Survey: Business Breakdowns Disrupt 1.8m UK SMEs A Year
On-site business emergencies are costing UK SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprises) £598 million a year in lost earnings and repair costs.
A study from Home 3’s Business Emergency Assistance reveals that more than one in three (38 per cent) small businesses has experienced problems on their premises in the last year, with power failures (41 per cent), blocked drains (25 per cent) and lighting failure (20 per cent) the issues most likely to be reported.
Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of affected businesses suffered a loss of earnings as a result and almost a fifth (16 per cent) had to close their premises. Almost one in ten (9 per cent) has lost customers as a result of their business’ breakdown, and some (3 per cent) believe it’s even affected their company’s reputation.
The biggest on-site problems affecting SME owners this year are:
- Power failure
- Blocked drains
- Lighting failure
- Burst or leaking water pipe
- Boiler/heating failure
- Damage to doors/windows.
As a result, SME owners lost 17.4 million working hours in the past year waiting for tradesmen to arrive – an average of 13.4 hours per incident. For some unfortunate SMEs, the hours have tallied up as they have suffered incidents more than three times in the past 12 months.
See Business Breakdowns Disrupt 1.8m SMEs A Year.
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If you need a basic Business Continuity Plan ASAP… and your company is a small office/service/retailer or manufacturer/distributor with up to 250 employees, this “fill-in-the-blanks” template is perfect for you!
Quick and Easy Business Continuity Plan for Your Small Business:
Step-by-Step Template and Sample Plans
By Douglas M. Henderson
Reach for this “Quick and Easy” remedy if you’re suddenly tasked with developing a plan for disaster preparedness–and feel an impending anxiety attack because you don’t know quite where to start. This basic template is targeted to small businesses with little or no prior business continuity expertise.
You don’t need any special training or expensive consultants. You don’t need to spend weeks and weeks or empty your bank account to build a basic business continuity program.
Just go page by page to edit the Microsoft Word template; updating instructions are included as needed in the template and you can refer to the exact same page in the completed sample plans for guidance. The author distills his extensive experience as a business continuity consultant to give you succinct, field tested tips for what to include and why. He includes an abundance of handy forms, checklists, charts and tables for easy completion and distribution. Just completing the forms for “Who’s in Charge” and Immediate Actions will give you a satisfying sense of accomplishment and momentum.
In only a few hours you’ll create a fully customized plan unique to your business, which is also compliant with major standards. You’ll have a plan in place to address all the fundamentals of disaster preparedness-and you can build on it later as you have the time and need.
This basic business continuity toolkit includes…
- One Microsoft Word template with color coded sections so you can customize your plan based on company size (under 100/up to 250 employees) and type (service/retail or manufacturer).
- Three sample plans for three fictitious companies-a very small service or retail business (under 100 employees); a small service or retail business (up to 250 employees); and a small manufacturing business (up to 250 employees). Sometimes companies are a mixture of service/retail/manufacturing, so you may find parts of each sample plan applicable to your situation.
- ReadMe.doc file with updating instructions to keep your plan current.
- Bonus file with assorted how-to articles, including:
- Coping With Physical Disaster
- Family Disaster Planning
- Business Survival in the 21st Century
- Facility Evacuation
…and offers you many advantages:
- Was developed by a 20-year veteran in business continuity consulting–a small business owner himself–who knows the specific needs of small businesses (under 250 employees)
- Is extensively field tested in a variety of business environments
- Is written in Microsoft Word, designed with extensive “Fill-in-the-Blank” and “Edit-Out” text
- Requires no special training in the discipline of Business Continuity Management (BCM)
- Results in your own customized plan that addresses all the fundamentals, all within a few hours
- Is compliant with professional standards from the Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1600 Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management, as well as industry best practices
- Can be used for student practice in corporate training classes in business continuity/disaster recovery– site licensing available.
Published by Rothstein Associates Inc.
ISBN 9781931332538
2010
Only $69.99!
Tags: business disruptions, small business, SME, survey, United Kingdom
