3. Check on your community
If you don’t already have a crisis communications plan in your small business continuity management toolkit, make a plan to keep your organization, your customers, and outside stakeholders appropriately up to date as things unfold.
From there, make a list of every external organization you rely on to keep things running smoothly, like suppliers and delivery services. Reach out to see how their team is doing and whether their operations can proceed without interruption. If your business sells products and runs into supply chain issues, you might need to create a supply continuity plan.
4. Monitor the situation
If the emergency that disrupted your business is ongoing, like a natural disaster, find a way to monitor it if possible. The more you know about what’s coming, the better you can prepare for it. If you don’t have the time or resources to track the situation yourself, find a team member, fellow small business owner, or loved one who has the bandwidth and ask them to keep you informed of new or upcoming developments.
5. Establish a task force
Chances are you can’t lead these recovery efforts alone, unless you’re a solo operation. You’ll want a team in place to help you gather information, discuss potential solutions, share updates, and manage the needs of both your team and outside stakeholders.
Depending on the size of your organization and the extent of the damage, you might want to divide your disaster team into separate task forces—one for every major problem you need to solve. Make assignments based on aptitude: For instance, if you’re concerned about data recovery, select an appropriate manager from a related team to lead that effort.
Establish a clear chain of command both within and outside the task force. Offer secondary contacts for big decisions to ensure that things keep moving, even if the usual appointed supervisor cannot be reached. In other words, make sure that everyone knows what they’re doing and who to check in with if they don’t.
6. Set a recovery time objective
A recovery time objective (RTO) is basically a deadline for your crisis response. Instead of setting an arbitrary date, ask yourself how long your business can stay out of operation before you incur serious consequences like financial penalties. From there, you can begin working on a realistic timeline.
7. Identify essential functions
Sudden disruptions can create long to-do lists, so it’s crucial to think strategically. Start by identifying the facilities and processes that you absolutely need in order to deliver your product or service and remain compliant with all regulations. That way, you can focus your recovery efforts accordingly.
The larger the organization, the more complex this process will be. Ask team leaders to identify critical functions within their departments and confirm that they have everything they need to complete their essential tasks. If they don’t, find out what resources they’re missing — from equipment to personnel to tech support.
Finally, compile a list of all the problems you need to solve. This will be your roadmap in the days ahead. Keep written records of all of the information you gather about your business’s critical functions for future reference.
8. Make a plan
Now that you’ve identified which systems have been compromised, you can start to think about where your energy will be best spent. Small business continuity plans are a little like triage: You probably have more problems than you can solve right now, so prioritize the efforts that will create the most impact.
Organize your problem-solving around the goal of getting back to business as usual as soon as possible. Each task force leader should come up with a couple proposed solutions to their assigned problem and present them to the group for discussion. From there, they can apply the feedback they receive from others in the group and submit a new proposal for final approval. If fast decisions must be made, they’re in charge of approvals. If they’re unavailable, the back-up contact takes point.
Your recovery efforts should center the people that are most crucial to your business—from your employees to freelancers, and from customers to shareholders. When vetting each proposal, consider its potential effects from all possible angles to ensure that no one gets left behind.
When time allows, consider how each initiative would affect a random group of colleagues and stakeholders. Would they all benefit equally? If not, try and revise your plans to be more inclusive. Once you’ve created a plan that suits your needs, write it all down to ensure consistency and accountability.
9. Contact your insurance
Whether you’re reporting damage or filing a business interruption claim, reach out to your insurance carrier as soon as possible. Not sure how to start? The Insurance Information Institute has created a helpful guide for filing disaster-related business insurance claims.
Have your policy number ready and provide back-up contacts so that an adjuster can reach you as soon as possible to move the claims process along.
10. Apply for a disaster loan
Don’t wait until your insurance claim has been processed to apply for a disaster loan through the Small Business Administration (SBA). You are not required to accept the loan if approved, and the window to apply for these funds is often limited.
SBA loans offer low interest rates and can cover physical damage to property and equipment, operating expenses, mitigation assistance (ie. efforts to prevent future damage), and staffing gaps resulting from employees on active-duty military leave. Check here to see if your business is eligible.