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Planning Preparedness Tips For Small Businesses: The Products and Services Catalog
In light of what has occured in the Midwest and Southern states this spring, disaster preparedness is now on the minds of small business owners more than ever. While countless homes have been destroyed and sadly, lives lost, small businesses also suffered greatly from these tragic events.
Statistics show that many of these small businesses will never recover from these disasters and the main reason for this is because business owners didn't have a plan to recover their business. Many small businesses don't have a disaster preparedness plan, also known as a business continuity plan in place to cope with these kinds of events and when they occur, the results can be devastating or catastrophic to the business.
While it's important to have a disaster preparedness plan in place for our families, it is equally important to have a plan for your business. Having a plan that has been tested and validated will increase the chances of getting your business operational again after the disaster has occurred.
However, the current disaster preparedness model doesn't take into account the small business owner. The current model accounts for only the recovery of "critical services and operations". If you ask a small business owners what the most critical parts of their businesses are that must be recovered after a disaster, they are likely to tell you the same thing. Everything is critical.
Most, if not all small business owners see every revenue stream as critical to the sustainment of their business. If one or more are disrupted, it can mean that the business cannot sustain itself.
Once disaster preparedness planners understand that small business owners view their entire business as critical, they can develop and implement effective plans to recover them.
With that said, how, then, does a small business owner prepare for the recovery of their entire business. What steps must small business owners take to ensure their businesses (revenue streams) are protected and can be recovered quickly after a disaster?
The most important factor in any recovery plan is knowing what needs to be recovered. Disaster recovery is not just knowing what your products or services are, but also knowing all of the elements that are required to enable those products and services to generate revenue.
This is why it is critical that business owners, large or small, develop a products and services catalog for their business. This single document is the framework on which the disaster preparedness plan will be developed and implemented.
The data that goes into the products and services catalog is information that businesses already have, but oftentimes it's not located in a central document that makes it easy to see and understand what enables each product and services.
Gathering this information and putting it in a logical view is not hard to do and shouldn't take much time, but this catalog will be the critical framework on which your disaster preparedness plan will be developed.
 Products and Services Catalog Development
Business owners should develop a products and services catalog that reflects each of their products and services, how they are developed and then how they are delivered to customers. Using the product and services model in Figure 1 allows businesses to map out all of the elements that go into delivering their products and services to customers and captures them in a single document for easy access.
Explanation of Model Components
Supply Lines
Supply Lines, or supplier management is the section that details who supplies the raw elements of your product or service. This is usually a third party that has an agreement with your business to supply the contents or building materials to you, such as software or hardware or parts. It can also be a subcontractor or consulting firm. Any third party that helps develop and/or deliver the product and service should be accounted for in this section. It's critical that you capture this information in your products and services catalog. If supply lines have to be restored at a new location, all the information is located in one document.
Critical Support Staff
Every product and service has at least one person who provides it for your business. This person or people are the next critical element in the product and service. These staff members are the "subject matter experts" that allow the product and service to be managed, created, packaged and delivered to customers. Knowing exactly who does what for each product and service will enable you to get the product and service restored quickly.
IT Support Elements
These are the IT systems, such as email, accounting, HR and sales programs and systems that aid in the development and delivery of a product or service. Mapping out which IT systems support which product and service will allow them to be recovered in a much more structured fashion. This will enable a much faster recovery of your business.
Facility Requirements
Determining what your facility requirements are ahead of time will allow you to decide what the size and functionality of an alternate or temporary site should be. If you do choose an alternate facility, make arrangements prior to having to relocate. This will aid in reducing recovery times. This particular section will take some extra planning time and may require an investment. The size and functionality of this facility must be scaled to support your business. In many cases you may find that what you have now for your business and what you really need to operate may translate into a cost savings.
Other Support Elements
There are products and services that have elements to them that don't fall into the sections above, such as customer lists, machinery, environmental requirements, vital records and things of that nature. This section should contain information unique to the product and service.
Keep in mind that a detailed products and services catalog is not a replacement for a disaster preparedness plan. This framework assists disaster planners with developing a preparedness plan and recovery strategy for your business more effectively. It allows them to see your entire operation and develop strategies to recover it based on your revenue streams.
In conclusion, having a products and services catalog available to disaster planners when they are preparing plans for your business can translate into a faster, more effective planning cycle. This can mean considerable savings to you during the planning phase and a more efficient and successful recovery should a disaster occur that affects your business. Protecting your revenue streams in a disaster can make the difference between your business suffering, and possibly ceasing operations and getting back to business providing your products and services to your customers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
 Mike Minzes is the CEO of INEVOLVE SB, a small business disaster preparedness planning company located just outside of Washington DC. Minzes has more than 20 years of experience proving disaster preparedness and business continuity planning for both the federal and commercial markets.
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