Many small businesses are losing revenue unnecessarily because of business interruptions or emergencies. Avoidable losses to reputation, revenue and productivity are being incurred when all that is required is a sufficiently drafted and tested business continuity plan.
According to a new survey, 38% of SMEs were hit by some kind of ‘business breakdown’ in 2009 and it is costing them around £600m a year in lost earnings and repairs.
The leading culprit is power failure, followed by blocked drains, lighting failure, burst pipes and broken heating systems.
24% of businesses which were affected by disruptions experienced loss of earnings, 16% had to close their premises, 9% lost customers and around 3% could say that their reputation had taken a beating.
Though the survey was conducted by Home 3 who offer Business Emergency Assistance whcih makes me more than a little cynical, it does still highlight the fact that businesses are losing money due to relatively minor disruptions.
Of the 16% of businesses that had to close their premises, I wonder how many were able to let their staff continue to work from another location? Because for all of the disruptions cited above so much damage and revenue loss could have been avoided by re-routing employees’ incoming calls away from the business premises to a home phone, mobile phone etc. Subsequently there should be no reosion of brand reputation at all.
