Small Business Continuity Planning & Insurance
Nearly one in five UK businesses suffer a major disruption every year. Most don’t find out whether they were properly prepared until it’s already happened.
Independent research from BIBA has revealed that millions of small and medium-sized enterprises across the UK are failing to protect themselves and their employees in the event of emergencies. In response, BIBA has launched a high-profile campaign encouraging SMEs to get serious about business continuity and ensure that protection is in place before something goes wrong.
Government figures suggest nearly one in five businesses suffer a major disruption every year. That’s not a rare event happening to someone else. Across the UK’s there are 4.3 million SMEs, employing around 12 million people.
Further research suggests 80% of businesses affected by a major incident close down within 18 months. Of those who lose their data specifically, 90% are forced to close within two years.
For small enterprises in particular, the financial impact often isn’t the incident itself, it’s the weeks or months of restricted or halted trading that follow. Cash flow doesn’t pause just because operations have.
Why does this keep happening?
None of this is really about businesses being careless. SMEs are, by definition, focused on the day-to-day: serving customers, managing staff, keeping the lights on. Business continuity planning and making sure insurance actually reflects the business as it exists today, tends to sit lower down the list, right up until it’s needed.
What does proper planning involve?
Business continuity isn’t one document or one policy. It’s an honest look at questions like:
- What would stop your business trading tomorrow, and for how long?
- Could you continue operating if you lost access to your premises?
- What happens if your data or systems were compromised?
- How long could the business survive on savings alone if income stopped?
- Does your current cover reflect how the business runs today? Not how it ran when the policy was first taken out
This isn’t about assuming the worst is coming. It’s about knowing where you actually stand and if the worst was to happen, what cover do you have in place?
When did you last review your business continuity plan, and the insurance cover behind it?
If the honest answer is “I’m not sure,” that’s a conversation worth having before it becomes an urgent one.
At Portal Broking Group, we offer a no-obligation review of your business and fleet insurance policies. Get in touch today, call us on 01829 706436 for a no-obligation discussion or business review or drop us an email on info@portalinsurance.co.uk and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.