Let’s start with a scenario that might sound familiar: You’ve been diligently backing up all your business files to the cloud. Every week, you get that reassuring email confirming your backup completed successfully. You feel pretty good about your data protection, right?

Here’s the thing though – and this might come as a bit of a surprise – having a backup is only one piece of keeping your business running smoothly when things go wrong. It’s a bit like having a spare tyre in your car but no jack or tools to actually change it.

The House Analogy That Makes It All Clear

Imagine a storm damages your house. Fortunately, you’ve got great insurance that covers everything – your furniture, appliances, clothes, the lot. That’s fantastic, but there’s still a whole process you need to go through before you can get back to normal life.

You’d need temporary accommodation while repairs happen. You’d have to organise contractors, manage the restoration timeline, and coordinate getting everything back in working order. You’d want to know which rooms to fix first so you could move back in as soon as possible.

In the business world, this is what we call Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) planning:

• Your backup is like that insurance policy – it protects your valuable data
• Business continuity is your plan for keeping essential operations running during disruptions
• Disaster recovery is your roadmap for getting everything back to normal as quickly as possible

What Complete BCDR Planning Looks Like

Most businesses we work with have got the backup part sorted – they’re regularly saving copies of their important files, and that’s brilliant. But comprehensive BCDR planning goes a bit further.

A good BCDR plan considers:

• Which systems are absolutely critical – what does your business need to keep serving customers?
• How to keep those critical functions running during an outage or disruption
• The step-by-step process for recovery – what comes back online first, second, third?
• How long each recovery step typically takes – so you can manage expectations with customers and staff
• Who’s responsible for what – clear roles so no one’s scrambling during stressful times
• Communication plans – keeping customers, suppliers, and staff informed

Why This Holistic Approach Matters

We’re not trying to keep you up at night worrying about worst-case scenarios. The reality is that most business disruptions are pretty manageable – a server hiccup, a power outage, someone accidentally deleting important files, or even a team member being unexpectedly away.

But even these everyday situations can create challenges if you don’t have a clear plan for maintaining operations and getting back on track. Instead of a smooth response, you might find yourself:

• Spending hours figuring out priorities while customers wait
• Having staff unsure of their roles during the disruption
• Struggling to communicate timelines to customers and suppliers
• Trying to remember system configurations that were set up ages ago
• Missing opportunities to keep some services running while others are being fixed

Building Your BCDR Foundation

The good news is that you don’t need to become a business continuity expert overnight. Start with understanding your business:

Identify your must-haves: What systems, processes, and people does your business absolutely need to serve customers? Make a list and think about dependencies.

Consider your options: If your main office was unavailable, could some staff work from home? If your primary system was down, is there a manual backup process?

Plan your priorities: If multiple things went wrong at once, what would you want restored first? This helps guide recovery efforts and resource allocation.

Document the essentials: Where are important contacts, passwords, and procedures stored? Who knows how to do what? Having this accessible during a disruption is invaluable.

Think about communication: How would you update customers, suppliers, and staff during an outage? Having templates ready saves time and reduces stress.

Test occasionally: Try working from a different location, or restore some data from backup, or practice your communication plan. Small tests help identify gaps before they matter.

The Reality Check

Here’s something we tell all our clients: you don’t need a perfect plan, just a thoughtful approach to keeping your business resilient. Even having basic continuity and recovery steps mapped out puts you well ahead of businesses that are making it up as they go.

Think of BCDR planning like having a well-stocked first aid kit and knowing basic first aid. You hope you’ll never need it, but if something does happen, you’ll be really glad you’re prepared. It’s about being ready, not being worried.

Moving Forward

If reading this has made you realise your business continuity approach might have some gaps, that’s completely normal. Most businesses grow their systems organically, and it’s easy for the bigger picture planning to get overlooked.

The important thing is recognising where you could be more prepared and taking some steps to build resilience. Whether that’s documenting your current setup, creating basic continuity procedures, or getting professional help to design a comprehensive BCDR strategy, any progress is worthwhile.

Remember, the goal isn’t to prepare for every possible scenario – it’s to make sure that when something disrupts your normal operations (and it will, because that’s just part of business life), you can respond confidently and get back to serving your customers as smoothly as possible.

Ready to build a comprehensive BCDR strategy that fits your business? We’d love to help you create a plan that covers all the bases and gives you real confidence in your business resilience. Let’s chat about what would work best for your situation.