Business continuity

If you’re a business owner or community organisation, it’s advisable to develop a practical business continuity plan to help you prepare for and continue to operate after an emergency.

Your plan will help identify and prepare for risks and will assist in response and return to normal quickly.

You may not be able to predict every kind of incident that could threaten your business, but you can develop a plan that covers a range of incidents (e.g. disasters, computer problems, staffing or supply issues).

Your plan should contain all information you need to get your business running again.

The size and complexity of your plan will depend on your business.

You may choose to have separate risk management, incident response and recovery plans.

If you are a small business, you might find a single business continuity plan that incorporates all these elements suits you better.

Consider how collaborating with other businesses or organisations can help fill in gaps in your plan.

You should update your plan/s regularly and keep staff informed.

There are plenty of free templates and guides online for developing robust business continuity plans.

Resources

There are plenty of free templates and guides online for developing robust business continuity plans.

Here are some great examples to get you started.

For businesses:

Business.gov.au

• Create or update you business continuity plan

Business Queensland

• Disaster resilience and recovery
• Business continuity planning

Queensland Department of Employment, Small Business and Training

• Business continuity planning template

CPA Australia

• Disaster Recovery Toolkit: Preparing Business Continuity Plans

For community organisations:

Community Services Industry Alliance

• Business continuity planning for community-based organisations

Australian Council of Social Services

• Creating a business continuity plan