Unfortunately, sometimes the worst happens. The business that you have spent years and years building up from scratch is suddenly struck by disaster. Careful planning and diligent preparation are the only ways you are going to be able to deal with crises as they occur in business. Those who actually think about the things that don’t bear thinking about are the ones that will come out the other side of disaster battered, bruised but still standing.

So the question remains: how do you prepare your business should the worst happen?

Put A Plan In Place

Your contingency plan should deal with every possible scenario that you can think of. Start by identifying the key areas that you need to keep going in order for your business to continue running. These are what you will need to preserve in the event of a disaster. You should also have a plan prepared if you are no longer able to work in the office space you currently have. Keep staff members in the loop as they are your most important asset and should also be prepared. However, it’s important not to get them panicked too early as this can result in them not being able to focus on their work. In times of crisis, it’s important that you try to carry on as normal so that you clients don’t get panicked and move their business elsewhere. This is where a manageable crisis turns into a terminal decline.

Possible Scenarios

For every possible scenario that could go wrong in your business, you should have appropriate insurance cover to deal with it. Certain businesses may need contractor PI insurance, while others may require public and employers liability cover. Make sure you speak to the experts to find out what your business requires. Just some of the myriad of problems that could occur in your business include natural disasters, fire, IT system failure, reputation crisis and power cuts. Firstly, you should try to identify ways to prevent these problems, but you should also work out ways to mitigate them. All of these possible scenarios should have emergency contacts listed with them. Make sure these are kept updated in case circumstances change.

Test Your Plan
Although by nature emergency situations are extremely hard to replicate, you should do your best to test the different aspects of your plan. Running a test scenario shows you the ways in which you need to fine-tune your plan in order to make it operate more efficiently. As your business’ circumstances will be constantly changing, you need to keep your plan updated accordingly. The rapid advance of technology means that your cyber security will need to change regularly. As well as dealing with the specifics of your response, you should also think about any media interest which might have been generated as a result. It may be the case that you need to get in touch with a specific crisis management PR team in order to deal with the media.