The Complete Business Continuity Checkup: Know Your Number |
The 20-Minute Checkup That Could Save Your Business |
The 20-Minute Checkup That Could Save Your Business |
The 20-Minute Checkup That Could Save Your Business |
Most businesses don’t have a business continuity plan. They have a general sense that things will probably work out, a backup drive that may or may not be up to date, and a vague intention to figure it all out someday.
But why wait until disaster strikes?
Why not get a clear picture of where your business is most vulnerable right now?
Wouldn’t it help to be prepared and have a rough number that shows what doing nothing could cost you?
Part 1: Your Dependency Map
Every business runs on a short list of things that absolutely cannot fail. The goal here is to write yours down before something on that list stops working.
For each dependency, ask yourself three questions: What do we use it for? What is our Plan B right now? Who needs to know that plan?
Be honest. “We’ll figure it out” is not a Plan B.
Power.
Everything on this list depends on it. When the power goes out, your internet, phones, computers, and payment systems all go with it.
Internet connectivity.
For most businesses, almost everything else depends on it. Cloud applications, email, phones, payments, remote access, and customer systems may all become unavailable when the internet goes down.
Email and communication platforms.
Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Teams, Slack, and similar tools have become basic business infrastructure. An outage affects both internal coordination and customer communication.
Phones and VoIP systems.
This is especially important for businesses where customers call to schedule, place orders, request service, or get support. Because most phone systems now depend on internet connectivity, one failure can affect both.
Identity and authentication systems.
This one is easy to overlook. Employees may have perfectly functioning computers and applications but still be unable to work if they cannot authenticate, complete MFA, or access their accounts.
Cloud file storage and shared documents. SharePoint, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and network drives. If employees cannot access the information required to do their jobs, much of the business can effectively stop.
The one machine.
Most businesses have a single computer where too much information ended up being saved on by default, not by design. No one ever designated it as critical infrastructure. It just became that way.
Line-of-business software.
Often the biggest dependency of all. CRM, ERP, accounting, practice management, case management, estimating, scheduling, inventory, or any industry-specific software that is essential to daily operations.
Customer and sales systems. CRM systems, customer databases, quoting platforms, sales pipelines, service ticket systems, and customer portals. Without them, employees may not know what customers need, what was promised, or what happens next.
Accounting, payroll, and financial systems. QuickBooks, payroll platforms, banking access, invoicing, accounts receivable, and expense management. The business might be able to operate without them temporarily, but not for long.
Payment processing. For retail, hospitality, healthcare, professional services, and many other businesses, losing the ability to accept or process payments quickly becomes a revenue problem.
Scheduling and calendar systems. Calendars, appointment systems, dispatching, field service scheduling, and resource management tools. If nobody knows where people need to be or what work is scheduled, disruption spreads quickly.
Endpoints: laptops, desktops, tablets, and mobile devices.
The cloud can work perfectly, but employees still need functioning devices to access it. A broken, stolen, or locked device is a personal outage.
Network infrastructure.
Firewalls, switches, Wi-Fi, routers, and VPNs. Employees rarely think about these until something stops working, and then everything that depends on the network stops with it.
Printers, scanners, and specialized equipment.
Easy to dismiss, but critically important in certain businesses. A law office, medical practice, warehouse, manufacturer, or construction company may depend heavily on technology that looks mundane from the outside.
Website, e-commerce, and customer-facing platforms.
For some businesses, the website is mostly informational. For others, it is the storefront. Know which one yours is, and plan accordingly.
Third-party integrations and automation.
Businesses increasingly have systems connected through APIs, integrations, AI agents, workflow automation, and vendor connections. One system going down can unexpectedly break several other workflows at once.
Backups and recovery systems.
Although backup and recovery systems may not be needed every minute of the workday, when they fail, they can suddenly become the most important technology the business owns. Do you know where your backups are, how current they are, and whether anyone has ever tested a restore?
Cybersecurity systems.
Endpoint protection, email filtering, monitoring, MFA, and identity protection. A failure may not immediately stop work, but operating without these controls creates risk that compounds quickly.
A single person who holds critical knowledge.
Not a technology dependency, but a human one. Is there someone on your team who is the only person who knows how a system works, where files are stored, or how a critical process runs?
If you’re working through this list and find the Plan B column mostly blank, that’s useful information. It means your continuity plan right now is hope, and hope has a poor track record.
Part 2: Calculate Your Downtime Number
Once you know what could stop you, it helps to know what stopping could cost.
Here’s a simple way to find out.
Start with your people. Count the staff affected by a typical outage, then multiply by their average hourly rate. That’s your direct productivity cost for every hour things aren’t working.
Add your revenue. Estimate how much revenue your business generates in an average working hour. It doesn’t need to be exact. A rough number is enough to make the math meaningful.
Factor in recovery time. Getting back to normal after an outage almost always takes longer than the outage itself. Catching up on stacked work, handling client follow-up, and getting everyone back on track adds at least another hour to your real cost. Often more.
Add those three numbers together. That’s your hourly downtime cost.
Now multiply it by two. Most of the “one of those mornings” situations run at least that long. If the number surprises you, that’s the point.
What to Do With This
Write it down and keep it somewhere more than one person can find it: a shared folder, a printed page, a note in your phone. The format doesn’t matter. What matters is that it exists, that it’s honest, and that it gets reviewed once a year or any time something on the list changes.
The goal isn’t a perfect continuity strategy. It’s a documented starting point that more than one person knows. That alone puts you ahead of most.
If you want to take this further, FEMA’s Ready.gov has a straightforward business continuity planning guide that pairs well with the work you just did.
