Business Continuity Plan

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Create a plan for keeping business operations running during disruptions
• Identify critical business functions and their recovery procedures
• Build communication protocols for emergencies and crises
• Prepare for scenarios like tech failures, health emergencies, natural disasters, or key person unavailability

DO NOT use this skill for cybersecurity incident response, insurance planning, or legal liability assessments. This is for operational continuity planning.

Core Principle

A BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN IS INSURANCE YOU WRITE YOURSELF — THE TIME TO BUILD IT IS WHEN YOU DO NOT NEED IT, BECAUSE WHEN YOU NEED IT, YOU WILL NOT HAVE TIME TO BUILD IT.

Phase 1: Risk Assessment

Identify what could disrupt the business and how severely.

Required Inputs

Risk Identification

Score each risk on likelihood (1-5) and impact (1-5):

## Risk Assessment Matrix

| Risk Scenario | Likelihood | Impact | Risk Score | Priority |
|--------------|-----------|--------|-----------|----------|
| Primary tool/platform goes down | 3 | 5 | 15 | HIGH |
| Key person illness (2+ weeks) | 3 | 4 | 12 | HIGH |
| Data loss / breach | 2 | 5 | 10 | MEDIUM |
| Supplier failure | 2 | 3 | 6 | MEDIUM |
| Natural disaster | 1 | 4 | 4 | LOW |

GATE: Confirm risk assessment before building recovery procedures.

Phase 2: Recovery Procedures

Build specific recovery plans for each high and medium priority risk.

Critical Functions Map

## Critical Business Functions

| Function | Tools Required | Recovery Time Objective | Responsible | Backup Person |
|----------|---------------|----------------------|-------------|---------------|
| Client delivery | [tools] | 24 hours | [Name] | [Name/None] |
| Payment processing | [tools] | 4 hours | [Name] | [Name/None] |
| Communication | [tools] | 1 hour | [Name] | [Name/None] |

Recovery Procedure Template

For each high-priority risk, document:

## Recovery Plan: [Risk Scenario]

**Trigger:** [What indicates this scenario is happening]
**Severity:** [Critical / Major / Minor]
**Recovery Time Objective:** [How fast must you recover]

### Immediate Actions (first 1-2 hours)
1. [Action step with specific instructions]
2. [Action step]
3. [Action step]

### Short-Term Recovery (24-72 hours)
1. [Action step]
2. [Action step]

### Return to Normal
1. [Action step]
2. [Post-incident review]

### Resources Needed
- [Tool, contact, document, or access needed]

GATE: Present recovery procedures for review.

Phase 3: Communication Protocol

Define who gets told what, when, and how during a disruption.

Stakeholder Communication Plan

## Crisis Communication Plan

| Stakeholder | Notify Within | Method | Message Template | Responsible |
|-------------|--------------|--------|-----------------|-------------|
| Active clients | 4 hours | Email | Service disruption notice | [Name] |
| Team/contractors | 1 hour | Slack/text | Operational update | [Name] |
| Key vendors | 24 hours | Email | Impact assessment | [Name] |
| Social media followers | 24 hours | Platform post | Status update | [Name] |

Message Templates

Provide pre-written templates for each stakeholder group:

**Client notification:**
Subject: Service Update from [Business Name]

Hi [Name],

I want to let you know about [brief description of situation]. Here is what this means for you:
- [Impact on their project/service]
- [What you are doing about it]
- [Expected resolution timeline]

I will send another update by [date/time]. If you have urgent questions, [contact method].

[Name]

Phase 4: Maintenance

Ensure the plan stays current and accessible.

Plan Storage and Access

• Store the plan in at least 2 locations (cloud + local backup)
• Share access with any backup person or virtual assistant
• Include login credentials in a secure password manager with emergency access

Review Schedule

• Quarterly: Review contact information and tool access
• Biannually: Test one recovery procedure end-to-end
• Annually: Full plan review and update
• After any incident: Update the plan with lessons learned

Emergency Contacts Sheet

## Emergency Contacts

| Contact | Role | Phone | Email | When to Contact |
|---------|------|-------|-------|----------------|
| [Name] | Backup operator | [#] | [email] | Any major disruption |
| [Name] | Web host support | [#] | [email] | Site goes down |
| [Name] | Accountant | [#] | [email] | Financial issues |

Anti-Patterns

• Plan exists but no one can find it — a plan locked in a tool that is down during the crisis is useless. Store it accessibly.
• Too detailed to be usable — a 50-page plan will not be read during an emergency. Keep recovery steps to 5-7 actions per scenario.
• Single point of failure ignored — if only you have the password, the login, or the knowledge, that IS the risk.
• Never tested — a plan that has never been tested is a theory, not a plan. Run a tabletop exercise annually.
• Written once and forgotten — business changes make old plans irrelevant. Review regularly.

Recovery

• User has no backup person: Identify the minimum information a hired emergency VA would need to keep critical functions running for 48 hours. Document that.
• User has too many risks to plan for: Focus on the top 3 by risk score. A plan for 3 risks beats no plan for 20.
• User thinks they are too small to need this: Ask "What happens to your clients if you are in the hospital for a week?" That is the conversation starter.
• User already experienced a disruption: Use the incident as the first case study. Document what happened, what worked, what failed, and build the plan from there.
• User has no team to delegate to: Build a "break glass" document — minimum instructions for a trusted person to keep the business alive for 72 hours.