Previous incidents have shown:

* 80% of businesses affected by a major incident close within 18 months
* 90% of businesses that lose data from a disaster are forced to shut within 2 years
* 58% of UK organisations were disrupted by the September 11th bombings. One in eight was seriously affected

A business continuity plan is a set of instructions of what to do, and what not to do, at the time of a disaster or crisis. It is usually created by someone, or a group of people, who know how the whole business is run.

Business continuity is about thinking ahead and planning for a crisis that could affect your business, making sure that it can survive. In short, it is about ensuring that a crisis does not become a disaster.

Experience has shown that businesses are far more likely to survive a disaster or crisis if they have thought about it in advance, and planned accordingly.

Banks, investors, insurers, customers and suppliers will take a company that has a business continuity plan much more seriously. Business continuity plans build stakeholder confidence.

In the end, business continuity is about responsible management. It makes a business a safer place to work but above all it contributes to the financial stability of the organisation.

Yes, even a sole trader is advised to have systems in place to be able to continue with their work in case of fraud, theft, sabotage, flooding, fire, IT and utility failures and terrorist attacks.

The cost will be relatively little and at the end of the exercise you will have a plan to protect your business. The benefits of having a working business continuity plan will out-weigh any expenditure incurred.

It is very important to focus on keeping back-ups and copies of files and documents off-site, as well as having a plan that focuses on your mission critical activities and caters for an alternative site to work from such as one of DSM's Business Continuity Centre.

It should not take too long to start your first business continuity actions but obviously this will depend on the complexity of your business. As soon as you contact us we will start your Continuity plan.