of assets

Consider Your Risks

The potential disaster your business might suffer from may require different approaches to planning. For instance, if your business site is next door to a chemical processing plant, you would be concerned about fire or chemical spills and would need to protect your data, inventory and business site against damage from those specific threats. If your business is located in a hurricane zone, you would be worried about water damage to electronics and physical building damage. Or, data loss through negligence can open the door to expensive law suits as well as damage your business’s reputation.

Environmental Risks

Environmental risks are typically climatic or geologic in nature. While the potential damage from each risk may be similar, each natural disaster possesses its own set of risks that you need to address. Natural disasters include:

• hurricanes
• tornadoes
• floods
• earthquakes
• forest fires
• volcanic eruptions and mud flows

Man-Made Hazards

Man-made hazards can change depending upon the physical location of your business and include:

• power outages
• sprinkler discharge
• fuel or water supply failure
• chemical spills
• arson
• bomb threats

Malicious Harm

Malicious harm generally impacts proprietary information or client data. Examples include:

• computer hacking
• unapproved data transfer
• sharing of trade secrets
• identity theft
• financial fraud

Negligent Behavior

Negligent behavior occurs more frequently than anyone wants to acknowledge. Generally, these acts can be avoided if people are educated and take the time to think things through before they act. Negligent acts include:

• misplacement of backup tapes
• accidental exposure of client records
• poor project planning
• computer virus outbreaks

Construct a Disaster Plan

Regardless of the nature of your business’s specific threats, any of the potential risks can affect your bottom line. Depending upon your business’s needs, your disaster plan may be as simple as copying important data to an encrypted external hard drive and taking it home at night. Or, the plan can be much more complicated and require a co-location site where all pertinent data and equipment necessary to your business’s daily functions are stored. Of course, your business’s disaster planning needs will likely fall somewhere in between the two extremes. A good disaster plan can be created in five simple steps:

• Assess your business’s potential risks.
• Outline your business’s needs.
• Prioritize your threats.
• Create and implement the disaster plan to reduce your business’s risk.
• Test the disaster plan.

Ask For Help

On your own, creating a disaster plan may appear overwhelming, but when you partner with experts, the process can be much easier. Please contact All Covered to learn more about how disaster plan can help protect your business assets and revenue.

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