We are continuing this journey that started with gathering your assets, back up systems and now we get to the heavier stuff. One of the most overlooked items for most business owners have is a Disaster Recovery Plan – also known as a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) or your "HIT BY A BUS" plan. Little late to come up with a plan after something bad happens. If something happens to you, who is going to run it, how do they run it, where is everything? Your business may need to be able to continue without you - at least for a while.

Potential disasters:

Technical - internet down, computer failure, servers broken, flooded data and services.
- Physical location damaged or unusable.
- What happens to your staff?
- Where will they go?
- Have a place for them to report and work.
- Illness or death of owner.
- Staff members - illness, accidents

If you’re a solopreneur, does your emergency contact know who your business contact is and what info to give them?
In case of death, do you have instructions in your will for what becomes of your clients and physical business assets?
Part 2: The tech side

Preparing your tech resources in case of disaster - server back-up, storage, restore,

- Who can build you new computers FAST if you need them?
- Where does this information reside?
- How will you pay for this - is there credit in place for this that your team can authorize?
- How fast can you get new computers replaced and your system backed up?
- If your computer and laptop were destroyed, could you access your main accounts?

Does anyone have direct access to the following accounts:

This is not about the device you use, it’s about having login credentials stored somewhere that you can access from a brand new computer or laptop or even mobile device, even if it’s borrowed temporarily.
- Internet
- Email
- Drive or Office 365 for documents/spreadsheets
- Hosting
- Domain
- Website
- Social Media
- Other subscription or monthly pay accounts may need authorization for renewal:
- Premium plugins
- memberships
- cell phone for business calls
- and professional memberships such as business associations where you are listed in their online directories.

This is when you need the worksheets from Episode 1 (http://www.geekspeakguides.com/gsg-checklist-for-website-assets-and-access/). How are you doing filling those out?

 

 

 

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Episode Time Stamp:

00:02:00 Disasters are not just being hit by a bus. They are being banged by a bus too, where you’re just out of it for a little while.

00:02:20 Technical disasters - such as: internet going down, computer failure, hosting servers down

00:03:00 Physical location damage - such as: floods, tornado

00:03:15 Personnel unavailable - VA, webmaster

00:03:30 Illness - you or others on your staff, or a relation or pet

00:04:25 Emergency contact list - who can keep your business on track for you

00:07:00 What if you lose your computer? Can you regain access to the data including logins, emails, etc? Can anyone access them on your behalf?

00:08:00 Don’t expect a family member to be able to do this for you. Do they have the contact info for who can?

00:09:00 Backups and access - for computer and site - can others get to your data and email? Are they stored only in your computer or at another location? If your primary and backup are in the same location, both can be destroyed.

00:09:30 Can you get another computer quickly if yours is destroyed? Is there a credit card on file for emergency purchases that others can use on your behalf?

00:11:15 Carbonite and LastPass are super services. And ensure that someone else can access in case of emergency.

00:13:00 All the items and accounts folks will need access to, including download of checklists and spreadsheets that will make it easy.