Business Continuity Plan: What it is, How to Write One

Business continuity plan is also known as a continuity business plan. The business plan is written to prepare businesses to maintain or resume operations swiftly in case of disruptions. Business disruptions stem from natural disasters or failure in technology.

Writing a continuity business plan starts with  writing a mission statement and ends with establishing a process for capturing insights. A business continuity plan typically includes a list of risks to your business as well as specific strategies to mitigate risks.

A well designed business continuity plan helps mitigate business risks ensuring continuity of critical business operations. It costs between $2,000 to $25,000 to write a business continuity plan and it takes between 5 to 10 days.

What is a business continuity plan?

Business continuity plan is a strategic document that ensures that a business’ personnel and assets are able to function and are protected in the event that a disaster occurs. It outlines instructions and procedures that must be followed in the face of a disaster.

Businesses face a lot of potential disasters such as cyber attacks, fire, floods and global pandemics. Executive management is in charge of coming up with a business continuity plan. However, the process is a cross functional effort requiring input from all departments. 

Business continuity planning involves coordination across various business departments to ensure that all business aspects are considered. Disruptions and threats result in loss of revenue and hence a drop in profitability. Hence, business continuity plans are important.

How to write a business continuity plan

Writing a business continuity plan is a step by step process. The steps include writing  a mission statement detailing the objectives of the plan, setting up governance which describes the business continuity team and writing the plan procedure appendices.

Other steps include detailing a training program by including training curriculum and timelines as well as setting procedures for testing recovery and response. The final step is to establish a process for capturing insights by having meetings to probe processes. Each step is written as a key element of a continuity business plan. 

1. Write a Mission Statement

A mission statement of a continuity business plan describes its objectives. It outlines what you are trying to achieve with the plan. The main objective of writing a business continuity plan is to keep essential business functions running.  Identify the goals and objectives most important to your business operations.

Putting objectives into words provides an overview of the areas that the document must address. In addition, it gives stakeholders a clear understanding of the plan’s purpose and scope. It is important to know the end goal in mind whether it’s about resuming business processes or improving the reputation of the business.

Indicate when the plan should be completed. Budget for preparation for disaster and recovery such as research, consultants, training and tools. Budgeting helps you get an idea of the resources that you are going to be working with. Detail assumptions about financial resources like government grants for business continuity. 

2. Set Up Governance

This step entails setting up and describing the business plan continuity team. Before you start strategizing, it is important to assemble a management team who will be incharge.This team will devise plans to mitigate business disruptions. They should be organized and detail oriented. Developing a business continuity plan is not a one man job but involves incorporating a team drawn from all departments.

Include names ,titles, roles and designations as well as contact information of team members. It is important to define the roles clearly as well as lines of succession and authority so as to enhance accountability. Include also an organization chart. Some of the roles include executive manager who leads the process of writing the continuity plan,  program coordinator who coordinates all activities relating to the plan and information officer responsible for sharing data related to the plan. 

3. Write the Plan Procedures and Appendices

This section is the core of your continuity business plan. The critical part of the document includes procedures, agreements and resources. Your continuity plan should entail a list of tasks and processes that must be performed to keep your business operations running.

Be specific as you write the procedures and you could use diagrams and illustrations. A common tool in a business continuity plan is a checklist that contains equipment and supplies, location of backup sites as well as  emergency responders and their contacts.

These checklists and work instructions are simple and powerful tools to convey important information in a crisis. Well created procedures can help your business with compliance and provides a structure to overcome and meet  both big and small challenges.

Plans included in a continuity business plan include continuity of operations plan which provides guidance and procedures to sustain essential functions of a business. Secondly, a disaster recovery plan which provides procedures for relocating information systems operations to an alternative location. Thirdly, a crisis communication plan which provides procedures for disseminating information.

4. Detail a Training Program

An effective training program directly correlates to quick and effective recovery. Coming up with a training program entails determining the curriculum as well as setting timelines for training. Specify who will lead training and who needs to be trained. The business continuity team that is being trained must go through the plan extensively.

The training program enables the team to get an understanding of developing recovery strategies and solutions. It ensures staff are aware of their responsibilities and have the skills and knowledge to effectively execute your business continuity plans. Training provides an opportunity for in-depth review of the content being taught. Revision of the program ensures that inefficiencies and redundancies are identified and addressed. 

5. Set Procedures for Testing Recovery and Response

This step involves creating test guidelines and schedules for testing. It is not enough to develop a business continuity plan without testing. Testing shows how well a plan will work out. Setting procedures for testing ensures that all stakeholders are prepared for an actual incident. Business continuity plans should be tested at least twice a year. Testing ensures that the continuity plan is up to date with your current business processes.

Testing also helps identify gaps in the continuity business plan as well as identifying areas where there is misalignment of objectives. You could set the types and timing for testing. Many businesses test a business continuity plan two to three times in a year. Procedures for testing recovery and response could be also in the form of reviewing your checklist to ensure that all responses still apply to your current status.

The team works through the test oftenly with a specific disaster in mind. Drills and disaster role playing are incorporated and any weaknesses corrected. Experts advise that a full emergency evacuation drill be performed at least annually. Additionally, a mock recovery test can be conducted every two or three years. This makes sure that internal stakeholders have confidence in the plan. 

6. Establish a Process for Capturing Insights

This step comes into play after training sessions have occurred. Capturing insights involves holding debriefs so that action is taken. A lesson learnt without action is just a lesson observed. A business must take steps on the lessons learnt and prepare for more eventualities. Reassemble your team to conduct a review of what worked as intended and what needs to be improved on. 

This step is a crucial one and a key part of the final business continuity plan. You summarize your findings after analyzing the main operations of a business, its major resources and how its operations relate one to another. You could also give feedback forms to employees so that more data is collected. Debriefs are important in this process to make sure that your continuity business plan is up to date with new insights.

What does a business continuity plan typically include?

As a type of business plan, a business continuity plan has certain components. It should be comprehensive by including everything that employees and stakeholders need . A business continuity plan includes the following elements.

An analysis of all critical functions within your business. It also includes a list of risks that pose a catastrophic threat  to your business, specific strategies to mitigate risks, evidence that the strategies are tested using metrics, indicators and financial scenarios. 

In addition, dashboards and reports that uncover challenges and allow you to update the plan are also included in a continuity business plan.Critical functions in a business may include payroll, accounts receivable, customer service and production. Analyzing these critical systems ensures that you prioritize them for protection and recovery. Risk assessment identifies potential risks related to your business.

Such risks include cash and stock theft, industrial strike, natural disasters, prolonged power outage, getting sued, accidents and infrastructure collapse. Risk analysis is an ongoing process that works in tandem with training and testing. Risk assessment is a team effort addressing every aspect of your business operations.

What is the purpose of a business continuity plan?

The main importance of a business continuity plan is to enable a business to prepare adequately for a crisis by defining how it will grow or maintain operations amidst the challenges. It is vital for any business whether big or small to retain and increase its customer base. Hence, an occurrence of an adverse event may cripple the capability of a business. 

The future of your business depends on people and processes. Therefore, being able to handle and recover from disaster can have a positive effect on the market value and reputation of your business. As a result, customer confidence is enhanced.

In addition, your business must prioritize business continuity planning as a matter of regulatory compliance. For example, your business risks its license being withdrawn because of not having a business continuity plan.

Business continuity plan vs disaster recovery plan

A business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan are often linked but they are different. A disaster recovery plan details how a business recovers after disruptions while a business continuity plan describes how a business can maintain its operations during an emergency.

Disaster recovery plans are created as part of the larger business continuity plan. A business continuity plan focuses on the entire organization’s operations while a disaster recovery plan focuses on technology aspects such as information technology.

Comparison table Business continuity plan vs disaster recovery plan

How to create a business plan

A comprehensive business plan is written following specific steps of business plan creation. These include writing the executive summary, company description, conducting market and competitor analysis as well as outlining  the management and organization structure of the business. Additional steps include doing market research, creating a financial plan and sales plan. It also involves crafting marketing strategies and writing a funding request. Such steps have to be followed keenly to ensure each component represents an action that would make the business plan better. 

What are the components of a business plan

Business plan components are closely associated with the steps of writing a business plan. The elements of a business plan are executive summary which appears first and is an overview of the entire plan, company description which outlines the name of the business as well as its location and market analysis whose purpose is to identify your target market. 

Another component is competitive analysis that outlines how your business compares to its competitors as well as description of management and organization structure. Other components include a breakdown of products and services description which highlights the services and products that a business sells and how they stand out in the market. marketing plan, sales strategy and financial plan. In addition, a marketing plan, a request for funding as well as recommendations are also included in a business plan.

Is there a marketing continuity plan?

Yes, marketing is a key element in a continuity plan. A marketing continuity plan is a  strategic document that indicates how marketing will be happening during an emergency disruption of services. The plan is supposed to handle every aspect of marketing that might be affected to make it more outstanding and guarantee better outcomes. Every type of business plan deserves to have a marketing plan to guarantee sales and continuity. Creating a marketing plan involves several steps key among them identifying the scope of your plan. This step entails determining which aspects of your marketing efforts are most critical to your business. The second step is identifying critical areas of marketing. The third step is to create materials for marketing and finally execute your marketing continuity plan.

How much does a business continuity plan cost? 

A business plan writer charges between $2,000 to $25,000 for a continuity business plan. However, business plan costs largely depend on factors such as the quality, complexity and length of your business continuity plan.  Longer and more complex continuity plans will cost more than shorter ones. A business continuity plan for a large business will cost more than that of a small business because it may be more complicated to write. Another factor is the  turnaround time whereby a short turnaround time means paying a high price.

How long does it take to write a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan takes 5 to 10 days to write. However, the time taken to write a business continuity plan will vary depending on factors such as the complexity of a business, resources available and the depth of analysis involved. Other factors include the size of the business, the required level of detail, level of stakeholder involvement, scalability requirements which play an important role in determining how fast a business continuity plan can be developed. Additionally,factors such as  regulatory requirements and compliance standards also come into play. Compliance standards play a role in dictating the depth of the business continuity plan.