Hurricane season is here for those of us in sunny Florida. For all of us in the eastern half of the United States, this is a time for watching the weather forecasts and should be a time for preparation. Severe storms can affect anyone so don’t wait until the event happens to take measures to be prepared.
Did you know that Colden Company is certified by the Disaster Recovery Institute? We have helped many businesses develop and maintain business continuity plans. Part of a successful overall plan is periodic reviews of the existing plan to make sure it is keeping pace with the changes within the business. Particularly in the last year, there have been many changes in how businesses operate. Those changes need to be taken into consideration for the documented plan. Of course, there has to be a documented plan in order to update it. According to a study by Nationwide Insurance, 75% of small businesses do not have a documented disaster recovery plan. Here are some other noteworthy statistics that pertain to disaster recovery:
- According to FEMA, 90% of businesses that cannot resume operations within 5 days, close permanently.
- According to a Datto study, small businesses lose at least $10,000/hour in lost productivity and recovery costs for an outage.
- According to ZDNet, the average downtime from a ransomware attack is 16 days.
One final statistic that is interesting to us is that 68% (only?) of small business owners think it is important to have a documented disaster recovery plan. I would like to focus on that statistic for a moment. 68% feel it is important but only 25% have documented plans. The likely reason for this would be prioritization. Disaster recovery planning is often only a priority when you are trying to recover from a disaster. (At that point it is too late!) The time to plan is before the disaster of course but giving it the priority it deserves in the challenge with all of the day-to-day activities that keep small businesses busy. Here is where Colden Company can help. We have helped companies develop straightforward disaster recovery plans that do not break the bank. We understand that developing a disaster recovery plan is sometimes akin to “how deep down the rabbit hole do we want to go?”. Your plan can always be more specific and cover more scenarios. This should not be a reason for inaction, however. As we like to say here at Colden Company “direction, not perfection” when it comes to tasks like this. Get started. If we have a continual process of improvement, like annual reviews of the policy, we can enhance and get more specific year over year rather than suffering from paralysis from analysis. The process of documenting the disaster recovery plan for your business will be well worth it and define roles within your organization.
There is a reason most cyber security standards require a written disaster recovery plan. It is not only a good idea, but it can also save your business. It is a good idea. In a disaster, a time of panic, having a document to follow that has been thought out ahead of time can make a difference in how quickly you can recover. You know it, we know it and statistically, most small business owners agree. Does your business have a documented disaster recovery plan? If not, let’s get it done.
Reach out to our team of experts via email at info@coldencompany.com or at (888) 600-4560 to get started.