Resources for Contingency Planning

Business contingency planning is something you hope you'll never need, yet it's also something you wouldn't want to be caught without if a catastrophe did strike. And, while it's admirable to be optimistic and expect the best, it's usually a good idea to prepare for the worst. Creating a personalized business continuity plan amounts to taking precautions "just in case."

A number of things can go wrong that can seriously threaten the survival of a business. Some of these follow.

1. Market and other economic disasters

2. Natural disasters

3. Terrorism

4. Emergencies, such as fire, accident, data loss or equipment breakdown

5. Death or illness of owner or principal company leader

6. Labor strike or other workforce problems

Understand what business contingency planning is, how it works and how it can benefit your company

Gathering enough background information on business contingency plan design and implementation will help you determine the type of business contingency plan, as well as the individual plan components, that would suit your company best.
business contingency planning and provides a sample Continuity Planning Outline that you can use as a model and which will help you pinpoint the areas that need to be addressed in any such business backup plan.

Check out business recovery planning service providers to learn what each can offer your company

Find out as much information as possible about each business contingency plan provider, as well as its particular area or industry of specialization, if any. This will help you more accurately determine which one might best address your needs.

Look at business continuity planning software and other tools for a lower-cost recovery solution

Contingency planning template suites, software and numerous other tools can help you create an effective backup plan for your company.

Make use of websites that provide resources for all types of business contingency planning

Many websites offer collections of other resources that can help you track down as many vendors and service providers as you need to investigate to be sure you're getting the contingency planning template, tool or service that's right for you.

• Though it's difficult to think about the "what ifs" you'll need to face during the contingency planning process, it's well worth it. Think of it as a way of empowering yourself against these eventualities and proactively protecting your business against the catastrophic losses that would be far more devastating than the temporary discomfort of thinking about these "worst case scenarios."