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Protecting your business

Business Continuity Management is:

  • determining how well your business could cope in an emergency situation 
  • the process of identifying the parts of your business that it can't function without
  • planning how to maintain your business in the event of an incident
  • minimising the adverse impacts
  • enabling your business to recover as quickly as possible

Why prepare

Planning for an emergency or unexpected incident can help you to:

  • limit the impact on your business
  • help your business to recover quickly

The plans you have in place can benefit your business in many ways by:

  • identifying and prioritising the key functions
  • helping your business to continue operating during an incident
  • reducing financial losses which may lead to business closure 
  • building or restoring customer confidence
  • assuring current and potential clients that you can continue providing your services
  • making your business more resilient to emergencies
  • promoting confidence and reassurance within your business
  • ensuring that your business maintains a good reputation

How to protect your business

The Business Continuity Institute have case studies from actual emergency incidents to detail:

  • testing exercises that highlight the benefits of having a business continuity plan
  • how successful they can be in an emergency situation

There are five steps to help your business continue operating during an incident, or return to operating as quickly as possible:

The London Borough of Sutton Risk Register identifies:

  • the different hazards that may occur in Sutton
  • their potential impacts
  • how much of a risk they are

The list of risks is not exhaustive. You should take into consideration any more hazards that may affect organisations. This could include:

  • IT failures
  • loss of communications
  • lack of staff
  • supply chain disruptions

You can begin looking into this by:

You can start this process by taking the 10-minute Business Continuity Self-Assessment, reviewing the guidance document and completing the Business Continuity Plan template.

Cross-sector Safety and Security Communications (CSSC) was developed by Metropolitan Police, Transport for London and business representatives. It provides trusted and verified information across London.

CSSC works in both private and public sector organisations. It allows you to receive alerts and information that may be relevant to your business. To register and receive alerts for your sector, visit the CSSC website.

This booklet provides further guidance for preparing your business to respond to incidents.

  1. this booklet provides further guidance for preparing your business to respond to incidents.
  2. identify the potential risks to your business and understand the impact they could have.
  3. plan and prepare for the risks that are most likely to impact you
  4. check that you're insured and that you have all documentation stored safely
  5. contact your Local Authority and register with business networks
  6. read the Protect your Business: Guidance to Local Businesses booklet
  7. Protect your Business: Guidance to Local Businesses booklet