Business Resilience

Preparing Your Business for an Emergency

What would you do if an incident occurred that prevented you from trading as normal? Emergencies can happen anywhere at any time. Even a small disruption such as a power cut can affect normal operation of an organisation. A small disruption can lead to:

• loss of staff
• loss of premises or denial of access to your place of work
• loss of technology or data
• loss of your critical suppliers
• loss of telecommunications or utilities

Business continuity is about thinking ahead, planning for any disruption and ensuring alternative arrangements are in place to enable you to recover more quickly. There are four key stages in a business continuity planning process:-

1. Understanding your organisation
2. Develop your response and recovery procedures (your plan)
3. Continuously train your staff and exercising the procedures in your plan
4. Maintain and review your plan.

For further guidance, resources and templates available to download visit the Norfolk Resilience Forum website (opens new window).  Templates available to download include Business Continuity Plan, 10 Minute Business Continuity Assessment and Are You Cyber Ready

Useful websites

• The government have prepared a Business Continuity Management Toolkit (opens new window) to help you implement business continuity into your organisation
• For access to a range of business support servicesNew Anglia Growth Hub (opens new window)
• Norfolk Chambers of Commerce (opens new window)
• Business In The Community (opens new window) for advice on best practice and resources
• National Cyber Security Centre (opens new window) provides cyber security advice for small businesses and individuals
• The National Cyber Security Centre (opens new window) is part of GCHQ and is the UK's lead authority on cyber security
• Action Fraud (opens new window) is the UK's reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime