Regardless of what industry your business is in or what products/ services you provide, creating a solid disaster recovery plan for any bad situation that might happen is something that you absolutely need to do. It’s always good to create detailed strategies for specific situations — like if there’s a breach in your building’s security system or if your server configuration goes down — but it’s also important to look at the big picture, too. As a business grows and expands, the “disasters” are going to keep changing; you should be aiming to create a good foundation that can be amended for a variety of disaster plans as the need arises.

Here are a few of the most basic facets that your disaster recovery plan should address:

• People: You’ll need to address a few things here: first, you’ll need to have a complete list of employees and have a way to reach every single one if there’s an emergency; you’ll also need to figure out which situations only require the attention of a few employees and which situations require every employee to pitch in.
  

• Data: Security breaches are all too common these days, not only in terms of physical security but also for digital security systems. Preventative measures are always the most effective options here: security cameras protect your physical security, while secure network designs ensure that cyberhackers won’t access sensitive information. That being said, it’s also important to look at how you’ll respond to a situation if any sensitive information does escape.
  

• Long-Term Outlook: There are two important aspects of responding to a negative situation: you have to figure out an immediate response, and you also have to figure out how you’re going to regain any losses. This can vary quite a bit depending on what situation your business encounters; a major security breach might involve years of reputation management, while a natural environmental disaster might require a plan for purchasing new equipment and getting sales numbers up to pay for it all.

Regardless of what your disaster recovery plan looks like, the best way to protect your business is to plan in advance — and you can’t plan too much!