Advantages of a Business Continuation Plan
Business can be interrupted for any reason from a temporary power outage from a storm, to major damage by a natural disaster, an economic downturn or, as in recent months, a pandemic. As a rule, business interruptions are unexpected but some can be predicted. Economic downturns can often be predicted and living in earthquake country means sooner or later, one is going to cause businesses to close temporarily.
Business interruptions don’t necessarily mean permanent closure, although they do create inconveniences and economic stresses. The San Luis Obispo business attorneys at Toews Law Group, Inc. can help you create a business continuation plan that helps minimize the stresses and create a plan for business to continue at reduced levels and fully reopen as soon as possible. A business continuity plan can help:
- Recover operations as soon as possible
- Meet any regulatory or legal requirements
- Help your employees have financial stability
- Support your community with aid and resources
- Retain customer trust
- Promote safety and save lives
The first step for developing a business continuity plan is to conduct a business impact analysis to assess business assets, people and processes that are critical to minimal operations and different stages of returning to full service.
The plan should include:
- The safety of employees and customers who may be physically affected by a disaster.
- Infrastructure dependencies and temporary remedies. Electrical power, communication infrastructure such as cell towers and Internet accessibility, the conditions of roads, bridges and airports and accessibility to buildings housing the business operations. Identify where temporary remedies can be implemented and which operations remedies can support.
- Plans for communicating with the unemployment office to help employees start collecting unemployment benefits as soon as possible if necessary.
- A review of business insurance policies to be sure which “acts of nature” are covered, which assets are covered and to which amounts.
- Legal and financial issues that may expose business to longer term hardships and strategies for remediating these issues.
The business attorneys at Toews Law Group, Inc. in San Luis Obispo can help you review your business insurance policies and assess legal and financial issues. The law firm also works with other business professionals such as tax experts, and business consultants for a variety of matters and can refer you to needed professional services.
Once your business continuity plan is ready, the business attorneys at Toews Law Group, Inc. can review the plan for any areas that may be leaving you vulnerable to legal issues. Owning and operating a business is no easy task, and there are many responsibilities included in being a business owner. Dealing with the many aspects of business law can be daunting to take on alone. Reach out to Toews Law Group, Inc. today and take the guess work out of running a business and gain the assurance that you are making the correct and legal decisions going forward.
