Business Continuity Planning (BCP) can be a challenge for small businesses.

Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is defined as: "the process of determining how to continue critical business operations in the event of an incident/disaster". This makes it extremely important for all businesses, big and small. BCP can be broken into phases, learn more about it in this blog post.

Although building a comprehensive Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is often viewed as a tedious and annoying task. Like flossing your teeth. Sometimes it's viewed as only ‘big businesses’ should be required to complete, the reality of BCP is quite different.  

BCPs are crucial for all business, maybe more-so for small ones! According to Forbes Magazine, “businesses smaller than 500 employees account for 99.9% of U.S. businesses.” This means that if all small businesses ignored BCP. It would leave almost 100% of the U.S. business market would be ill-prepared in the event of an incident. Small Business BCP is VERY critical.

KingsBridge is a small business with less than 500 employees. We understand that big budgets for BCP simply do not exist. Most businesses do BCP because they have to, NOT because they want to (just like flossing). As a result, most small businesses either have a very small budget, or no budget at all. 

Solution?  Arming yourself, and your business, with excellent BCP resources is a must.

KingsBridge Is Simple & Secure Business Continuity Planning (KISSBCP) and we’re here to empower your BCP journey! Explore our wide range of (FREE) BCP tips and tools below:

Knowledge

Although you may be experienced in operating your business during normal times, when an incident occurs, things aren’t so ‘business-as-usual.’  Next time a disruption to your critical business operations occurs, as they always do, take time to reflect. How nice it would be to have planned for your recovery? Your plan doesn’t need to address every incident. Your recovery doesn’t need to be perfect. If it can save you one misstep, deadline, or sleepless night, it’ll all be worth it.  

Take a moment now to look at the daily requirements for your business:

• Can you identify which requirements are “nice-to-have”, “need-to-have”, and “critical-to-have”? (See ‘Experience’)
• How do you know when enough is enough?
• What situations might you find your business in?

To help you truly consider how to best protect your business and answer these questions. Take some time to learn some of the ‘BCP Basics’ by exploring. A great place to start is the KingsBridge Blog. Listening to the KISSBCP Podcast. Watching our KISSBCP YouTube channel or watching our 9 FREE webinars. You don’t need to become an expert on all things BCP. Let's start by building the right mindset and getting familiar with the process. You can ensure that you get going in the right direction.

Tools

We commonly see companies using MS Word or Dropbox for their Business Continuity Planning (BCP) solution. The wisdom of Benjamin Franklin always comes to mind: “The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade.” While these tools work for some, would I use a screwdriver to nail two boards together? I think not.

At KingsBridge, we always strive to provide the best tool, at the best price, for your business. As noted previously, small businesses often have little-to-no BCP budget. This means a free BCP solution could be exactly what you need.  Loaded with:

1 - a user-friendly interface

2 - customizable templates

3 - better than “five 9s” of uptime

4 - SHIELD software solution gives you the structure to build and maintain a successful BCP

5 - free access to SHIELD Mobile

BONUS - and it’s FREE! 

When Benjamin Franklin said “…invest in tools…”, he invented the rocking chair… So, get off yours and sign-up for our (FREE) BCP tool! Your BCPlanner self will thank you for it.

Experience

KingsBridge is a second-generation Business Continuity Planning (BCP) company. I was 10 years old when my dad started working in the field in 1983. At the time, this field wasn't referred to as BCP. In 1999, he asked me if I wanted to join him in his work on a Y2K project. I said yes, took a vacation from my job, and never looked back. Working with my dad provided a lens into how much potential the field had to change and expand. Always keeping my eyes open, it allowed me to gain valuable BCP knowledge and experience. Now more than 25 years of my 50+ years have been spent working in BCP, day in and day out.

I share this with you to help you understand my point about experience. While books/theory teach us ALL there is to know about the BCP fundamentals. Identifying and understanding the “nice-to-have”, “need-to-have” and “critical-to-have” learned from the BCP can make the difference between getting it done and getting it done NOW!

When it comes to BCP, understanding and identifying these “nice-to-have”, “need-to-have” and “critical-to-have” requirements allows you to consider EVERY threat and ponder their impacts on your business. “Nice-to-have” requirements could be things like time and/or budget, and “critical-to-have” requirements would be those necessary to the recovery of critical business operations in the event of an incident. Identification of the latter allows you to focus on the impact of an incident and plan your recovery from there.

Before we distract you from signing up for our FREE BCP software tool, we’ll put off the topic of  “No Building, No People, No Systems, No Suppliers” for another day.