Why Do Business Continuity Plans Fail? 6 Mistakes Small Businesses Make
Business continuity plans fail because they’re either never updated, never tested, rely on insufficient procedures, lack proper planning, or suffer from any combination of these issues.
And when plans fail during a crisis such as a cyberattack, power outage, or natural disaster, businesses can face expensive downtime, lost revenue, damaged customer trust, and even data loss.
In this post, we’ll look at some of the main reasons why business continuity plans fail and how you can stop making these same mistakes.
Key takeaways
- Business continuity plans need regular testing and updates to remain effective.
- A strong plan needs to account for people, processes, and third-party risks. Not just technology.
- Backups are an important part of recovery but should not be solely relied on.
- Clear ownership helps keep your plan focused and maintained.
What Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?
A business continuity plan, or BCP, is a documented strategy that helps businesses respond to and recover from disruptions, such as cyberattacks, power outages, or natural disasters.
A strong BCP involves data backups and restoration, team response, customer communications, and the technology needed to get your business up and running as fast as possible.
That’s what a BCP is all about: minimizing downtime so you can keep operating even when something goes wrong.
That said, just because you have a BCP doesn’t guarantee resilience. If any of the following mistakes sound familiar, it may be time to review your current plan.
1. Not Testing the Plan
A survey conducted by Hartford shows that while 59% of surveyed businesses had a formal continuity plan, only 19% of them had tested that plan. That’s not great.
Think of it like a fire drill. If no one knows where to go or what they’re supposed to do, your plan will unravel into panic.
For example, who is the main point of contact during an outage? Who works with IT to begin recovery? Who communicates with customers if services are interrupted? Those questions need to be answered long before an emergency happens.
We recommend testing your BCP between 6 and 12 months or after any major business changes. A few effective ways to do that include:
- Reviewing your plan with your team.
- Walking through a realistic disaster scenario step by step.
- Running a full disaster recovery simulation.
After testing, document the results and share them with your team so you can better decide what you should improve in your plan moving forward.
2. Never Updating the Plan
Your BCP isn’t set in stone. It will need to change alongside your business.
To continue with the fire drill analogy, imagine your office building had added a new wing. You wouldn’t keep using the old evacuation map that doesn’t include the new emergency exits.
The same idea applies to business continuity. Today’s critical files may not be the same a year from now. You might switch backup software, add new systems, hire new employees, or move to a new office. If your plan doesn’t reflect your changes, it won’t be very effective.
3. Improper Risk Assessment
It’s easy to focus on obvious priorities like accounting software, sensitive customer data, and other critical systems.
While protecting your tech and data is important, it’s just one part of the picture.
For example, employees may need additional cybersecurity training to help them avoid phishing attacks. A critical vendor could experience an outage or breach that interrupts your operations. Or a lengthy outage could require reaching out to your customers so they understand what’s going on.
A strong BCP takes all of this into account: your people, partners, processes, and your technology.
4. Treating Backups as the Entire Plan
Backups are very important to recovery, but recovery alone doesn’t constitute continuity.
That’s because a backup can restore your data, but it can’t reconnect offline systems, communicate with employees or customers, or keep the lights on during a power outage.
Yes, you want to be able to recover your data. But that won’t help if you can’t recover your business.
5. Not Checking Your Backups
Just because your data is being backed up doesn’t mean it’s being backed up correctly. In fact, an analysis of ransomware claims found that 31% of organizations with backups were unable to restore them after an attack.
That’s because backup jobs can fail, files can become corrupted, and data can be accidentally excluded. Even if your backup job reports that it’s “completed successfully,” the data being backed up may not actually be recoverable anymore.
That’s why you need to regularly verify your backups. The last thing you want is to attempt to recover lost files only to find out the backup corrupted months prior.
6. A Lack of Ownership
Any good plan needs ownership. And if that ownership falls entirely on an overworked “IT guy,” or someone who doesn’t understand business continuity, you’re going to have some serious problems.
A strong BCP must have a dedicated person or team responsible for maintaining the plan, coordinating recovery efforts, and making sure everyone understands their role.
It’s one of the first things that should be established before you even create a formal plan. Because without clear ownership, the plan may never get reviewed, changed, or practiced.
When that happens, your plan has a much higher chance of failing.
The 20 MSP Owns Business Continuity
While you and your employees should understand your continuity plan, partnering with a managed service provider means gaining access to experts who know how to build, test, and maintain these plans.
That’s us! The 20 MSP helps businesses plan for the unexpected. Whether we take full ownership of a plan, have a place on the recovery team, or simply provide guidance along the way, we help make sure nothing gets overlooked when your business is preparing for the unexpected.
If you need help creating a business continuity plan, or just want someone to review the one you already have in place, let’s talk. We’d be more than happy to take a look.
FAQ: Why Do Business Continuity Plans Fail?
What is a business continuity plan?
A business continuity plan, or BCP, is a documented strategy that helps businesses respond to and recover from disruptions, such as cyberattacks, power outages, or natural disasters.
A strong BCP involves data backups and restoration, team response, customer communications, and the technology needed to get your business up and running as fast as possible.
How often should I review and update my business continuity plan?
We recommend reviewing your plan every 6-12 months or after any major business changes, such as moving to a new office or installing new software.
These reviews can help you identify what needs to be changed or updated so your plan reflects the current state of your business.
Why do “successful backups” actually fail?
A “successful backup” report only means the backup software successfully saved data. It doesn’t account for corrupted, damaged, or missing information.
For example, your Datto report may show that your client contact information folder was successfully backed up, but the files inside could have been overwritten, corrupted, or missing important information before the backup occurred.
By regularly reviewing and testing your backups (something your MSP can do for you), you can make sure the data being backed up is actually the data you expect it to be.
What should I consider when performing my business’s risk assessment?
You should consider everything from your technology and employees to your clients and third-party vendors.
Anything that could potentially disrupt your business if it became unviable should be considered during your risk assessment and ultimately accounted for in your BCP.
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About The 20 MSP
As a leading provider of managed IT services, The 20 MSP serves thousands of businesses nationwide, providing each one with white-glove service, secure and streamlined IT infrastructure, and 24/7/365 dedicated IT support. We believe in building lasting relationships with clients founded on trust, communication, and the delivery of high-value services for a fair and predictable price. Our clients’ success is our success, and we are committed to helping each and every organization we serve leverage technology to secure a competitive advantage and achieve new growth.
