Operations & Systems
Most businesses plan for success and improvise for disaster
A fire, a flood, a long power cut, a lost laptop, a key person in hospital, a supplier who goes quiet. Few small businesses have thought through even one of these before it happens. This session is a calm, practical way to decide what must keep running, write it on one page, and test it once, without a consultant and without a thick binder.
Explore this page6 sections
A plan written in calm is worth more than a decision made in a crisis.
When something stops, people look to the owner, and the owner is often the person who knows least about what is where. Passwords are in one head, customer details in one phone, the key to the godown with one person. Hours are lost working out who to call.
Business continuity is simply deciding in advance what you will do if a critical thing is unavailable. It does not need a long document. A single page with the right names and numbers, kept where people can find it, is better than a binder nobody has read.
This session is about the basics for a small business. It is not a substitute for professional advice on insurance, safety or legal requirements.
What the session works through
36 topics across 7 areas. Seven steps to a plan you can actually use.
What Could Stop You?Realistic events, not every imaginable one.6
- Premises: fire, flooding, a building problem, a blocked road
- Utilities: long power cut, internet failure, water supply
- People: illness, an accident, a key person leaving suddenly
- Data and devices: a lost or stolen phone or laptop, a crashed drive, a hacked account
- Suppliers and logistics: a supplier closing, a transporter failing
- Events outside your control: weather, strikes, public disruption
Start with what has already happened to you or to businesses near you.
What Must Keep Running?Not everything is equally urgent.5
Most owners find the minimum is small: a phone, a list of customers and orders, access to stock and a way to take payment. Naming it makes the rest of the planning easier.
- Activities that earn money or cannot be paused: orders, deliveries, billing
- Activities customers would notice within a day
- Activities that carry legal or safety obligations
- Activities that can wait a week without serious harm
- The minimum version of the business you could run for two weeks
People and RolesA plan with no names is only a wish.5
- Who decides in an emergency, and who is the second choice
- Who can do each critical task if the usual person cannot
- A phone list of staff, key customers and suppliers, kept outside the office too
- Emergency contacts for the premises: electrician, landlord, building management
- Who speaks to customers, and what they say
Records, Data and AccessWhat you could not recreate from memory.5
- Customer list, order history and pending orders
- Accounts, invoices, tax filings and bank details
- Contracts, licences, registrations and key documents
- Where passwords and logins are kept, and who else can reach them in an emergency
- Copies kept away from the original: a second device, cloud storage or a paper file at another place
Test a restore once. A backup you have never opened is a hope, not a backup.
Premises, Stock and EquipmentSmall precautions with big effects.5
- Where stock and critical equipment are kept, and how they would be protected from water or fire
- Exits, a first-aid kit and a fire extinguisher, checked regularly
- Where you could work from if the premises were unusable
- A list of equipment with serial numbers and photographs
- What a power cut does to cold storage, machines or billing
Insurance: Questions to AskCover differs a great deal from one policy to the next.5
- What your current policy covers and what it excludes
- Whether stock, equipment, premises and business interruption are included
- What documents and photographs you would need to make a claim
- Whether you are underinsured because values have changed
- Who to call first, and how soon after an event
This is not insurance advice. Read your own policy and ask your insurer or a licensed adviser what is covered and what is not.
Writing, Testing and Updating the PlanOne page, a drill and a yearly review.5
- Write the plan on one page with the first thirty minutes spelled out
- Keep copies printed and on phones, not only in one file
- Run a thirty-minute tabletop drill: read out a scenario, ask who does what
- Fix whatever the drill exposes
- Review the plan when people, premises or suppliers change, and at least once a year
Bring to the session
- A list of your critical customers, suppliers and staff
- Your insurance policy, if you have one
- A note of where your records and passwords are kept
- The last time something stopped your business and what you did
- One scenario you worry about
What the session does not do
- Give insurance, legal or safety advice
- Certify that your plan meets any standard or regulation
- Recommend an insurer, an insurance product or a software tool
- Promise protection from loss
How the session runs
A practitioner takes participants through the seven steps using a made-up small business as an example. Participants then fill in a one-page template for their own business: the minimum operation, who does what, key contacts, and where the backups are. The group closes with a short tabletop drill on a scenario chosen by the room, and participants note what they would change.
What your students leave with
- A list of the things that could realistically stop your business
- A clear idea of which activities must continue and which can wait
- A one-page plan with named people, contacts and first steps
- Backups of the records and data you could not recreate
- A short checklist to review your insurance cover with your insurer or adviser
- A tabletop drill you can run in thirty minutes with your team
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Decide before the day you need to decide.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.