Business Continuity for Small Businesses

Identify critical functions

List the functions that would stop the business: order processing, billing, communication with clients, production, etc. Rank them by how long the business can survive without each.

Define manual fallback procedures

For each critical function, describe how it operates without normal systems. This might be paper forms, a phone procedure, or approved alternate access to essential data. Use only authorized, secured devices with MFA, current patches, encryption, and approved access controls; do not bypass incident containment or copy sensitive data to unmanaged devices.

Assign responsibilities

During a crisis, someone needs to make decisions. Who declares an incident? Who notifies clients? Who coordinates with vendors? Write this down before it's needed.

Document your recovery process

Step-by-step instructions for restoring each critical system, in priority order. Store this document somewhere accessible when your primary systems are down — not only on the systems you're trying to restore.

Test annually

A plan that has never been tested is an assumption. Tabletop exercises and backup restore tests confirm whether your plan works before a crisis reveals otherwise.