Excuses We Hear About Failing to Plan for Business Continuity

I originally had “disaster recovery” instead of “business continuity” in the title of this post. 

Then I remembered that while disaster recovery is important, it's almost like white noise to many SMB leaders. 

It's easy to think “The chances of a disaster affecting my business are minimal.” (Tell that to the poor folks in the Carolinas.)

However, disaster recovery isn't only about getting your business fully operational after a disaster (a disaster defined as any event – man-made or natural – that disrupts normal business operations). Equally important in disaster recover efforts is the planning to ensure the business remains operational in the event of a disruption – the business continuity aspect of disaster recovery.

While we understand that disaster recovery isn’t always at the top of your to-do list. That doesn’t make it any less important. 

Here are some of the excuses – usually mislabeled as “reasons” – to not pursue a disaster recovery strategy.

This sounds like it’s going to take a lot of time, and money.

Not really. Of course, larger organizations have dedicated staff for disaster recovery. For smaller businesses, an outsourcing strategy can further limit the resources – in staff time and budget – to preparing for continuity. In fact, if you're partnering with a managed IT services provider, you've already taken a small step towards business continuity.

I’ve got more important things to think about.

More important things than the need to ensure that the information your business relies on with always be available? I can't think of business decisions much more important than that.

We’ll deal with a crisis, if one ever happens.

No you won't. Or at least not as well as you could have and with infinitely more stress. It's an old expression, but still true: Failure to plan is planning to fail.

We’re too small to need a plan.

Even single-person business need to plan for a disaster by having at minimum a plan in place to maintain access to data and to communicate to clients if they'll be offline for any length of time. No one is too small not to need a plan.

I’ve looked before and couldn’t find a good solution.

This one is probably true. Finding a good fit and solution can be a struggle. That said, you’ve come to the right place!

We backup our data, that’s good enough.

That's great that you backup your data. Do you do it regularly? Do you check that the backups actually worked? Read here for why that’s NOT true.

If you’ve used one of those lines, stop hoping that disaster keeps missing you and start planning.

Here's the last excuse: I don't know where to start.

We've got you covered. Contact me directly: dstoy@coordinated.com or give us a little more detail of your needs by clicking the link below and we'll be in touch.