“In and out.” I thought as I popped up to Addenbrookes last month for a quick scan, “Back to work by lunchtime.”
Instead, I left three days later with a stent in a dangerously-restricted coronary artery and a doctor politely but firmly telling me to take a month off.
It was a sharp reminder that ‘business continuity’ isn’t just a box to tick in a policy document, it’s real life.
At the heart of most business is a handful of critical pipelines: materials, suppliers, IT systems, vehicles, cashflow. When everything’s flowing, you generally take them for granted. But what happens when one gets squeezed, or stops?
What happens if your main supplier can’t deliver for two weeks? If your internet goes down? If your largest customer goes bust? What is your contingency plan? And then there’s the biggest single point of failure in many small businesses: you and your key people.
If you’re the boss, or the man with the van, or the admin person that the business revolves around – what happens when you can’t work? Or can’t drive? Or can’t hold a tool or a mouse for a fortnight?
Luckily, the NHS have an excellent rehab support programme that’s helping me get me back to ‘trading normally’ quickly – I recommend you prepare something similar for your business.
Schedule some time to sit down with a couple of trusted friends and ask those awkward questions. A sensible disaster recovery plan is simply about honestly identifying what really matters, where the weak points might be, and having a realistic backup plan or workaround. And have those plans written down in a place where everyone can access them.
Prepare well for it now, and it needn’t be an emergency later!
