Learn four common business continuity planning mistakes and how to keep thriving through challenges, from boycotts to weather events.

It’s a stark reality that businesses often fail to recover from disaster. Around 40 percent of disaster-impacted businesses never reopen, according to the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, and 75 percent of those without a business continuity plan fail within three years.¹

But you don’t have to leave your company’s survival to chance. A comprehensive business continuity plan  is a crucial step in preparing for weather disasters as well as other unexpected events, helping you get back up and running quickly.

There have been significant shifts in business continuity planning that trace back to the pandemic, with additional risks to anticipate and create scenarios around.

A focus on the supply chain

“One key change is a heightened focus on supplier continuity and resilience,” says Lori Weaver, CBCP, senior vice president of Enterprise Resilience at Regions. “With increased regulatory scrutiny and global supply chain disruptions, there is a much greater need for robust and adaptable business continuity strategies. Enhancing supplier risk assessments with a greater focus on resilience and improving communication and collaboration channels helps minimize the impact of a single supplier failure on a business.”

As threats evolve, it’s important for businesses to keep pace. “Depending on the type of business, there may be an increased need to plan around cyber threats, labor strikes and consumer boycotts that are in some cases more difficult to predict and can cause significant impact on operations,” Weaver says.

Taking advantage of remote access

The post-pandemic era’s increased need for remote access and data accessibility has shifted how practitioners should approach continuity planning.

“Plans must now reflect and ensure that employees have the ability to do essential work from anywhere,” Weaver says. In fact, many businesses that deal with hurricane season have planned for pre-staging of key employees on high and dry ground during a weather event or have opened satellite locations inland that can ensure critical personnel, data and systems will be preserved.

“Enhanced business continuity risk assessments need to include remote work-specific risks  and updated business impact assessments should be completed to understand the potential disruptions that could occur for business functions that rely on remote employees,” she said.

Avoiding common pitfalls

Here are four common mistakes made in business continuity planning to help you shore up your strategy.

1. Failing to assess risks or prioritize dependencies. An incomplete risk assessment could leave critical processes and systems that rely on each other vulnerable to extended downtime.
2. Forgetting to emphasize critical data backup. This can have significant financial and operational consequences.
3. Keeping a narrow focus on IT. While technology is crucial, don’t overlook other aspects to plan around, including business functions, processes, employees, facilities, etc.
4. Neglecting a test or planning exercise. Not testing plans and not updating based on changes to the business or environment result in outdated plans and ineffective response when a significant disruption occurs.

Be prepared for the unexpected. Talk to your Regions relationship manager about risk management and the steps you can take to safeguard your business and cover any damages.

Essential elements of a business continuity plan

1. Risk and impact identification. Identify critical business processes and functions that must continue during a disruption and complete a business impact analysis to identify potential consequences. Identify potential risks to the organization and prioritize them based on probable impact and likelihood of occurring.
2. Planning. Build strategies to prevent or minimize the most critical risks. Strategies should describe the actions needed and outline who needs to be involved to implement them.
3. Responsibilities. Once you’ve identified who needs to be involved, their roles and responsibilities need to be clearly defined and documented. You should also identify and plan for any resources they may need during a disruption.
4. Communication. Internal and external communications are vital before, during and after a disruption. At a minimum, a plan should include key contacts, sources of communication (i.e. email, chat, mass communication tools, social media) and pre-determined communication templates. A separate communications plan may be developed with internal communication departments depending on the size of the organization.
5. Testing and training. Finally, you must test the plans you developed and train employees. This could mean sketching out realistic scenarios for a simple tabletop exercise or an all-encompassing simulation. Developing training and awareness for all employees to ensure they understand their role will ensure a smoother and more efficient response.

Source:
¹Library of Congress. “Federal Disaster Assistance for Businesses: Summaries and Policy Options,” March 2025.