Nine ways to disaster proof your business

A disaster doesn't need to signal the end if you plan ahead. Here are nine tips to help you disaster proof your business.

1. Think ahead

Identify different potential disaster scenarios and understand what each of them mean for your business. For example, what happens if a power surge takes out all your plugged in electronic equipment? What if there is a theft? What if the building catches on fire?

2. Plan to survive

To address each of the potential scenarios above (and more!) clearly document a Disaster Recovery Plan. This plan, at a minimum, should cover (1) who will be communicated to and when, (2) what steps are required to get systems and data/information back to being available and (3) how the business will operate during the disaster.

3. Keep a communications register

You need a record of all significant parties to your business; including phone companies, suppliers, clients, staff, partners, landlords and insurance companies. This register should not only include the name, phone number, email, website and address of these related parties, but also any account numbers or identifiers you will need when contacting them. Make sure this is available to you 24x7. It could be stored online or even on a USB stick attached to your keyring.

4. Be able to financially survive the disaster

To disaster proof your business you need to take out appropriate insurance. You should have sufficient insurance to cover not just replacing your core business assets, but enough to get your business back on its feet. Also, life, total-and-permanent-disability (TPD) and income protection insurance will provide for your family if you are no longer able to. Lastly, have enough cash in the bank to survive until other means of financial support is received, such as collecting outstanding invoices or receiving an insurance payout.

5. Make soft copies of hard copy paperwork

Scan all important paper documents. The scanning and electronic filing of paper-based contracts, receipts and client-related documents should be completed upon receipt and factored into your regular business processes. When documents are stored electronically in a Document Management System, questions of who has it and where it is in the overall business workflow is no longer in doubt. Also, it is much easier to share these electronic copies between staff and outsource providers than it is with their hardcopy originals.

6. Have somewhere else you can work from

If your primary work location is unavailable, make sure you have alternative business premises; say at a serviced office, a partner business or even at an accommodating friend's.

7. Don't put all your eggs in one electronic basket

To disaster proof your business, create an automated backup system and never store backups in the same location as where you use it. If you have data stored on two hard-drives, a primary and a backup, but they are stored right next to each other; a building fire or theft will leave you no better a state than having no backups at all.

8. Have access to alternate internet connections

If your home/small office internet connection is unavailable for any length of time, have or know where you can get access to the internet (internet cafe or wireless access) to reply to email and progress critical business processes.

Keep in mind that a lot of modern 3G mobile telephones can also be connected to a PC/laptop to provide internet access.

9. Check how safe your suppliers are

Ask the questions of your service providers, how would they handle disaster scenarios? Will there be any downtimes which affect your clients directly? Is there any manual involvement required by you to get back on track? How will they contact you?

You need to be clear on both how they will survive in a disaster and how it will it impact your business.

What strategies do have in place to disaster proof your business?

Greg Pritchard is dedicated to making your software and systems contribute to your business bottom line. He founded Dedication Group, an IT & Management Consultancy helping companies deliver on their IT Strategies.

7 comments | Add your own

Thank you for the great tips, Greg.
We have absolutely everything online. Not only is this great in case of fire/theft/computer meltdown, it means we can work from anywhere, from any PC with an Internet connection. I love the peace of mind - and convenience. Amanda Jephtha from Sydney
Thanks Greg for the tips. I definitely need number 3 and have used Number 8 several times when I have run my business through my mobile phone (an interesting scenario). Rich from Sydney
Scary stuff Greg and great advice, but can I trust Google with my docs? Grant Hyman from Sydney | Read my articles
Hi Grant, I've removed the reference to Google Docs now as it's not actually a Document Management System. However I find it a great way to share info with other users, and it's particularly useful to avoid the back and forth of email attachments. As to whether you can trust them? That's a personal call but I do, for what it's worth. Cheers! Sam Leader from Sydney | Read my articles
Great advice, and almost exactly what I tell clients when Im setting up their document and information processes.
And Sam, I trust google docs as a communication tool. Darrin Ottaway from Sydney
@Sam - sorry for the misunderstanding on my part re Doc Management.
@Grant & @ Darren -
To address the privacy/confidentiality question, the jury is still out on that one.
Google as a company doesn't have a lot of incentive to actually care what's in your individual documents. There is a risk though that all the documents that are uploaded are indexed (i.e. the Google search bot knows whats in it), but do not get returned in a search result to the general public. This means Google actually knows what's in your documents - which is somewhat in line with their overall goal of indexing the world's information. The mitigate this; don't upload anything that is overally sensitive.

There are concerns around what Google may decide to do in future. There is the possibility that Google will decide that this service is no longer free, and you will now have to pay to get access to all the documents you had uploaded to their service. To mitigate the risk; all documents on Google Docs should also be stored offline (i.e. on your personal hard drives) in a format that can be read by software other than Google Docs.

The last risk that comes to mind is hacking. That is, can a hacker break into the Google file system and expose your documents? The most likely scenario is a hacker will compromise your individual password, not the Google network. I'm personally not that concerned with Google's ability to ward off hackers. Either way, make sure you use passwords which are hard to break. Greg Pritchard from Sydney | Read my articles
Very good article. A lot of companies don't think they need disaster recovery - but all companies do! I used to own a cafe and we had all sorts of "disasters". A disaster means different things to different types of businesses. To me, a disaster was the dishwasher breaking down(!), but another company it might be a fire, flood or terrorist attack - it's all relative. But what's in common is that you need plans and you need PROCESSES & PROCEDURES - not just to be able to execute your backup plans, but processes to ensure that your procedures stay up-to-date and relevant.
Craig Reid Craig Reid from Sydney

7 comments | Add your own

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