Young Enterprise

Business Continuity Information

What is Business Continuity?
Business Continuity is the planning and preparing for incidents to ensure business disruption is minimal and recovery is swift.

What sort of incidents?
Anything that can stop your business working ~ for example: fire and flooding or loss of IT, premises, stock, supplier, telephones or power.

Surely the likelihood of these happening is very low?
Unfortunately these events can and do occur. Some organisations go out of business altogether after an incident. The loss to your business can be minimised by taking some simple steps to produce a Business Continuity Plan.

Why should we do this ~ we're very busy and don't have the time!
A Business Continuity Plan helps businesses respond to, and recovery from, emergencies and disruptions. The plan will help to maintain the confidence of staff, the public, your customers and suppliers. It will document the risks your business faces and assist you to identify what you can do to reduce these risks.

The plan will also help identify which are your critical functions; those that you need to get up and running first after a disruption. This will ensure you can be back to 'business as usual' quicker.

Why don't we just deal with a crisis when it happens?
There will be little time in the event of an emergency to work out what to do next. By using the information in your plan and following the check sheet you will be able to recover your business more efficiently and effectively.

How easy is it to write a Business Continuity Plan?
It's easy; as long as you know your business you can follow the step-by-step guidance to fill in a simple plan template. Then, if you do face an emergency, you will know what you need to do to help your business survive.

Guidance and a template for a Business Continuity Plan have been provided for the Young Enterprise Scheme.

Where can I get further help?
For further information about Business Continuity or support to develop a Business Continuity Plan contact Sarah Alcock, Norfolk County Council Emergency Planning Unit on 01603 222016 or email epu@norfolk.gov.uk or Deborah Stewart, Nice to Have on 07930 575882 pr email Dpstewarts@aol.com

Guidance and a Business Continuity Plan Template are available via the following links:

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