In 2015 I made a drastic change to the MOST POPULAR business planning package that my clients contract - I included Contingency Planning.
Why ??
Because protecting your business activities is a HUGE component that most small business owners overlook.
You want your business to continue to be PROFITABLE. To do that, it needs to be able to OPERATE with MINIMAL interruptions.
::: Insert Beautifully Designed Arc - aka Contingency Plan ::::
What’s contingency planning ???
Contingency planning is a “What if“ risk assessment and preparedness planning process.
The idea behind contingency planning is a simple one: you cannot predict the future but YOU CAN PREPARE for it.
There are TONS of key focus points that we can look at when creating a contingency plan, the top three I focus on are: Identify - Analyze - Design
1. IDENTIFY critical assets, resources and ACTIVITIES as it pertains to maintaining your business operations
2. ANALYZE a set potential risks associated with each (along with the probability of that risk occurring).
3. DESIGN AN ACTIONABLE plan that helps to prevent, minimize and mitigate those risks. This includes activities like scenario planning and emergency preparedness risk assessments.
Visionaries will often times skip over this part of PROTECTING their venture because it takes time and quite frankly, it can be daunting to have to purposely imagine all the worse case scenarios that could hurt your venture. Especially when you just KNOW your headed towards a success that nothing can stop!
However...
#Quarantine2020 has been a stark reminder as to WHY it is important for us to be proactive in strategic planning and CONTINGENCY planning when it comes to protecting our ventures.
Now is an amazing time for business owners, non profit leaders and founders alike to dedicate energy towards building a contingency plan. Consider this building an “arc” for rains you hope never come... again..