Why Every Australian Business Needs a Business Continuity Plan-Can It Really Secure Your Future?

Across Australia, only 30% of businesses have a solidified business continuity plan, which ensures that plans are in place to protect their business operations during unprecedented circumstances.

This preparation helps businesses maintain their ability to trade successfully, considering a variety of solutions to a variety of potential problems. However, not having a well-structured and well-considered business continuity plan can prove detrimental to businesses across the country. From having to cease trade and losing investments, businesses without a business continuity plan often lose their market position.

But why else is a business continuity plan important and what other factors should be considered?

Why is Business Continuity Planning Important?

For organisations around the world, having business continuity planning has helped them keep their businesses safe even through often unprecedented and unpredictable times. From natural disasters to world health emergencies and internal challenges, business continuity planning can help businesses plan and prepare their operations to ensure they can still function efficiently with minimal disruption.

A business continuity plan can help identify risks posed to the business so that it can prepare its response accordingly, while also outlining any solutions that the business may need to implement at any point.

With this forward-thinking and efficient way of planning, businesses can prevent their operations from being halted, minimising any potential disruption and allowing them to continue to trade in adverse situations.??

Why Do Businesses Need Business Continuity Planning?

Natural Disasters

Natural disasters such as flash floods cause businesses extensive amounts of damage from their ability to trade to the physical damage to their property. Often, natural disasters leave businesses unable to trade in the short term, and in some circumstances, it can also lead to the permanent closure of an organisation.

However, when a business plans ahead and considers the potential implications that natural disasters can cause its operations, it can consider employee safety as well as plan ahead for a variety of disasters such as fire-related incidents.?

Cyber Attacks

In the modern working world, businesses both large and small are becoming increasingly subject to a variety of cyberattacks. Some attacks, such as malware attacks, can create extensive damage to a business's software. This is problematic for a business, particularly if they are not prepared, as they can lose all access to their data and software. This will likely cease operations for a period of time, affecting their ability to trade and resulting in revenue loss.

However, business continuity planning can ensure a business considers how they can restore their data with little disruption to operations, minimising business downtime after an attack. An efficient and well-thought-out business continuity plan can also help an organisation save time and money when attempting to restore its data.

Economic Downturn

When a country’s economy weakens, businesses are often left struggling financially due to decreased sales and increased cash flow problems. Without careful consideration and planning, businesses can often be forced to cease trading due to a lack of economic income. Further to this, businesses may be forced to make staff cuts because of a sudden loss of income.

A business continuity plan, however, can provide a business and its staff with the reassurance that they can cope financially and that their jobs are safer. This can help motivate staff during more difficult, economic times helping to retain efficiency and increase financial income as much as they can.

Public Health Emergencies

Since the coronavirus pandemic, businesses across Australia have increasingly begun to adopt a homeworking lifestyle, with an estimated 33% of the country working from home regularly. As devastating as the pandemic was, for both individuals and businesses, it did teach organisations the value of planning for health emergencies.

Having business continuity planning can benefit organisations when planning for a public health emergency such as the coronavirus pandemic. It can allow them to plan their operations from a permanent home-working environment while allowing them to consider strategies for further disruptions that result from a public health emergency, such as staff illness.

Why Is It Important to Also Consider Business Insurance in a Business Continuity Plan?

Effective planning for your business's future is not complete without considering insurance options. While considering the steps you can take to help best prepare your business for any unexpected circumstances, having the security in place that comes with insurance guarantees future trade and minimal damage to your finances.

At ii-A, we understand the heightening importance of insurance, from cyber cover to crime and employee protection, our extensive range of policies can help secure your business. Without business insurance, your business is open to having to permanently cease operations, reduce staff, and also have high, unexpected costs that could be detrimental to a business.

Property Insurance

Insurance policies such as our Property Insurance help to protect a business’s assets if they become lost or damaged as a result of a disaster, such as a fire or theft. This insurance guarantees businesses that during the recovery process, there will be little financial implications and that their business will be back up and running swiftly and smoothly.?

Cyber Insurance

Other policies such as our Cyber Insurance help to protect businesses from the ever-increasing threats of the cyber world. With more people now having access to their own personal devices, cyber attacks for businesses across Australia have been on the rise.?

While planning for alternative working solutions and ways to secure further data is doable without insurance, the cost of data recovery often leads to businesses not being able to sustain themselves for the long term. Having cyber insurance can not only help cover the costs of data recovery, but it can also help protect your business reputation.

How Can ii-A Help You?

Without investing in the correct insurance, you are subjecting your business to further risks such as financial problems, which could in turn damage your business operations. Failure to recover efficiently from unforeseen circumstances can also damage the level of trust in your business, from staff, customers, and stakeholders. This could result in increased staff turnover and lower investments as people no longer view your business as viable and secure.

If you want to learn more about how our insurance policies can help strengthen your business continuity plan can help secure your business, you can contact us here to learn more about the value our insurance can bring to your company.