ADVICE FOR BUSINESSES ON PLANNING FOR THE WORST

No power, no phone lines, no computers, no staff: just some of the scenarios businesses need to plan for, but often don't - and help is at hand in a new factsheet from Ards Borough Council.

The new advice leaflet highlights just some of the issues which any business can face at any time, offers advice on how to plan for an emergency that will not only keep a business running during a crisis, but help return it to normal as quickly as possible, and outlines the simple steps to follow to help any business prepare a plan.

"Business Continuity Planning, as it is known, may seem like one of those concepts reserved only for big businesses, but any business, large or small, needs to think about the situations which can have a potentially devastating effect on their commercial life and then think about how they could best handle a crisis," said Graeme Bannister, who leads the Council's emergency planning function. "Plans don't have to be long or complex. They can be as simple as knowing that if, for example, you have no power, then a laptop is available with all your important data to allow you to manage your customer contact for a short time until the problem is fixed. Or that some of your staff could work from home to keep you open for business. Steps such as having a contact sheet with employees' phone numbers could be enough to keep things going. Much better to have looked at the risks and prepared for them, than to be left wondering what to do in an emergency".

The Business Continuity Factsheet can be downloaded here.