Business continuity when premises are unusable

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

Introduction

A pipe bursts over a weekend, or there is a fire in the neighbouring unit, or the road is closed for a fortnight. On Monday morning nobody can get into the building, the telephone is ringing somewhere inside it, and nobody knows what to do first.

Businesses survive the physical loss and lose customers in the first week, because there was no plan for operating without the building. A continuity plan for a small business is not a corporate document; it is one page answering a handful of questions, and writing it takes an afternoon. The version that fits on one page is the version somebody will actually use.

1. Business continuity when premises are unusable starts with what you must keep doing

Identify the critical few.

Not everything the business does, but the handful of activities that must continue within days: taking orders, answering customers, delivering committed work, paying staff. Everything else can wait, and knowing which is which is most of the plan.

2. Work out how long each can stop for

The figure that drives the priorities.

Some functions can pause for a fortnight without consequence and some cannot pause for a day. Ranking them tells you where the effort and any spending should go.

3. Decide how customers will reach you

The first thing that breaks.

Diverting the telephone, who answers it, an email address that is not tied to the premises, and a message on the website and social channels. Customers who cannot reach you conclude you have closed. Some of them will have found an alternative supplier by the end of the week.

4. Know what you need physical access to

The list you cannot make during an incident.

Records, stock, equipment, keys, and anything that exists only on paper or only in the building. Identifying this in advance is what tells you what to duplicate off-site.

5. Keep the essentials off the premises

The core of the plan.

Backups tested and stored elsewhere, insurance details, key contacts, contracts, and financial records accessible remotely. Everything that lives only in the building is at risk with the building.

6. Identify alternative arrangements in advance

Names, not intentions.

A unit you could use, another business that would let you work from theirs, equipment hire, a subcontractor who could cover production. Arranging this in advance is trivial; arranging it during an incident is not.

7. Write down who does what

Because the owner may be unavailable.

Who notifies the insurer, who contacts customers, who tells staff, and who decides. A plan requiring one person to do everything fails precisely when that person is dealing with the incident.

8. Keep the contact list somewhere reachable

The practical failure.

Staff, customers, suppliers, insurer, landlord and utilities, held somewhere accessible from a phone rather than on a computer in the affected building. This is the single most common gap.

9. Tell staff what will happen

They have questions too.

Whether they should attend, whether they will be paid, and how they will be told what is happening. Uncertainty on these points loses people during exactly the period you need them.

Test it in the simplest possible way: ask yourself what you would do if you could not enter the building tomorrow, and follow the answer through to the end. The gaps become obvious within twenty minutes, and that exercise is worth more than any document.

Conclusion

Write the one page before you need it, because the first forty-eight hours decide how many customers remain.

Identify the few activities that must continue and how long each can stop for, plan how customers will reach you when the premises cannot, list what you need physical access to, keep backups, insurance details and contacts off-site, identify specific alternative premises and equipment in advance, assign responsibilities so the plan does not depend on one person, keep the contact list reachable from a phone, tell staff what will happen, and walk through the scenario once to find the gaps.