Business Continuity Plan
Quick answer
A business continuity plan is a short written plan describing how the business will keep essential operations running — or restart them quickly — after a disruption like a heat incident, power outage, cyber attack or flood. It is the difference between a bad week and a business-ending event.
What a business continuity plan is
A business continuity plan (BCP) identifies the small number of activities that must keep running for the business to survive, describes how they will keep running when things go wrong, and names the people responsible for making that happen.
It usually covers: essential functions, alternative ways of performing them, backup suppliers, communication with customers and staff, and the point at which the business decides to fully close and reopen.
Why small businesses need one
Small businesses tend to run lean, which is a strength most of the time and a serious vulnerability when something goes wrong. A written continuity plan makes the difference between improvising under pressure and executing a plan the whole team already knows.
Common mistakes
Confusing it with an incident response plan
Incident response covers the first hour. Business continuity covers the next weeks. You need both.
Frequently asked questions
- Do we really need a written plan?
- Yes. Every serious insurer, regulator and enterprise customer will ask whether one exists. And more importantly, the discipline of writing it forces you to notice the gaps before they hurt you.