Businesses today need to be prepared for everything. From illness, weather, perils such as fire or water to sales slowdowns and now the newest reality being a pandemic shutdown

Business Continuity plan? It’s an action plan to mitigate risk to your business in the event something like the above occurs, and outlines what needs to be done to ensure you can keep your business up and running.

What components are typically included in a Business Continuity Plan?

• Financial Stability: Saving three months of revenues to cover rent/mortgage, utilities, salaries, maintenance & expenses
• Communication Plan: Develop messaging that will keep your clients as well as employees informed on the status of operations.
• Contractors: Ensure that you have identified & built reliable contacts with sub-contractors where you know they are properly insured (request a Certificate of Insurance)
• Data Breach: If you are collecting & storing customer data, develop a preventative plan that can include anti-virus / anti-spyware tools and a response action plan that can include Privacy Breach Insurance in case a breach does occur
• Off-site Locations: Can you continue operations remotely? If so, develop a plan to seamlessly transition to other locations
• Additional Sources of Income: For brick-and-mortar operations, develop & implement other avenues for sales
• Supply Chain: Identify a minimum of two alternative suppliers in different cities, provinces or countries