Many small- to medium-sized businesses could face a potential shock should a natural disaster or power outage force their operations to cease, prompting at least one insurance provider to suggest SMBs evaluate their business continuity plans.

Having lacklustre business continuity plans - or perhaps no plan at all - puts a business at considerable risk for massive revenue loss should the unexpected happen, insurance provider Aviva claims.

According to research conducted by the company, half of all businesses polled indicated they had no such business continuity or disaster recovery protocol in place, with a further 16 per cent indicating they felt no need to adopt such plans.

However, unexpected strikes on a business could have tremendous effects on the productivity of a business.

"A disaster or crisis can strike a business at any time and failing to plan for such an event can undo years of good work and hard trading in an instant," said David Bruce, commercial product manager for Aviva.

Studies from the Federation of Small Businesses seem to agree with Bruce's claim. The FSB found that 90 per cent of businesses that suffer data loss from an incident are forced to shutter their doors within two years.

Bruce recommended business continuity plans as a way to battle back against an unexpected outage of service, potentially saving a business's livelihood.

"If the worst does happen, then having a business continuity plan in place may be the difference between your business recovering or failing," he said.

Written by Jason Morton
 

Insurance provider presses SMBs to enact disaster recovery plans