A one-page continuity plan for a small business

Start with a simple question: if something stopped your business tomorrow, what would you most need to keep going? Not everything. The smallest version of the business that would still serve your important customers for two weeks. For many businesses that is a phone, a list of customers and pending orders, access to stock, and a way to take payment. Write that down as the first line of your page. It is called the minimum operation, and naming it makes every other decision easier.

Next, list what could realistically stop you. Think in groups. Premises: a fire, flooding, a blocked road, a building problem. Utilities: a long power cut, no internet, no water. People: illness, an accident, a key person leaving without notice. Data and devices: a lost or stolen phone, a crashed laptop, a hacked email or messaging account. Suppliers and transport: a supplier going quiet or closing, a transporter failing. Start with what has already happened to you or to businesses near you, because those are the ones most likely to happen again.

For each item, write one line: what we would do in the first hour. Not a long procedure, only the first step. For a power cut, that might be who calls the electricity provider, which work can move to phones, and whether anything in storage is at risk. For a lost laptop, it is which accounts to lock and who does it. Writing the first step is often enough to stop an hour being lost to confusion.

Then put names on it. Who decides in an emergency, and who is the second choice if that person is away? For each critical task, such as taking orders, dispatch, billing or opening the premises, who else can do it? In many small businesses the honest answer is nobody, which is itself useful to learn. Choose one task this month and teach it to a second person. Add a phone list of staff, key customers, suppliers, your accountant and the people who help with the premises, such as the electrician or building management. Keep a printed copy somewhere other than the office, and a copy on your phone.

Now look at records. Ask: if this laptop and this phone vanished today, what could I not recreate? Usually it is the customer list and pending orders, accounts and invoices, tax and bank details, contracts and licences, and the logins that open all of it. Keep a copy away from the original: a second device, a cloud storage account, or a paper file kept elsewhere. Decide who else can reach passwords in an emergency, and how, without writing them on a sticky note on the monitor. Then do the step most people skip: restore something from your backup and open it. A backup you have never tested is only a hope.

Then the premises and equipment. Where is stock stored, and is it off the floor if water comes in? Is there a working fire extinguisher, a first-aid kit and a clear exit? Do you have a list of your equipment, with photographs and serial numbers? If the premises were unusable for a week, where could you work from, even in a reduced way?

Insurance deserves one honest paragraph. Policies differ a great deal, and many owners have never read theirs closely. Take your policy out and ask your insurer or a licensed adviser a few plain questions. What does it cover, and what does it exclude? Does it include stock, equipment and premises, and is any loss of income covered? Are the values still right, or has the business grown past them? What documents and photographs would you need to make a claim, and how soon must you inform the insurer after an event? This article is not insurance advice, and what applies to you depends on your own policy, so check the current terms directly.

A short word on customers. Decide in advance who tells them and what is said. A customer who hears from you early, with a realistic date, usually reacts far better than one who finds out because a delivery did not arrive. Write two lines you could send by message to your key customers, with blanks for the detail.

Now assemble the page. At the top, the minimum operation. Below it, a short table of what could stop you and the first step for each. Then who decides and who covers each critical task. Then contacts. Then where backups and key documents are kept. Then the insurance details and the number to call. Fit it on one page, print it, put one copy in the office and one at home, and save one on your phone.

The last step is the one that makes it real. Gather your team for thirty minutes and run a drill. Read out one scenario, for example the premises are unusable tomorrow morning, and ask each person what they would do. You will find gaps within minutes: a number missing, a login nobody else has, an assumption that somebody would just know. Fix what you find and update the page.

Review the page when something changes: a new person, a new supplier, a new location, a new system. Otherwise review it once a year. A plan like this will not prevent a disaster, but it will make the first day of one much calmer.