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  • Small Business Disaster Recovery Plan Template

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Small Businesses Should Have a Disaster Recovery Plan [Free Downloadable Template]

No small business owner wants to think about a disaster coming along and wiping out everything they've worked so hard for. But the tragic truth is this: Up to 60% of small businesses never reopen their doors following a disaster, according to the  Federal Emergency Management Agency . 

Have you thought about what would happen if a flood, hurricane, or cyberattack hit your business? Do you have the proper mechanisms in place to recover from such a disaster? If disaster recovery was not part of your business plan, now is the time to develop your strategies.

Download Our Free Disaster Recovery Plan Template

About 75% of small businesses do not have a disaster recovery plan in place, according to  Nationwide . If you're a small business owner who doesn't have the money to hire an external firm to create a plan, you can create your own. Begin by analyzing the following:

  • The types of risks that can occur for your company
  • The likelihood of each occurrence
  • The critical systems/data that could be impacted

This initial analysis will help determine your budget for disaster recovery. To assist you with this process, you can download a  free disaster recovery plan template .

What should be included in a disaster recovery plan?

First, list the following:

  • Key personnel contact information
  • Insurance information
  • Vendor contacts (computer hardware, plumbing, HVAC, etc.)
  • Key customer contacts
  • Bank and financial information
  • Offsite data storage facility

Then, give step-by-step instructions for what to do in the event of a disaster. Include:

  • An evacuation plan
  • How you will notify employees and customers in the event of an emergency
  • Instructions for redundancy (how to access backups for things like power, equipment, supplies, and data)
  • A list of the software packages that will be part of the recovery

Last, you may wish to include an appendix of supplemental information such as floor plans, insurance policies, and technology service level agreements (SLAs).

A picture of a computer server

Secure Offsite Storage Now

Identify critical hard copy or electronic data for financials, customers, insurances, vendors, and employees. On a continuous basis, make copies of (or mirror) your data and store it in an easily accessible location that would not be affected by the same disaster.

Small businesses can easily scan their data and store in a cloud environment such as Google Drive or Amazon, which can be inexpensive and easily accessed. Alternately, small businesses can store hard copy reports, magnetic tapes, DVDs, or flash drives off site.

Pay Attention to Security

If your small business stores physical information at a secondary site and/or backup information in the cloud or on an external device, you must consider security. Consider:

  • The stored physical information is at risk from theft, accidents, or a natural disaster. Plan for things like door and window security and personnel access. Be cautious of drop ceilings and raised floors, from which intruders can gain access.
  • The backup electronic information, whether it's on your own network or a cloud provider’s multitenancy system, may be at risk of a cyberattack. Implement adequate security measures such as an IDS, IPS, honey pots, antivirus software, network segmentations, firewalls, vulnerability assessments, and user education. Ask your cloud provider about the type of network security and disaster recovery initiatives it has.

Plan Maintenance and Awareness 

Once you develop a disaster recovery plan, you must maintain it. To do this, establish a cross-functional team that drives maintenance and awareness initiatives. The team can host brown bag lunches to initially discuss the concept of disaster recovery plans, as well as trends. When there are changes in applicable regulations (e.g., HIPAA), purchases of new equipment, or changes in company direction, the team should evaluate the content of the plan.

Next, the team can invite risk assessments of the plan. If the cost of an external firm to conduct the risk assessment is a barrier, the team can invite employees to critique the plan or even another trusted organization to critique the plan. Last, disaster recovery training of personnel should be done initially and throughout the year.

Hot, Cold, Warm Choices

As part of your disaster recovery plan, you may wish to explore alternative sites to run your business if a disaster displaces you. Explore hot, cold, and warm choices:

  • Hot sites are most expensive, as they contain duplicated hardware and processing systems; updates are current.
  • A cold site is the least expensive, because it may simply consist of space, phone lines, and furniture.
  • Warm sites are in between with pricing and functionality.

Organizations need to consider costs as well as the acceptable delayed operational time.

If cost is a major concern, a cold site may be your only option. If so, contact a leasing firm for pricing. You could also explore other creative avenues that mirror a formal cold site—for example, perhaps you could strike an agreement with a trusted small business peer who would provide access to their conference room or vacant office available if a disaster occurred.

Most small business owners don’t think they will be the victim of a cyberattack or natural disaster—until one strikes. A disaster recovery plan is vital to making sure you can get up and running as soon as possible afterward.

Are you a business owner who wants to complete your degree?

Purdue Global offers  online business degrees , some with with accelerated tracks for working professionals. Earn your  management degree online  or learn more about the  ExcelTrack ®  bachelor’s degree or MBA—and get closer to achieving your goals.

Ellen Raineri, PhD, is a former faculty member at Purdue Global. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the view of Purdue Global.

About the Author

Ellen Raineri, PhD

Earn a degree you're proud of and employers respect at Purdue Global, Purdue's online university for working adults. Accredited and online, Purdue Global gives you the flexibility and support you need to come back and move your career forward. Choose from 175+ programs, all backed by the power of Purdue.

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Resilience in Crisis: Building a Disaster Recovery Plan for Your Small Business

Colin Hanks

  • What is a Disaster Recovery Plan?
  • Assessing and Understanding Risks
  • Roles and Responsibilities
  • Training the Team
  • Establishing Recovery Objectives
  • Documenting the Plan
  • Integrating Business Continuity
  • Infrastructure and Data Protection
  • Communication Strategies During Disasters
  • Testing and Updating the Plan
  • Budgeting for Disaster Recovery
  • How Can Veeam Help?
  • Related Resources:

In a time when threats range from natural disasters to cyberattacks, it’s critical for small businesses to prepare for the unexpected. Developing a comprehensive Disaster Recovery plan is not just a safety measure; it’s a vital part of ensuring your business’s resilience and stability. In this guide, we will explore the essential steps and measures a small business must take to not only anticipate but also navigate through such crises.

A disaster recovery plan for a small business is a tailored strategy and set of procedures designed to help you respond to and recover from various disasters or disruptions effectively. These plans help protect your company’s operations, safeguard important data, ensure business stability, and can have a positive impact on your bottom line. While the fundamental principles of a disaster recovery plan apply to businesses of all sizes, the specific elements of a plan for a small business may differ due to limited resources, budget constraints, and a smaller scale of operations. Let’s explore.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 40% of small businesses never reopen after a disaster and another 25% fail within one year. To effectively manage these risks, small businesses must first conduct a comprehensive assessment of potential threats. This involves:

Identifying Potential Disasters As previously stated, the spectrum of threats encompasses a wide range, spanning from natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and storms to challenges like supply chain disruptions, cyberattacks, and technological disasters. Identifying these potential disasters is critical in preparing an effective response.

Conducting a Business Impact Analysis A business impact analysis (BIA) helps in understanding the potential impact of a disruption on your business. This analysis focuses on critical business functions (such as Operations, Product/Service Development, Financial Management, etc.) and helps in prioritizing recovery objectives and possible consequences. Here is an overview of what a business impact analysis involves:

  • Identifying critical business functions
  • Identify potential disruptions
  • Assess impact severity
  • Set recovery time objectives
  • Prioritize critical functions
  • Identify dependencies
  • Gather data and input
  • Document BIA results
  • Develop business continuity plan
  • Regular review and updates

For small businesses, the key is to keep the process simple, practical, and focused on the most critical aspects of your operation. While the scale may be smaller, the goal remains the same: to ensure that your business can continue functioning in the face of unexpected challenges or disasters.

Creating a Disaster Recovery Team

In a small business, some team members may wear multiple hats, and the roles may be adapted to fit the specific needs of the organization. The key is to ensure that responsibilities are clearly defined, and team members are trained and prepared to respond effectively to disasters or disruptions. Communication and coordination within the team are essential for a successful disaster recovery effort.

Training the Team 

Ensuring the preparedness of your disaster recovery team is crucial for effective response in case of a disaster or disruption. To achieve this, consider the following steps for training your disaster recovery team:

  • Familiarize team members with the disaster recovery plan
  • Orientation and introduction
  • Role-specific training
  • Scenario-based training
  • Tabletop exercises
  • Drills and simulations
  • Cross-training
  • Documentation and reporting
  • External training and certification

Developing the Disaster Recovery Plan

Now that we’ve covered the basics of a disaster recovery plan, risk assessment, and assembling a disaster recovery team, it’s time to focus on developing the actual recovery plan. Here’s a straightforward, step-by-step guide to help you create an effective disaster recovery plan for your small business:

Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) are essential components of a disaster recovery plan for small businesses. They help determine how quickly you need to recover your systems and data following a disruption.

Recovery Time Objective: Is the maximum acceptable downtime for your critical business functions and systems. It represents the time within which these functions and systems should be restored after a disaster.

Recovery Point Objective: Is the maximum allowable data loss in terms of time. It defines the point in time to which data must be recovered after a disaster. The choice of RPO should consider data value, storage capacity, and backup frequency.

RTOs and RPOs should align with your business’s unique needs, risks, and      resources. Striking the right balance between minimal downtime and data loss and what your business can realistically achieve is essential for an effective disaster recovery plan .

For small businesses, the importance of documenting a recovery plan is just as significant as it is for larger organizations. It can be argued that it’s even more critical for small businesses due to their typically limited resources and vulnerabilities. A well-documented recovery plan ensures the efficient allocation of resources, aids in survival during crises, maintains customer trust, helps with compliance, supports employees, and preserves critical relationships with suppliers and partners. Additionally, it can ease the process of obtaining insurance coverage or financing, mitigate the impact on the local community, and facilitate smooth transitions in ownership or management. In essence, a documented recovery plan is a cornerstone of small business resilience, safeguarding operations, assets, and reputation in times of adversity.

Integrating business continuity into a disaster recovery plan is especially crucial for small businesses. It means addressing not only IT recovery but also the entire organization’s ability to continue essential operations during and after a disaster. This holistic approach minimizes downtime for both technology and critical business functions, ensuring that limited resources are allocated effectively. It also enhances communication, flexibility, and adaptability in managing crises, while compliance and resilience improve stakeholder confidence. For small businesses, this integration is a cost-effective way to safeguard operations, build trust, and enhance long-term sustainability in the face of disruptions.

To secure your business from losses during a disaster, it is imperative to establish essential infrastructure, make use of diverse tools, and put in place efficient solutions. These encompass:

By investing in these critical infrastructure components, tools, and solutions, small businesses can significantly enhance their ability to protect against loss during and after disasters, ensuring a quicker and smoother recovery process.

To streamline communication protocols during and after disasters for small businesses, it is vital to develop a comprehensive plan that outlines roles, responsibilities, and contact information. Utilizing multiple communication channels with redundancy, maintaining updated emergency contact lists, and prioritizing message types are crucial. Investing in communication tools, conducting regular system tests, and designating a spokesperson for external communications enhance efficiency. Additionally, establishing clear chains of command, creating remote work policies, and training employees while maintaining feedback mechanisms contribute to effective communication. Post-disaster reviews help refine communication plans, ensuring that small businesses can efficiently coordinate both internal and external communications during critical times.

Regularly testing and updating an organization’s disaster recovery plan ensures its effectiveness when a crisis strikes. Testing not only identifies weaknesses but also helps employees become familiar with their roles during an emergency. Common exercises include tabletop exercises, where team members discuss hypothetical scenarios and their responses, and full-scale simulations, which mimic actual disaster situations. These tests evaluate the plan’s strengths and uncover areas for improvement. However, it’s crucial to base these exercises on realistic scenarios and to review them periodically to address evolving threats. Additionally, post-exercise debriefs, and incident reviews should be conducted to analyze what went well and what needs improvement. This feedback loop allows for continuous enhancement of the disaster recovery plan, incorporating lessons learned from testing and real incident outcomes to better protect the business and its stakeholders in the face of adversity.

Budgeting for disaster recovery is a critical aspect of small business preparedness. Small businesses should set aside a specific part of their annual budget for disaster recovery. This money should cover creating and maintaining a disaster plan, as well as training and equipment. It’s important to focus on protecting the most crucial parts of the business. Small businesses should also investigate insurance options like business interruption, property, or cyber insurance to help cover costs in case of a disaster. While insurance premiums may be an extra cost, they can provide financial help when a disaster strikes. A well-planned disaster recovery budget helps small businesses prepare and reduce financial stress during emergencies.

But what about those small businesses with limited budgets and resources? For those with limited budgets and resources, outsourcing your disaster recovery plan and solution to a managed service provider (MSP), is a great alternative. MSP’s can provide specialized expertise and a deep understanding of industry best practices, cutting-edge technologies, and evolving security threats, allowing small businesses to benefit from a tailored disaster recovery strategy without the need for extensive internal investments. Additionally, outsourcing to an MSP can enhance the efficiency and reliability of a disaster recovery process, ensuring quick response times and minimizing downtime in the event of a disruption.

We encourage small businesses to prioritize disaster recovery planning. At Veeam, our mission is to help every company bounce forward. As part of that we have put together a range of solutions tailored to small businesses’ needs, including Veeam-powered DRaaS , , and managed backup & DR services . See these solutions in more detail below.

  • Veeam-Powered DRaaS: Allows you to work with trusted service providers to customize a disaster recovery plan that fits your needs and budget. Built on Veeam Data Platform, our partners support customers from plan development to testing, documentation, and full management.
  • SMB Backup and Recovery Solutions: Gives you the freedom to manage and shift your infrastructure, storage, and backup restores as needed, while giving you the confidence to recover any data you need, even from cross-platform workloads – instantly.
  • Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery Services: Delivered through our VCSP partners, this solution gives you access to experts to proactively manage your data protection, accelerate time-to-value, and reduce the complexity of daily IT operations.

Start developing your disaster recovery plan today with Veeam’s expert support and bounce forward knowing you have a trusted partner to keep your business running smoothly. Start developing your disaster recovery plan today with Veeam’s expert support.

  • Veeam-Powered Disaster Recovery as a Service (DraaS)
  • Veeam SMB Backup Solutions
  • Veeam-Powered Managed Backup & DR Services

Colin Hanks

What is the 3-2-1 backup rule?

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The road to recovery after a disaster doesn’t have to be painful. Learn the six steps you need to take to build an effective recovery plan for your business.

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It’s not always possible to avoid the business fallout of a disaster like a pandemic, earthquake, or cybersecurity breach. But you can build a recovery plan to get your business up and running ASAP. Here are six steps you can take to get started.

Review your insurance coverage

Having the right business insurance can be crucial to surviving a disaster. You should regularly review your policies to ensure there are no gaps in your coverage.

For instance, if you live in an area that regularly experiences earthquakes, you want to ensure your policy will protect your business against these risks. You also want to ensure that your insurance will cover the disruption to your company and pay for damages.

[Read more: How to Choose Cyber Insurance ]

Audit your business resources

Next, you want to audit all critical business resources , including:

  • Equipment and other assets.
  • Perishable resources or products.
  • Staff members.
  • Property or real estate.

Once your audit is complete, you’ll know what your business stands to lose if it’s exposed to different types of emergencies. For instance, your business could sustain a lot of physical damage during a flood.

But your business may suffer economic damage during a cybersecurity hack. Auditing your business resources will help you determine which areas of your business to focus on.

Have a plan to backup your data

You must have a reliable data backup plan before disaster strikes. Over 50% of businesses aren’t prepared for a significant data loss, and 60% of those companies end up going out of business within six months.

It’s best to have multiple data backup plans in place. For instance, you could buy and use an external hard drive to back up your company’s data. And you should also backup your data in the cloud so that you can access it from anywhere.

[Read more: What Is the 3-2-1 Backup Rule? ]

Over 50% of businesses aren’t prepared for a significant data loss, and 60% of those companies end up going out of business within six months.

Make a list of key employees

The next step is determining which employees are critical to your business functions. For instance, your IT team would be critical in keeping your electronic processes functioning properly in an emergency, whereas sales reps may not be as necessary.

When an emergency strikes, you should immediately reach out to the employees and internal partners that can help keep your business running. No one can fully recover from a disaster on their own, so utilizing the right people will make your recovery efforts much smoother.

Communicate with your customers

No matter what kind of disaster you encounter, it’s key to have a plan for communicating with your customers. For instance, if your company was the victim of a security breach, you should let your customers know what happened and what steps you’re taking to mitigate the damage.

Make sure your customers know what’s happening and how to get in touch with you. It’s also a good idea to pick one employee to monitor your social media networks and answer questions.

[Read more: 5 Crisis Communication Best Practices Every Small Business Should Know ]

Apply for the Small Business Readiness for Resiliency Program

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation partnered with FedEx to create the Small Business Readiness for Resiliency (R2R) Program . The R2R program encourages businesses to prepare for natural disasters before they occur and awards grants to businesses in qualifying areas.

You’ll start by downloading FedEx’s Emergency Preparedness Checklist for Small Businesses. This checklist will help you create an Emergency Action Plan for your business.

From there, you’ll apply online and provide more details about your business. If you apply before a disaster strikes in your area, you may be selected to receive a grant to help your business recover.

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Disaster Recovery Plan

According to FEMA , almost 40% of small businesses don't recover from a disaster. Statistics also suggest that the longer it takes a business to get back to business as usual, the smaller the chance that the businesses will recover. This is where a well-constructed disaster recovery plan can make all the difference.

A disaster can be any incident that has the potential to interrupt business operations. This could be a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, supplier outage, building fire, data security breach, or pandemic.

Business disaster recovery plans will vary depending on the type of business and the likely type of disasters. A business should cover a variety of possible disaster scenarios and emergencies to able to handle the situation decisively and without delay, ensuring a quick recovery.

How is a disaster recovery plan different from a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan outlines the overall strategic approach for dealing with major incidents and disasters before, during, and after they occur. It includes measures for preventing and mitigating risks, emergency response plans, and recovery strategies.

A disaster recovery plan is a component of the business continuity plan that is specifically concerned with the procedures required to get each part of the business up and running again after a disaster. The steps and procedures a business must take to resume normal business operations will differ depending on the type of disaster (think flood damage vs. supplier outage), which is why every disaster scenario requires its own plan.

Disaster Recovery Plan Template:

Use our disaster recovery plan template in Word format to help stay on task.

Key Elements of a Disaster Recovery Plan:

  • Purpose, scope, and objectives.
  • Roles and responsibilities.
  • Critical assets and resources.
  • Insurance policies.
  • Document and data backup.
  • Communication plan.
  • Action plan: define recovery procedures.

How to Create a Disaster Recovery Plan:

It is important to keep your employees, suppliers, business partners, investors, and customers informed of what you are doing in response to the disaster. To do so efficiently and avoid confusion or miscommunication, you will need to create a disaster recovery plan.

Define the purpose, scope, goals, and objectives.

Think about what the worst-case scenario would look like..

This will help you identify precisely how the disaster may impact your business, which assets and processes will be compromised, and what a reasonable timeframe for recovery would be.

Also, specify objectives, such as the minimum operational levels to which the business must be restored as well as the time and effort that should be committed to the recovery process.

Before getting started on a disaster recovery plan, you will have to identify the various types of disasters that could affect your business. Each scenario requires its own recovery plan.

Define employee roles and responsibilities.

Determine who is responsible for overseeing the execution of the plan..

Once this is complete, list the roles and responsibilities of other individuals also involved in the implementation process. This will help everyone have a clear understanding of their expectations.

Include disaster recovery plans in employee onboarding and training exercises.

Your employees should have a good understanding of the plan and the role they will play, including specific tasks and responsibilities. It is always good to do a regular refresher on this topic, especially after a review or update of disaster recovery plans.

List assets and resources.

Take stock of all your assets and resources..

Identify which are critical for restoring operations in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. For each business function that will be impacted by the disaster, identify what their critical resources are and what may be needed as a temporary workaround.

Examples of assets and resources:

  • Office equipment and paper records.
  • Technology and IT infrastructure.
  • Production and warehouse facilities.
  • Machinery and equipment.
  • Third-party services.

Depending on the type of disaster and potential impact, outsourcing certain functions may be a consideration.

Include the cost of the assets and resources.

Depending on the type of disaster, you may need to consider whether some resources, such as raw materials and equipment, are likely to be available in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

Evaluate your insurance policies.

Review your current insurance policies..

Review your current insurance policies with the resources and assets you listed in the previous step in mind and update them, if necessary. Comprehensive insurance coverage should include both direct and indirect costs related to the disaster. To support a quick recovery, try to find out how long it is likely to take for you to receive payouts or replacements in the case of a disaster and what the process is.

Review document and data backup.

Identify essential documents..

Identify what documents and data are essential and regularly back these up in a storage system that is not located at or solely dependent on the physical infrastructure at your business premises.

This should be an ongoing process. You will want to make sure that none of your data and essential documents are lost if, for example, a natural disaster destroys filing cabinets and technological equipment or in the case of a server failure or cyberattack.

Consider using an information and records management service.

Depending on your document and data storage needs, you may consider enlisting the services of an information and records management company, such as Access or Crown Records Management . If your business only keeps digital records, you may want to look at using a cloud service, which is a cost-effective and efficient way to keep your data secure.

Create a communication plan.

Assign roles..

If you have a small business you will likely appoint only one person, often the business owner, to be in charge of all communication. In this case, you should, however, appoint at least one more person as a backup. If you have a larger company, it is best to assemble a team to be in charge of communication.

Collect and maintain essential information.

Collect all information needed for contacting stakeholders as well as to access and manage your company's communication platforms. Stakeholders include employees, investors, lenders, suppliers, customers, etc. Try to have at least two ways of contacting everyone.

Create a task list (who, what, when).

List the various audiences that will have to be contacted, such as employees, suppliers, customers, the surrounding community, investors, etc., along with the key messages for each group and the channels you will use. Include who will be responsible for contacting each group of stakeholders along with a timeframe for different messages to be sent.

Prepare templates.

To ensure that your communication plan is implemented without delay, you can prepare templates for the different types of messages and communication channels. This may include a press release, website notifications, emails, voicemail messages, and social media posts.

Create an action plan.

Include all procedures and guidelines..

The action plan should contain the specific procedures that must be followed to get all business functions back to the minimum acceptable operating levels. The employees responsible for the recovery process (as listed in step 2) must have a list of clearly defined steps to follow.

Example of general steps:

  • Document losses and damages.
  • Identify what can be salvaged and where there are crucial gaps that take priority.
  • File insurance claims.
  • Execute communication strategy (e.g. communicate with employees, contact suppliers regarding the way forward, inform customers).
  • Implement temporary workarounds (e.g. transition employees to work remotely).
  • Track recovery and report progress.
  • Note what can be improved for future plans.

Review and update.

Regularly review and update your disaster recovery plan..

This is especially important if there are changes at your company, such as new suppliers and employees, changes to processes or product lines, or a change of location. Ensure that essential information and contact details are always up-to-date.

Financial Preparedness:

Identifying the necessary resources and assets required will give you an idea of the budget required to get back to normal operating levels as quickly as possible. While a comprehensive insurance policy may be in place, always plan for unexpected costs. Inform yourself about loans, grants, and other resources that may be accessible to you so you can react swiftly, should you need to.

In times of crisis, there are often specialized resources made available to help businesses recover. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, both private and government players made support and relief programs available.

What are the key elements of a disaster recovery plan?

  • Goals and objectives.

How do you create a disaster recovery plan?

  • Define goals and objectives .
  • Define employee roles and responsibilities .
  • List the assets and resources required for restoring normal business operations .
  • Review insurance policies .
  • Review document and data backup .
  • Create a communication plan .
  • Create an action plan with specific procedures to be followed .
  • Review and update the disaster recovery plan .

What is disaster recovery in information technology?

A disaster recovery plan in information technology is concerned with restoring a company's IT infrastructure following a disaster, such as a cyber attack or serv failure.

Related Articles:

Life-sustaining businesses, business continuity plan, essential businesses, recruiting strategies, developing an employee recruitment plan.

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Small Business Disaster Recovery Plan Template

Small Business Disaster Recovery Plan Template

What is a Small Business Disaster Recovery Plan?

A small business disaster recovery plan is a comprehensive set of strategies, policies, and procedures that help small businesses and startups prepare for and respond to disasters. It allows the business to maintain operations by minimizing the impact of events such as hurricanes, floods, fires, and other natural disasters. Having a plan in place is critical for any small business to ensure that it can continue to operate as normal, even in the face of a disaster.

What's included in this Small Business Disaster Recovery Plan template?

  • 3 focus areas
  • 6 objectives

Each focus area has its own objectives, projects, and KPIs to ensure that the strategy is comprehensive and effective.

Who is the Small Business Disaster Recovery Plan template for?

This Small Business Disaster Recovery Plan template is designed for small business owners and managers who are looking to plan and prepare for disasters and emergencies. It will help them to create a comprehensive plan that will help them to identify risks, develop strategies to mitigate those risks, and provide guidance to ensure that the business can continue to operate in the face of disaster.

1. Define clear examples of your focus areas

Focus areas are the main categories that you can use to organize your disaster recovery plan. Examples of focus areas may include areas such as Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, Employee Safety, Technology, and Operations. These focus areas will help you to organize your plan and to ensure that all areas of your business are covered.

2. Think about the objectives that could fall under that focus area

Objectives are the goals that you want to achieve within each focus area. These should be specific and measurable and should be linked to the overall goal of the business. Examples of objectives may include developing a disaster recovery plan, implementing a disaster recovery plan, establishing safety protocols, and implementing business continuity plans.

3. Set measurable targets (KPIs) to tackle the objective

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are measurable targets that you can use to track success and progress towards an objective. These should be measurable and should be linked to the overall goal of the business. Examples of KPIs may include the number of disaster recovery plans developed, the number of safety protocols implemented, and the number of business continuity plans implemented.

4. Implement related projects to achieve the KPIs

Projects, or actions, are the steps that you will take to achieve each KPI. These should be specific, measurable, and achievable and should be linked to the overall goal of the business. Examples of projects may include creating a strategic plan to prepare for disaster, establishing and documenting a disaster recovery plan, and establishing and documenting safety protocols.

5. Utilize Cascade Strategy Execution Platform to see faster results from your strategy

Cascade is a Strategy Execution Platform that helps businesses to plan, track, and measure the success of their strategies. With Cascade, you can easily create a disaster recovery plan, set measurable targets, and track progress towards your objectives. Cascade helps you to make sure that your disaster recovery plan is on track and that your business is prepared for any disaster or emergency.

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Article · Jan 28, 2019

9 steps to create a small business disaster recovery plan.

Don’t let a disaster suddenly render your business inoperable. Implement this 9-step disaster recovery plan before it’s too late.

simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

There’s nothing more frustrating than doing everything in your power to be successful, only to see forces out of your control—such as a hurricane, a fire or  cyberattack—suddenly render your business inoperable. What’s worse, disasters can have a devastating impact on small businesses. According to FEMA, between 40-60% of small businesses that suffer a disaster never reopen their doors, and 90% of small businesses that don’t reopen within five days of the catastrophe fail within a year. While larger companies have the time and resources to plan for and survive disasters, many small businesses have no plan in place for such a setback.

Therefore, it’s crucial that small business owners create and regularly update a disaster recovery plan. To avoid a business-breaking catastrophe, think of the following steps as a simple disaster recovery plan template.

1. Create an emergency response plan

When disaster strikes, what’s the first move? What steps should you and/or your employees take in the event of an emergency to stay safe? Once this has been determined, it’s important to decide what employees should do to prevent the loss of assets, inventory, and other property. There should also be a protocol of who to contact and in what order, including the authorities, yourself, and your security team (if you have one). Once you decide on and plan your protocol, assign responsibilities and hold regular training sessions so employees understand their duties.

2. Develop a business continuity plan

As noted above, resuming operations as soon as possible following a disaster should be considered essential.

A business continuity plan typically includes:

  • Business impact analysis (BIA): The goal of a BIA, conducted before a disaster occurs, is to better understand the effects of a disaster on your business. For example, what impact will there be as a result of certain types of disruptions? How will the timing of a disruption affect sales? In other words, a fire in a retail store before the holidays will have a much larger impact than one in February.
  • Recovery strategies: Based on your BIA, identify and document the resources necessary to lessen the impact of a disaster (e.g., data backups, duplicates of important records, contracting with third-party services that provide emergency relief) and conduct a gap analysis to understand what you need compared to what you actually have.
  • Plan development: Develop a framework for your plan, including assigning responsibilities to team members, codifying recovery procedures and developing workarounds for issues that arise as a result of loss of IT infrastructure.
  • Testing: Regular testing of business continuity plans is essential. If testing reveals a weakness in your plan, tweak it and re-test until you’re satisfied that your business will be able to resume operations quickly.

3. Review your insurance coverage

Insurance coverage is a must for any company, but not every kind of business insurance will be helpful in the event of a disaster. Review your current policy and ensure there are no gaps in coverage that could prevent you from collecting. For example, you should have sufficient coverage to pay for the indirect costs of a disaster (such as the disruption to your business) as well as the direct costs such as physical damages.

You can typically purchase additional insurance that protects your business against specific disaster risks in your area, like earthquakes or floods. You can also purchase add-ons that cover damages away from your premises, such as to your key suppliers.

4. Stockpile essential supplies

What will you, your employees, and your business need in the moments immediately following a disaster?

First, create emergency supply kits for your employees to grab in case of a disaster that threatens their physical safety, including bottled water, first aid, cash and device chargers.

Secondly, consider investing in backup systems that can get your business up and running immediately, like a secondary source of power or communications system.

5. Compile important contact information

Don’t wait until a disaster happens to hunt for key people and organizations to contact: Create a list now of who you should call after a disaster, including :

  • Your local emergency management agencies
  • Major clients and customers
  • Insurance agents
  • Insurance company claim representative

6. Create a communications strategy

When it comes to communicating with customers and clients about the state of your business, take every avenue possible. Go both low-tech – post notices outside your business, place a notice in the local paper, contact clients by phone – and high-tech by posting updates on all your social media channels and via your newsletter.

7. Report losses to the SBA

The Small Business Administration offers advice, access to resources, and aid to small businesses across the country – and that includes in the wake of disasters. Businesses of all sizes can borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery or equipment, and inventory. The SBA also offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans up to $2 million to meet working capital needs. 

If your business is in a declared disaster area, you can start the process of applying by visiting the SBA’s website .

8. Discuss logistics with your suppliers and clients

No business exists in a bubble: Your vendors or suppliers could also be affected by a disaster, disrupting your supply chain. Similarly, if you run a B2B business and act as a supplier to another company, your issues could cause problems for your clients.

Communicate with both ends of your supply chain about their own disaster preparedness and identify backup options so no dependent businesses are left high and dry. Unhappy clients may not return when you get back up and running but may be more likely to do so if you offer an alternative replacement supplier ahead of time.

9. Duplicate and backup records and data

You should have up-to-date duplicates of all your important records, contracts, and documents, and keep them off-site in a safe deposit box or secured in the cloud. Additionally, a backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solution can keep data safe from natural disasters as well as cyberattacks or hardware failure – by providing secure, continuous backup and rapid data restoration onsite and via the cloud. This is a good way to always keep your client’s important and sensitive data safe as well.

As a small business, disaster recovery plans can help to protect and insure yourself from the possibility of disaster. If you believe your business is at particular risk for disaster, you may consider enlisting the help of a disaster recovery consultant.

Investing your time and resources against a threat that may never come may feel like a waste – but each minute you spend preparing for a disaster is an hour you’ll save when issues do arise.

Need disaster recovery help?

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simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

Meredith Wood

Editor-in-Chief at Fundera

Meredith Wood is the Editor-in-Chief at Fundera, an online marketplace for small business financial solutions. Specializing in financial advice for small business owners, Meredith is a current and past contributor to Yahoo!, Amex OPEN Forum, Fox Business, SCORE, AllBusiness and more.

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simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

The 11 Best Free Disaster Recovery Plan Templates Online

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The Best Free Disaster Recovery Plan Templates Online

The editors at Solutions Review have compiled this list of the best free disaster recovery plan templates available online.

With cyber-attacks and natural disasters threatening your data at every turn, being prepared with a disaster recovery plan is your best defense. Having a plan can prevent debilitating data and financial loss and give you peace of mind while running your business. Creating a disaster recovery plan from scratch is a daunting task. Luckily, there are free examples of these plans online. Instead of having to search for one that works for you, the editors at Solutions Review have put together a record of the 11 best free disaster recovery plan templates online, listed below in no particular order.

The Best Free Disaster Recover Plan Templates Online

Search disaster recovery.

OUR TAKE:   Search Disaster Recovery offers a few different kinds of recovery plans, spanning business impact analysis, pandemic recovery, and business continuity. However, their IT disaster recovery plan offers a comprehensive step-by-step guide to prepare for the worst. In addition to step-by-step instructions, this template also helps practitioners to create their own table of contents for their disaster recovery plan, allowing them to easily identify key issues to address.

OUR TAKE:   IBM separates its plan into 13 sections of what is necessary for disaster recovery. If you feel confident in some areas, but less so in others, you can pick and choose which sections would be the most useful for you. IBM also offers examples of each section, enabling disaster recovery professionals to easily understand the best way to approach their recovery strategies. The 13 sections that make up this template include, major goals of a DR plan, personnel, application profile, disaster recovery procedures, and recovery plan for mobile sites, among others.

OUR TAKE:   Ontrack, a tech blog, posted their own disaster recovery plan template. It allows you to personalize your plan by filling out the template, while also offering tips in the headings of the subsections. With its template, Ontrack aims to help small businesses become comfortable with the building blocks of a disaster recovery plan and to think realistically about what it would take to resume normal business operations after a severe IT disaster.

Adams State College

OUR TAKE:  Adams State College has made its plan public online. While it applies to the college specifically, the plan is so extensive that anyone looking to create their own recovery plan could glean from it as an example. Though this template has not been updated for some time, it is still a comprehensive outline useful as a starting point for anyone beginning to develop a DR strategy

  • Disaster Recovery Plan Template

OUR TAKE:   Disaster Recovery Plan Template offers, as one would expect, disaster recovery plan templates. Their basic recovery plan provides templates to make the plan specific to your needs, as well as step-by-step instructions that apply to all businesses. The template was created through extensive research on disaster recovery planning and emergency management of records and information programs.

The Council on Foundations

OUR TAKE:   The Council on Foundations provides a template that is completely comprehensive; assigning disaster roles to employees based on their job, outlining business impact analysis, and building evacuation procedures. Additionally, the Council on Foundations also offers individual templates to use in conjunction with its full Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Plan.

SANS Institute

OUR TAKE:   SANS Institute has a plan that provides an outline of what should happen in a disaster situation. If you need light structure or something to fall back on when creating your own plan, this one would be helpful. The SANS Institute’s plan also provides a discussion of the culture and employee education surrounding disaster recovery and risk avoidance.

OUR TAKE: Evolve IP designed this template to help Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) practitioners with the process of capturing and organizing the critical information needed to ensure that IT operations are in a position to survive when a disruption occurs. This template is meant as a guide only. Users should review it carefully to determine whether it appropriately fits their specific needs.

Disaster Recovery Plan Templates

OUR TAKE: In addition to offering a basic disaster recovery plan, Disaster Recovery Plan Templates also offers a recovery plan specific to IT. This provides an outline of what should occur in IT should a disaster strike. The plan is divided up into 13 sections, which include determining the scope of your plan, definitions of disaster, framework design, administrative processes, and testing processes, among others.

Southern Oregon University

OUR TAKE: Like Adams State College, Southern Oregon University has a public disaster recovery plan . While again, this plan is specific to the university, it offers guidelines on how to handle disaster recovery. The university places emphasis on testing its plan, stating that it is reviewed and updated every year by IT staff, and then those updates are approved by the organization’s chief information officer.

DisasterRecovery.org

OUR TAKE:   DisasterRecovery.org offers a free disaster recovery plan template, as well as a business continuity plan template . Additionally, the site offers emergency management, incident management, and threat plans, as well as a look at a cloud-based disaster recovery solution. This makes it a perfect place for organizations in their nascent stages to start to prepare for a disaster.

Being prepared with a disaster recovery plan is one of the best ways to maintain business continuity and protect your data, so why not get a jump start on it for free? If you find a plan from this list, consult our Disaster Recovery as a Service Buyer’s Guide, Backup and Disaster Recovery Buyer’s Guide, or our Data Protection Vendor Map for more information on disaster recovery planning.

Download link to Data Protection Vendor Map

This article was written by Tess Hanna on June 1, 2022

  • Data Protection
  • Disaster Recovery as a Service
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Tess Hanna is an editor and writer at Solutions Review covering Backup and Disaster Recovery, Data Storage, Cloud Computing, and Network Monitoring. Recognized by Onalytica in the 2021 "Who's Who in Data Management," and "Who's Who in Automation" reports. You can contact her at [email protected]

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A simple backup and disaster recovery example plan for small businesses (with template)

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Updated August 14, 2023

If you’re a small business looking for a realistic, simple backup and disaster recovery plan, we can help. We’ll outline everything you need to know for backup and disaster recovery. And then we provide a sample plan template you can download to create your own backup and disaster recovery plan.

Over the years, we’ve helped hundreds of small businesses develop a workable, affordable and reliable backup and disaster recovery plan.

It’s an essential — but often overlooked — aspect of building a successful business. Recent reports show how businesses have been hit hard by power outages, ransomware attacks, natural disasters, and pandemics.

Proactively developing plans for business continuity as well as backup and disaster recovery is an investment that can protect your business’ revenue and reputation.

QUICK ANSWER:

What is backup and disaster recovery?

Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) is the process of planning for and recovering from incidents that affect IT systems and data. BDR involves creating, verifying, and storing backups, as well as ensuring that key systems can be accessed in the event of a physical or virtual disaster. BDR planning is one part of a business continuity plan .

Table of Contents

How to develop a backup and disaster recovery plan, example backup and disaster recovery plans.

In a hurry? Click here to download our simple and straightforward backup and discovery plan templates.

Backup and disaster recovery is a broad term that describes the processes and systems that protect data and services against loss and enable their recovery after an adverse event. This includes making backups, monitoring and verifying backups, and testing restore and recovery features to make sure they will work as expected. It can also include keeping spare hardware on hand, or even systems that allow for seamless, real-time failover from one system to another.

As we’ll discuss, the level of sophistication – and the expense – involved in backup and disaster recovery depends on the specific needs of your business.

Part of a Business Continuity Plan

simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

Understanding services and data

Data and services must be considered equally important when formulating a backup and disaster recovery plan. Data is the information you are working with. A service is the combination of hardware, software, configuration, and other details that make data available to a user or another service. Take examples of two adverse events: malicious data manipulation and network switch failure. If an attacker manipulates your data to render it unreliable, it does not matter if your users can access the data. Conversely, if you have reliable data stored on a server, but a network switch stops working, your users will not be able to do anything with it. These two examples help to illustrate that data and services are completely interdependent; both must remain available for your business to operate.

What’s the difference between backups and archives?

To make it more likely that data can be fully restored, copies of important data are made. Backups are copies of current working data taken at regular intervals and stored in a way that makes them accessible relatively quickly. How they are made and where they are stored will depend on the system and data. Archives are copies of data meant for long-term storage; this can be for compliance and regulatory purposes or to recover from a failure of both the primary system and backups. Restoring from an archive may take longer because of its size or format.

What is disaster recovery?

Meanwhile, disaster recovery aims for full restoration of services usually with a target recovery time. In addition to having working backups, disaster recovery involves having the resources needed to keep your services running. For example, it may include having a spare server or network switch on hand , a backup power source, or a secondary internet connection .

In addition, some infrastructure techniques can increase reliability and reduce recovery times. Two such techniques include failover and fault-tolerance. A failover, or high availability, system shares resources in order to meet an acceptable amount of downtime. On the other hand, fault-tolerant systems use redundant systems to guarantee no downtime at all.

Importantly, these techniques are primarily intended to maintain service availability. They do not necessarily protect against data loss, nor do they protect against all possible failures. For example, a fire or flood can destroy all the shared resources or redundant systems located in a single physical location. Or, failure of a key component could inadvertently overload other parts of the system, causing a larger cascading effect.

Cloud service considerations

simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

Get the Simple Backup and Discovery Plan Template

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Backup and disaster recovery is complicated for small businesses — but we’ve made it easy to get started with our free backup and discovery planning guide and template. Click below to get your copy.

First, fill out the Planning Guide to identify the threats facing your business and the IT systems that you need to protect. Then, fill out one BDR Plan Template for each service or system you identified.

Don’t have time to fill out the templates right now? Enter your email address (totally optional!) and we’ll send you a link so you can download it later or share it with your team.

Building a backup and disaster recovery plan can be divided into several steps. They are 1) identify key systems, 2) set recovery time objectives, 3) identify where and how your data is stored, 4) set recovery point objectives, 5) determine archival requirements, 6) identify failure modes and recovery paths, 7) and testing. Let’s briefly review what is involved in each.

Identify key systems and services

The first step in building your disaster recovery plan (BDR) is  identifying your key systems and services  and their dependencies. Maybe information passes through multiple applications as you work on it, or applications update one another with changes. Perhaps you have machinery that is controlled by a workstation with a specific combination of hardware and software. Even logging onto your workstations is likely dependent on being connected to a domain controller server. Documenting these dependencies helps avoid longer recovery times that result from overlooking essential pieces of your services.

Determine recovery time objectives

Second, you will need to  determine your recovery time objective (RTO) . This is a target for how quickly key services should be fully operational following a disaster. It will be influenced by the cost of downtime for each system as well as what you can budget for disaster recovery. Fault-tolerant and failover systems are the most expensive BDR options. A less expensive and fairly standard target recovery timeframe is 1 business day; this is the default RTO included in ENC’s backup and disaster recovery plan. And in the middle range for cost, you have recovery times of a few hours.

Identifying data locations & types

simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

Selecting the right backup and restore solution is a balancing act. Backing up your data on-site requires additional storage capacity on your network. It may require an upfront investment in storage devices and spare hard disks. You can calculate how much storage is needed by multiplying the amount of data to back up by your backup interval and retention period. For example, 50GB of full backups once daily for a month could require as much as 2TB of backup storage space.

Backing up offsite incurs a subscription fee for online storage based on the amount of storage you use. It also uses internet bandwidth; depending on the size and frequency of your backups, a dedicated internet connection may be necessary. In both cases, backups travel over your internal network. This may require additional investment so that network performance is not impacted.

Recovery point objectives

Fourth,  set the recovery point objective (RPO)  for each service. The RPO describes how much data loss is acceptable, which determines the frequency of your backups. If absolutely no data loss is acceptable, all changes have to be replicated immediately; this requires very expensive solutions that are usually only seen at the enterprise level. Intraday backups, taken on some hourly interval, are likewise quite expensive. For most small businesses, E-N Computers recommends daily backups of the past 30 days for a balance of affordability and limited data loss.

Archiving data

Fifth,  determine your archival requirements . For some businesses, having the last 30 days of working files is enough; this is included in ENC’s standard plan. We can also include periodic archival of this data, such as archiving last year’s accounting data at the start of a new year. However, for regulatory and compliance reasons, archives going further back may be necessary. The cost of these archives will increase with how frequently they are created (i.e., each week, month, quarter, or year) and how far back they go.

Creating the backup plan

Two lawyers sitting and talking at a desk

  • Accounting  data needs to be backed up  daily . These backups should be available for the past  30 days .
  • Archives of this data should be created  quarterly and should be available for  seven years .
  • Backups should be stored  on-site,  and archives should be stored  off-site .

When deciding on the frequency of your backups, keep in mind that more frequent intervals require additional resources. These include processing power, disk space, disk speed, internal network bandwidth, and internet bandwidth in the case of off-site backups. This may require more advanced engineering, introduce complexity, and significantly increase both the initial and ongoing costs of your BDR solution.

Failure modes and recovery paths

The sixth step in developing your BDR is  identifying failure modes and recovery paths . During this stage, the goal is to document various adverse events and how to go about recovering from them.

Failure modes can be grouped into several categories: equipment, service, environmental, cybersecurity, and internal. For example:

  • An equipment failure could include a server’s power supply dying or a network switch becoming non-functional.
  • Service failures run the gamut from an internet outage to a web application shutting down or a cloud provider terminating your account.
  • Environmental failures include natural disasters, flood, fire, and burglary.
  • Cybersecurity failures might be a ransomware attack, someone gaining unauthorized access to your systems, or one of your cloud service providers being hacked.
  • Finally, there are internal threats to consider. Data may be deleted either maliciously or accidentally; simple mistakes or misconfigurations could also result in data loss.

When considering potential scenarios, also estimate the likelihood of each compared to the potential impact. For example, equipment failures are relatively common, but modern redundant hardware can minimize the impact of many types of failures. A fire or flood may be rare, but its impact on your business could be catastrophic.

After coming up with a list of scenarios and their likeliness, you are ready to plan how you will recover from each. Keeping spares of critical equipment on site can help reduce recovery time.

Though this can apply to other equipment, let’s use storage as an example. In a network attached storage (NAS) device, drives can be grouped and configured to improve reliability. The NAS may also have room for a hot spare; when one of the active drives begins to degrade, the NAS automatically begins copying its data to this spare so that the eventual drive failure is less likely to cause a business interruption.

In other designs, it can be more practical to keep a cold spare on hand that is manually installed after a failure and may require a reboot for proper configuration. Without spares, you may be left waiting weeks or longer for critical equipment, or you may discover that a part is no longer available. Spares can be a more affordable form of redundancy.

Geo-redundancy is also available, but it is complex and expensive. With geo-redundancy, you have a duplicate system ready to go that is hosted in another region of the country or world. This is particularly useful if environmental failures like fire, flood, extended power outages, or natural disasters are a prominent concern. If your primary system fails, the duplicate can be manually set up to take over the workload. A more advanced setup can detect when your primary system goes down and automatically reroute to the redundant system.

Testing backups and disaster recovery

The seventh and final stage, after all your backup and disaster recovery plans have been implemented, is  testing . The only thing worse than no backup is a bad backup.

In most cases, a partial restore from your backups is sufficient to verify that it will work when you need it; this is what ENC includes in our managed services. A full restoration and disaster recovery drill is considerably more expensive but will need to be done for complex recovery scenarios that depend on automated failover systems to work correctly.

Compiling your BDR plan

To make compiling all the information you need for your BDR plan easier, we have prepared two templates for you. The Backup and Disaster Recovery Planning Guide will help you evaluate the overall risks and recovery paths that your business needs to plan for. Then, complete one BDR Plan Template for each service or system that needs to be backed up. It will walk you through determining the best backup, archive, and recovery options for each critical part of your IT infrastructure. Your plan should be reviewed and updated annually so that it continues to meet business needs.

guy-on-computer-testing-a-system

Platinum Tier

Who it’s for:  Large enterprises with over $1 billion in annual revenue

Downtime costs:  $2,000 or more per minute

What it includes:  Fully redundant infrastructure in high-end datacenters in multiple regions; real-time or hourly data replication; recovery points going back months or years

Costs:  If you have to ask, you don’t want to know.

Who it’s for:  Medium enterprises with between $50 million and $1 billion in annual revenue

Downtime costs:  $5,000 to $10,000 per hour

What it includes:  Fully redundant infrastructure, but not geo-redundant; real-time or hourly on-site backups; daily off-site backups; long-term off-site archiving

Costs:  $100,000 to $1 million annually in expenses and capital expenditures

Silver Tier

Who it’s for:  Small enterprises with between $10 million and $50 million in annual revenue

Downtime costs:  $30,000 to $100,000 per day

What it includes:  Mostly redundant infrastructure, but not geo-redundant; hourly or twice daily on-site backups; archiving of key data

Costs:  $10,000 to $100,000 annually in expenses and capital expenditures

Bronze Tier

Who it’s for:  Small business with less than $10 million in annual revenue

Downtime costs:  $3,000 to $30,000 per day

What it includes:  Spares of basic server hardware like disks and power supplies; daily on-site and off-site backups going back 30 days; most recovery requires manual intervention

Costs:  less than $10,000 per year (included with ENC managed services)

Next steps: Backups and disaster recovery planning

READ:   What is the Cost of Downtime for Small Businesses in 2023?

DOWNLOAD: Backup and Disaster Recovery Planning Guide and Template

Building a backup and disaster recovery plan from nothing can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Experts at E-N Computers can help you set up and manage it along with other aspects of your business IT so that you can focus on your core operations. Unexpected system failures are not completely avoidable, but by proactively developing a BDR plan, you strengthen your business position and minimize potential disruption. To learn about how disruptions and downtime can affect your bottom line, read the article  What is the Cost of Downtime for Small Businesses in 2023?

If you are ready to create a plan, download the linked templates and get started. If you have questions about E-N Computers managed IT services, which include basic backup and disaster recovery, please  contact us . We look forward to talking with you.

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How to Write a Disaster Recovery Plan + Template

Table of Contents

What is a disaster recovery plan?

Disaster recovery plan vs business continuity plan, what are the measures included in a disaster recovery plan, how to write a disaster recovery plan, disaster recovery plan template, disaster recovery plan examples, how secureframe can help your disaster recovery planning efforts.

simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

  • July 27, 2023

Anna Fitzgerald

Senior Content Marketing Manager at Secureframe

Cavan Leung

Senior Compliance Manager at Secureframe

A study found that only 54% of organizations have a company-wide disaster recovery plan in place. This percentage is even lower for government IT departments (36%) despite the proliferation of ransomware and other cyber threats. 

Not having a documented disaster recovery plan can seriously hamper an organization’s ability to recover lost data and restore its critical systems. This can result in significantly higher financial losses and reputational damage.

To help ensure your organization can recover from disaster as swiftly and easily as possible, learn what exactly a disaster recovery plan is and how to write one. Plus, find some examples and a template to help get you started.

A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a document that outlines the procedures an organization will follow to recover and restore its critical systems, operations, and data after a disaster. Examples of disasters that may disrupt the continuity of product or service delivery are natural disasters, cyber attacks, hardware failures, and human errors. 

In planning for disaster recovery, what is the ultimate goal?

The ultimate goal of disaster recovery planning is to minimize the impact of a disaster, and ensure business continuity.

Having a disaster recovery plan in place that is well-designed and regularly maintained can help organizations:

  • minimize downtime
  • reduce financial losses
  • protect critical data
  • resume operations quickly 
  • provide peace of mind for employees

A disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan both take a proactive approach to minimize the impact of a disaster before it occurs and may even be combined into a single document as a result. 

However, the key difference is that a disaster recovery plan focuses on limiting abnormal or inefficient system function by restoring it as quickly as possible after a disaster, whereas a business continuity plan focuses on limiting operational downtime by maintaining operations during a disaster. 

In other words, a disaster recovery strategy helps to ensure an organization returns to full functionality after a disaster occurs whereas a business continuity plan helps an organization to keep operating at some capacity during a disaster. That’s why organizations need to have both documents in place, or need to incorporate disaster recovery strategies as part of their overall business continuity plan. 

Recommended reading

simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

How to Write a Business Continuity Plan & Why It’s Important for a SOC 2 Audit [+ Template]

Just as no two businesses are the same, no two disaster recovery plans are. However, they do typically include some common measures. These are detailed below.

  • Data backup and recovery

A section of a DRP should be dedicated to data backup and recovery. This should list backup methods, frequency of backups, the storage locations, and the procedures for data restoration.

  • Redundant systems and infrastructure

Another section may explain how the organization implements redundant systems and infrastructure to ensure high availability and minimize downtime if a disaster occurs. This may involve duplicating critical servers, network equipment, power supplies, and storage devices using clustering, load balancing, failover mechanisms, virtualization technologies, or other measures. 

Alternate worksite

A DRP may identify alternative worksites or recovery locations where the organization can operate if the primary site becomes inaccessible. This section should also define procedures and infrastructure needed to quickly transition operations to the identified alternate sites.

  • Communication and notification

Another part of DRP may define communication protocols and notification procedures to ensure communication during and after a disaster. Protocols and procedures typically include:

  • notifying employees, customers, vendors, and stakeholders about the disaster
  • providing updates on recovery progress
  • maintaining contact information for key personnel and emergency services

Recovery objectives

A DRP may set acceptable time frames for recovering systems and data in terms of recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO). These objectives should be based on the criticality of systems and shape recovery strategies accordingly. 

  • RTO : The maximum amount of downtime allowed
  • RPO : The maximum loss of data accepted (measured in time)

simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

The 10 Most Important Cybersecurity Metrics & KPIs for CISOs to Track

Writing and maintaining a disaster recovery plan requires collaboration and coordination among key stakeholders across an organization and can seem intimidating. Below we’ll outline the process step by step to help you get started. 

simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

1. Define the plan’s objectives and scope

To start, define the objectives and scope of your disaster recovery plan.

Objectives may include:

  • safeguarding employees’ lives and company assets
  • making a financial and operational assessment
  • securing data
  • quickly recovering operations

Next, identify what and who the plan applies. Typically, assets utilized by employees and contractors acting on behalf of the company or accessing its applications, infrastructure, systems, or data fall within the scope of the disaster recovery plan. In this case, employees and contractors are required to review and accept the plan. 

2. Perform a risk assessment

Identify potential risks and vulnerabilities that could lead to a disaster, both internal and external to the organization. This should involve evaluating your reliance on external vendors and suppliers for critical services or resources and assessing their own disaster recovery capabilities to ensure they align with your organization's requirements.

3. Perform a business impact analysis

Next, determine the business functions, processes, systems, and data that are essential for your organization's operations. For each critical component, establish recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives. 

4. Define recovery measures and procedures

Define the appropriate measures and step-by-step procedures for disaster recovery based on the risks and business impact you identified. This includes identifying the individuals or teams responsible for recovery tasks, the resources required, and the order of recovery tasks.

As stated above, these recovery tasks may fall into the following categories:

  • Alternative worksite

You may also want to outline emergency procedures. These are the actions that should be taken during and immediately after a disaster occurs, and may include evacuation plans and communication protocols and coordination with emergency services.

5. Conduct testing and training regularly

Regularly test the disaster recovery plan to ensure its effectiveness and identify any potential gaps or weaknesses. Conduct training sessions for employees to familiarize them with their roles and responsibilities during a disaster.

6. Review and update the plan regularly

Review and update the disaster recovery plan periodically to incorporate changes in technology, business operations, and potential risks. Ensure that contact information, system configurations, and other relevant details are up to date.

Use this template to kick off your disaster recovery planning and customize it based on your organization's specific risks and objectives.

simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

Below you can find examples of disaster recovery strategies and procedures from disaster recovery plans created and maintained by universities and other organizations. This should help you in brainstorming and documenting your own recovery strategies and plans for different services, environments, and types of disasters. 

1. IT disaster recovery plan

Southern Oregon University has a comprehensive disaster recovery plan specifically for its IT services because they are so heavily relied upon by faculty, staff, and students. There are disaster recovery processes and procedures outlined for various IT services and infrastructure, including its data center, network infrastructure, enterprise systems, desktop hardware, client applications, classrooms, and labs. 

Some of the IT disaster recovery processes and procedures outlined in the plan are:

  • Secure facility as necessary to prevent personnel injury and further damage to IT systems.
  • Coordinate hardware and software replacement with vendors
  • Verify operational ability of all equipment on-site in the affected area (servers, network equipment, ancillary equipment, etc.). If equipment is not operational, initiate actions to repair or replace as needed.
  • If the data center is not operational or recoverable, contact personnel responsible for the alternate data center and take necessary steps to ready the facility.
  • Retrieve most recent on-site or off-site back-up media for previous three back-ups. Prepare back-up media for transfer to primary or secondary datacenter, as determined during the initial assessment.

2. AWS disaster recovery plan

AWS walks through disaster recovery options in the cloud in this whitepaper . It explains four primary approaches to cloud disaster recovery:

  • Backup and restor e: Backup the data, infrastructure, configuration, and application code of your primary Region and redeploy them in the recovery Region. This is the least costly and complex approach. 
  • Pilot light : Replicate your data from one Region to another and provision a copy of your core workload infrastructure so that you can quickly provision a full scale production environment by switching on and scaling out your application servers if a disaster occurs. This simplifies recovery at the time of a disaster and also minimizes the ongoing cost of disaster recovery by “switching off” some resources until they’re needed.
  • Warm standby : Create and maintain a scaled down, but fully functional, copy of your production environment in another Region. This decreases the time to recovery compared to the pilot light approach, but is more costly because it requires more active resources.  
  • Multi-site active/active : Run your workload simultaneously in multiple Regions so users are able to access your workload in any of the Regions in which it is deployed, which reduces your recovery time to near zero for most disasters. This is the most costly and complex approach. 

3. Data center disaster recovery plan

The University of Iowa also has a comprehensive disaster recovery plan , which includes several processes and procedures for recovering from a disaster that affects its data center. Some of these include: 

  • Have large tarps or plastic sheeting available in the data center ready to cover sensitive electronic equipment in case the building is damaged due to natural disasters like tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes.
  • If replacement equipment is required, make every attempt to replicate the current system configuration.
  • If data is lost, then request that the IT department recover it from an off-site backup or cloud deep archive storage.

Secureframe’s automation compliance platform and in-house compliance expertise can help ensure your organization has the policies, controls, and expertise in place to protect systems proactively from business disaster and to recover if they do occur. Request a demo to learn how.

What are the 5 steps of disaster recovery planning?

The five steps of disaster recovery planning are prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. That means when planning, you should identify measures and actions to:

  • avoid or prevent a disaster from occurring
  • reduce the chances of a disaster occurring or the impact of it
  • enhance your ability to respond when a disaster occurs
  • be carried out immediately before, during, and after a disaster
  • restore your business operations as quickly as possible

What are the 4 C's of disaster recovery?

The 4 C's of disaster recovery are communication, coordination, collaboration, and cooperation. Below are brief definitions of each:

  • Communication  - developing and maintaining effective channels for sharing information before, during, and after disasters
  • Coordination  - aligning actions to other parts of an organization or other organization to prepare for and respond to disasters
  • Cooperation  - working with internal or external parties that share the same goal (ie. responding to and recovering from disasters) and strategies for achieving it
  • Collaboration - partnering with internal or external parties to identify challenges and responsibilities to recover from a disaster as quickly as possible

What are the three types of disaster recovery plans?

Disaster recover plans can be tailored to different services, environments, and types of disasters. So types of disaster recovery plans include ones for IT services, data centers, and cloud environments.

How do you create a good disaster recovery plan?

Creating a good disaster recovery plan requires a few key steps such as:

  • Performing a risk assessment and business impact analysis
  • Setting objectives, including recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO)
  • Creating an inventory of critical assets
  • Defining data backup requirements and recovery strategies
  • Establishing alternate communication methods
  • Assigning specific roles and responsibilities

What are the key elements of a disaster recovery plan?

Key elements of a disaster recovery plan are:

  • Objectives and goals
  • Recovery measures and procedures
  • Testing processes
  • A communication plan
  • Defined disaster recovery stages

Free Business Continuity Plan Templates

By Andy Marker | October 23, 2018

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In this article, you’ll find the most useful free, downloadable business continuity plan (BCP) templates, in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and PDF formats. Customize the templates to fit the needs of your business, ensuring you maintain critical operations at all times.

Included on this page, you’ll find a business continuity plan template , a small business continuity plan template , a business continuity framework template , and more.

Business Continuity Plan Template

Business Continuity Plan Template

Download Business Continuity Plan Template

Word | PowerPoint | PDF  | Smartsheet

Use this template to document and track your business operations in the event of a disruption or disaster to maintain critical processes. With space to record business function recovery priorities, recovery plans, and alternate site locations, this template allows you to plan efficiently for disruption and minimize downtime, so your business maintains optimal efficiency. This template is available for download in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and PDF formats.

Additionally, you can learn the definition of a business continuity plan, the steps involved in business continuity planning, as well as about the business continuity lifecycle in our article about business continuity planning .

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IT Service Continuity Plan Template

IT Service Continuity Plan template

Download IT Service Continuity Plan Template

This template is geared specifically to IT business operations and aims to maintain IT processes despite any possible harmful disruption. Use this template to document recovery objectives, teams, and strategies in order to accurately capture all facets of the continuity plan needed for an IT team. This template is available in both Word and PDF formats.

Business Continuity Framework Template

Business Continuity Framework Template

Download Business Continuity Framework Template

Word | PowerPoint | PDF

This template outlines the structure involved in creating a business continuity plan. It provides an easy, comprehensive way to detail the steps that will comprise your unique BCP. Use this template to plan each phase of a typical BCP, including the business impact analysis, recovery strategies, and plan development. This template can serve as an overall framework for your larger BCP plan.

Business Continuity Program Template

Business Continuity Program template

Download Business Continuity Program Template

Similar to the business continuity plan template, this template documents the steps involved in maintaining normal business operations during an unplanned disruption or disaster. Using this template, you can plan out the critical elements needed to continue business as usual, including recovery priorities, backup and restoration plans, and alternate site locations. This template is available for download in both Microsoft Word and PDF formats.

Business Continuity Procedure Template

Business Continuity Procedure Template

Download Business Continuity Procedure Template

Much like the business continuity framework template, this template helps users create a thorough, streamlined BCP by detailing the procedure involved in creating and maintaining a plan, as well as implementing one. Use this template to document everything from a business impact analysis to plan development, plan testing, and exercises. Download this template in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or PDF to get started.

Business Continuity Plan Template for Nonprofits

Business Continuity Plan Template For Nonprofits

Download Business Continuity Plan Template for Nonprofits

In the event of a disruption in business that affects your nonprofit organization, use this template to document a business recovery strategy, identify alternate business locations, and effectively plan for inevitable business downtime. This template is available for download in Microsoft Word and PDF formats.

School Business Continuity Plan Template

School Business Continuity Plan Template

Download School Business Continuity Plan Template

Plan for disruptions in regular school activities and operations in the event of emergency or crisis with this helpful template. This template, designed with schools, colleges, and universities in mind, allows you to prioritize operations and responses, identify important phases of recovery, design a restoration plan, and more.

Small Business Continuity Plan Template

Small Business Continuity Plan Template

Download Small Business Continuity Plan Template

Record your business recovery priorities, identify alternate site locations to conduct business, create recovery teams, and assign recovery responsibilities to specific team members with this continuity plan for small businesses. Ensure that you are able to maintain critical processes and minimize downtime so your business can keep moving forward.

SaaS Business Continuity Plan Template

SaaS Business Continuity Plan Template

Download SaaS Business Continuity Plan Template

Use this business continuity plan template to keep your SaaS business productive and efficient, despite any unforeseen events or disruptions. With space to record everything from recovery procedures and strategies to relocation strategies and alternate site locations, you’ll be able to keep business moving and remain productive during a crisis or disruption.

Business Continuity Plan Template for Medical Practices

Business Continuity Plan Template For Medical Practices

Download Business Continuity Plan Template for Medical Practices

Identify risk strategies for specific areas of business, like clinical, finance and operations, and IT, designate specific recovery strategies, and prioritize the most important, mission-critical operations for your medical practice with this complete business continuity plan template.

Business Continuity Plan Template for Healthcare Organizations

Business Continuity Plan Template for Healthcare Organizations Template

Download Business Continuity Plan Template for Healthcare Organizations

Some businesses, like healthcare organizations, rely on critical processes and procedures to maintain productivity and keep both patients and staff safe. To ensure these processes are followed — even during a business disruption — use this business continuity plan template to identify all potential risks, create mitigation plans, and assign tasks to key team members.

Activities to Complete Before Writing the Business Continuity Plan

Certain steps can help you prepare to write a business continuity plan. See our article on how to write a business continuity plan to learn more.

Common Structure of a Business Continuity Plan

Every business continuity plan should include certain common elements. See our article on how to write a business continuity plan to learn more.

Tips For Writing Your Business Continuity Plan

Business continuity experts have gathered time-tested tips for business continuity planning. See our article on how to write a business continuity plan to learn more.

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Plan Templates

13+ sample disaster recovery plan templates.

A disaster recovery plan is a documented process or set of procedures that help in the recovery or protection of a particular business firm during an unfortunate disaster. Such plans are ordinarily documented in a written form so that it is easy for others to find and understand. These plan templates are immensely helpful, and through them, you can properly deal with an emergency so that there would be minimal damage on the business front.

simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

Disaster Recovery Plan Template

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Disaster Recovery Plan Template For Small Business

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Sample IT Disaster Recovery Plan Template

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Business Disaster Recovery Plan Template

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Network Disaster Recovery Plan Example Template

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Why You Need A Disaster Recovery Plan?

Local television station disaster recovery plan template.

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Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan Template

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Sample Post-Disaster Recovery Plan

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Sample Data Center Disaster Recovery Example

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Technology Disaster Response and Recovery Planning

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Sample Earthquake Disaster Recovery Plan

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Mission Disaster Recovery Plan Template

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simple disaster recovery plan template for small business

A Simple Disaster Recovery Plan For Your Small Business

By Michael Shapiro | October 31, 2019

When you’re running a business, there’s no shortage of things to worry about – competitors, customers, inventory, staffing — and a whole lot of other day-to-day worries. According to a recent insurance report, the top three “big picture” small business risks are :

  • Liability risks
  • Property risks
  • Business interruption risks  

If you think about it, any major natural disaster – flood, hurricane, earthquake, wildfire – could instantly hit your business with two of the three. Of course, that’s the key… thinking about it ahead of time.

It’s all about planning

To paraphrase Rocky Balboa…

“It’s not about how hard you get hit… it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward.”

A recent global survey by DRI International said that a “lack of crisis management expertise among top executives” was the leading risk for organizations in 2019 .

Here are three quick articles from our friends at the SBA (Small Business Administration) and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) that we highly recommend for all small business owners, to help make sure you’re ready if… or when disaster strikes:

  • “ Seven Ways to Start Your Business Continuity Plan ” – simple steps to take before disaster happens
  • “ Small Business Natural Disaster Checklist ” – a quick one-sheet with the necessary contact information you should have in one place
  • “ Preparedness Checklist and Tools ” – a laundry list of information you can use to assess your readiness and outlines of the necessary steps you should take before and after an emergency.  

There is financial help available

After a disaster strikes, there are places you can turn for the funds you need to bounce back. In FY 2018, the SBA, for example, processed 49,300 business disaster loan applications. It can be a little confusing, since the Small Business Administration doesn’t actually provide funding to small businesses – but what it does do is guarantee up to 85% of the SBA disaster loan amount so the risk to lenders is lower and the borrower’s chance of approval is higher.

If you don’t have the assets to use as collateral for a disaster loan, you can look into an unsecured emergency loan – emergency loans that don’t require borrowers to use assets as security.

If you don’t have one already, you should check with your local bank about a business line of credit – a flexible way to get necessary funds in the best of times, it can be a real business-saver in bad times.  

The time to plan is now

Surviving a disaster is all about having a disaster recovery plan in place in that will get you back in business – fast! According to FEMA, 90% of businesses that don’t reopen within five days of a disaster will fail within a year.

Check out the links above and take the steps you need to prepare for a disaster – a few simple steps before a disaster strikes can make all the difference after one hits your business.

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Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery: Key Differences

Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery, what are the key differences? This article reviews differences in priorities, timing, scope, and how these two plans overlap.

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he upheaval of the past few years has illustrated how important it is for businesses to prepare for all types of unexpected events. Natural disasters, public health emergencies, and malware can all potentially interrupt your business operations. While you can’t always prevent these types of disruptions, you can minimize their impact by developing strategic plans to keep your core business functions going even under adverse circumstances.

Business continuity and disaster recovery are terms that people often use interchangeably when discussing preparedness. However—while there is an overlap between the two ideas—each one addresses different aspects of handling business disruptions. This guide outlines the similarities and differences in business continuity vs. disaster recovery so you can develop a plan for both.

What is business continuity?

A business continuity plan outlines how you can keep your business running during a disaster or disruption. It’s not a plan to fix the underlying cause; instead, it’s focused on staying open so you can continue serving customers and generating revenue .

The pandemic disrupted business on a massive scale. Businesses that adjusted quickly were able to pivot and come out on the other side more resilient and profitable . Milwaukee Food and Tours temporarily changed its business model from offering in-person tours to delivering customized gift baskets, for example. Innovative Fitness made the shift from offering personal training in gyms to online sessions that focused on working out at home.

What is disaster recovery?

A disaster recovery plan outlines how you can identify and fix the source of the emergency. In some cases, such as a pandemic or hurricane, you can’t address the underlying cause alone. In others, such as a bug in your codebase, your internal team can fix it. Either way, you should have a plan in place to deal with elements that are within your control.

Cyberattacks are the most likely type of disaster modern businesses will face. Although you can and should take steps to protect your IT systems and data, even large corporations with almost-unlimited resources such as Microsoft experience cyberattacks. A business disaster recovery plan will help you mitigate the damage from all types of disasters, regardless of what caused them.

Key differences between business continuity and disaster recovery

It’s easy to mix up business continuity and disaster recovery plans because they’re both implemented in the event of a business catastrophe. However, understanding the differences between them will help you create more effective plans.

A business continuity plan prioritizes staying open for business and minimizing the impact of the disaster on daily business operations. A disaster recovery plan prioritizes dealing with the disaster itself and getting your systems back to their baseline as soon as possible.

A business continuity plan goes into effect as soon as you realize your business is going to be affected by a critical event. Your continuity plan comes first. The disaster recovery plan will come later, usually after the emergency has passed.

Business continuity is broader in scope than disaster recovery. It includes all factors that contribute to running your business, from back-end components such as your supply chain to front-end considerations such as staffing. A disaster recovery plan is more narrowly focused on restoring the elements that were damaged, such as your data and IT systems.

How a business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan overlap

Despite their differences, there are also many ways that continuity and disaster recovery plans overlap. Understanding how they overlap can help you save time when you’re creating them. A business continuity plan should include your disaster recovery plan since it’s a comprehensive plan for responding to all aspects of business disruption.

Both plans require proactive risk analysis to identify potential threats and how they'll impact your business operations. You’ll also need to detail roles, policies, and procedures for both. Once you’ve implemented your plans, they need to be regularly evaluated and tested.

What to include in a business continuity plan

Your business continuity plan will be unique to the needs of your business. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. However, there are some elements that should be included in every business continuity plan .

Administrative details

The first part of your plan should include the purpose and objective of your plan as well as a detailed breakdown of your timeline and budget.

The governance section includes the names, roles, and contact information for everyone on the business continuity team. Outline who is responsible for what and whom each team member is accountable to.

Risk analysis and impact

This section will require research into the types of disasters that may occur in your industry or geographic location. While you’ll want to flesh out more common crises such as a cyberattack or banking fraud , you should also think about how rare events, such as a pandemic, could affect your business. Consider how each one could interfere with business operations, including what areas will be impacted.

Preventive and responsive strategies and procedures

Building on your risk analysis, you’ll be able to determine what your preventive and responsive strategies should be. Simply being aware of the possibilities may help you implement strategies that can prevent some types of disasters. For example, nearly 73% of small businesses in the U.S. have experienced a cyberattack. Cybersecurity awareness training can help your staff avoid falling for the most common types of cyberattacks and head off a catastrophe.

However, there’s no way to prevent all disasters, so you need to include detailed procedures for responding to and recovering from crises when they do occur.

Training and testing

Include a section that covers how you’ll train your staff and test your plan. Training plans should be tailored to each role. Your response team will need more detailed training, but everyone should receive basic disaster preparedness training.

Your plan should also include testing scenarios, from tabletop exercises to full-scale drills. As part of your testing procedures, evaluate your response and incorporate your insights into your plan.

What to include in a disaster recovery plan

Your disaster recovery plan is part of the responsive procedures included in your business continuity plan. It should be focused on identifying what elements of your business—particularly IT resources—will need to be restored in the event of a crisis and the procedures for doing so. It should include the following elements:

  • A comprehensive list of all your IT assets, including data backups
  • Your top-priority resources that need to be restored first
  • Procedures for restoring critical systems
  • Backup plans and procedures
  • Training and testing plans

Planning for how your business will deal with unexpected emergencies can help you recover quickly and stay in business longer. Hopefully, you’ll never need to use your plans, but in today’s turbulent business landscape, it’s better to be prepared. One critical aspect of emergency planning is having backups for all of your critical data.

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  5. 52 Effective Disaster Recovery Plan Templates [DRP] ᐅ TemplateLab

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  6. 10+ Disaster Plan Templates

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COMMENTS

  1. Free Disaster Recovery Plan Templates

    This disaster recovery communication plan template will help you identify the core communications across team members in the event of a disaster. This template provides space to assign responsibilities, identify stakeholders, and set up a proper response plan. This template is available in both Microsoft Word and PDF formats.

  2. Recover from disasters

    The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) network has a Business Resiliency Plan Template that you may find useful. Additional resources The SBDC network is the largest SBA-funded Resource Partner and provides one-on-one business advising at no cost to entrepreneurs.

  3. Small Businesses Should Have a Disaster Recovery Plan [Free

    Download Our Free Disaster Recovery Plan Template About 75% of small businesses do not have a disaster recovery plan in place, according to Nationwide. If you're a small business owner who doesn't have the money to hire an external firm to create a plan, you can create your own. Begin by analyzing the following:

  4. Develop a Disaster Recovery Plan for Small Business

    Developing the Disaster Recovery Plan. Now that we've covered the basics of a disaster recovery plan, risk assessment, and assembling a disaster recovery team, it's time to focus on developing the actual recovery plan. Here's a straightforward, step-by-step guide to help you create an effective disaster recovery plan for your small business:

  5. Free disaster recovery planning templates

    Disaster recovery templates can help with everything from preparing an IT risk assessment -- to mapping out the details needed in disaster recovery plans, such as key contacts information, step-by-step service resumption activities, delivery and recovery from off-site data backups and more.

  6. Disaster Recovery Plan Template

    Our disaster recovery plan template will help you create an effective disaster recovery plan for your organization. 1. Disaster Recovery Plan Goal The goal of this disaster recovery plan is: To protect [Sender.Company] 's core operations. To ensure that critical business functions continue in the event of a disruption.

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    — Getty Images/Charli Bandit It's not always possible to avoid the business fallout of a disaster like a pandemic, earthquake, or cybersecurity breach. But you can build a recovery plan to get your business up and running ASAP. Here are six steps you can take to get started.

  8. Disaster Recovery Plan

    Disaster Recovery Plan Template: Use our disaster recovery plan template in Word format to help stay on task. Download Now Key Elements of a Disaster Recovery Plan: Purpose, scope, and objectives. Roles and responsibilities. Critical assets and resources. Insurance policies. Document and data backup. Communication plan.

  9. Small Business Disaster Recovery Plan Template

    only takes 20 seconds. Use template. A comprehensive Small Business Disaster Recovery Plan Template to help you prepare for and respond to disasters. Create a plan to minimize the impact of events such as hurricanes, floods, fires, and other natural disasters. Make sure your business can continue to operate.

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    1. Create an emergency response plan When disaster strikes, what's the first move? What steps should you and/or your employees take in the event of an emergency to stay safe? Once this has been determined, it's important to decide what employees should do to prevent the loss of assets, inventory, and other property.

  11. Writing a disaster recovery plan for your small business [free template]

    The Ontrack Blog Writing a disaster recovery plan for your small business [free template] 28 June 2022 by Tilly Holland The practice of preparing for downtime, and of taking steps to ensure a speedy return to normality, is called disaster recovery (DR) planning.

  12. 52 Effective Disaster Recovery Plan Templates [DRP]

    Table of Contents. A disaster recovery plan is a set process or a documented set of procedures which are created in order to retrieve the IT infrastructure of a business in the event of a disaster, which is why is can also be referred to as an IT disaster recovery plan. A disaster recovery plan example would be a written document with specific ...

  13. Prepare for emergencies

    Advice and training. Visit ready.gov/business or contact SBA's Disaster Assistance Customer Service Center at 1-800-659-2955 or [email protected] for access to emergency toolkits and guidance. If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

  14. The 11 Best Free Disaster Recovery Plan Templates Online

    Best Practices The editors at Solutions Review have compiled this list of the best free disaster recovery plan templates available online. With cyber-attacks and natural disasters threatening your data at every turn, being prepared with a disaster recovery plan is your best defense.

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    Click here to download our simple and straightforward backup and discovery plan templates. What is backup and disaster recovery? Backup and disaster recovery is a broad term that describes the processes and systems that protect data and services against loss and enable their recovery after an adverse event.

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    5. RECOVERY PLAN FOR MOBILE SITE The relevant information needed to continue recovery plans at a mobile site. 6. RECOVERY PLAN FOR HOT SITE The relevant information needed to continue recovery plans and normal business operations at an alternative, or backup site. This "hot site" is meant for temporary use while the main site is dealt with.

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    5. Conduct testing and training regularly. Regularly test the disaster recovery plan to ensure its effectiveness and identify any potential gaps or weaknesses. Conduct training sessions for employees to familiarize them with their roles and responsibilities during a disaster. 6. Review and update the plan regularly.

  18. Writing a disaster recovery plan for your small business [free template]

    We've even created one of our own: the Ontrack disaster recovery plan template. Protecting your business with a disaster recovery plan No matter how big or small your business, it's probably fair to say that you rely on IT to function.

  19. Free Business Continuity Plan Templates

    This template is available for download in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and PDF formats. Additionally, you can learn the definition of a business continuity plan, the steps involved in business continuity planning, as well as about the business continuity lifecycle in our article about business continuity planning.

  20. 13+ Disaster Recovery Plan Templates

    Disaster Recovery Plan Template Details File Format Google Docs MS Word Pages Size: A4, US Download Now There are unforeseeable circumstances that might shake your organization and test your preparedness. Know what to do before, during, and after a disaster with the help of this disaster recovery plan template.

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    According to a recent insurance report, the top three "big picture" small business risks are: Liability risks. Property risks. Business interruption risks. If you think about it, any major natural disaster - flood, hurricane, earthquake, wildfire - could instantly hit your business with two of the three. Of course, that's the key ...

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    A business disaster recovery plan will help you mitigate the damage from all types of disasters, regardless of what caused them. ‍ Key differences between business continuity and disaster recovery. It's easy to mix up business continuity and disaster recovery plans because they're both implemented in the event of a business catastrophe.