Business planning is important for more than just giving direction to your organisation. Ideally, it will consider business continuity and crisis management for those dreaded times when things go wrong. In light of the Swine Flu pandemic, Business Link in the East of England is encouraging the region’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to recognise and address the possible impact it may have on their business.

Unplanned events, such as illness of key staff, could hinder day-to-day business operations and latest predictions regarding Swine Flu should raise concerns for ALL businesses. Last month, Health Secretary Andy Burnham warned that there could be 100,000 cases of Swine Flu a day by the end of August, which translates as 1 in 8 employees, according to the British Chambers of Commerce. Despite this, a recent poll on Business Link East’s Twitter profile (@BLinkEast) revealed 85% of SMEs that responded are not concerned about the recent outbreaks of Swine Flu, despite the fact that they would be likely to suffer most if a few employees were off ill for any length of time.

Business Link’s Chief Executive, Pat Smith said, “Unplanned events can have devastating consequences for businesses, be it fire, IT failure, stock damage or staff illness. A carefully thought-out business continuity plan will make coping in a crisis easier and help minimise disruption to a business and its customers.

“With Swine Flu reaching pandemic levels, my advice to businesses in the region is ‘make sure you have a continuity plan’ in place. That’s where Business Link can help; businesslink.gov.uk/east is the gateway to information, guides and tools that will help businesses identify potential risks, make preparations for emergencies and test how their business is likely to cope in a disaster.”

Herts Business Adviser, Roma Bhowmick provided the following tips for planning for the unexpected:

1. Identify potential crises that might affect you

There are many possible events that might constitute a crisis and examples include storm damage, theft, fuel shortages, restricted access to premises and outbreak of disease or infection

2. Determine how you intend to minimise the risks of these disasters occurring

Once you have identified the key risks, you need to take steps to protect your business functions against them. For instance, installing anti-virus software, backing up data and ensuring the right maintenance agreements are in place can all help protect your IT systems

3. Set out how you'll react if a disaster occurs in a business continuity plan

Set out in writing how you will cope if a crisis does occur. This should detail the key business functions you need to get operating as quickly as possible and the resources you’ll need to do so

4. Test the plan regularly

Once your plan is in place, you will need to test how well it is likely to perform in the event of an emergency. Although crisis are very hard to rehearse, you can assess your plan against a number of possible scenarios in a paper-based exercise

In terms of Swine Flu, the simplest precautions are the most effective:

1. Clean surfaces frequently touched by hands with normal cleaning agents

2. Sneeze into a tissue not a hand to reduce the risk of spreading germs

3. Stay off work for 7 days if you have any kind of flu to prevent spreading it

4. Work from home, if necessary

For further guidance on how to perform a risk assessment and handling workplace health, as well as links to national Swine Flu information sites, visit www.businesslink.gov/east or speak to an Adviser on 08457 17 16 15.

About Business Link in the East of England:

Business Link provides information, practical advice and support to help people to start, run or grow their businesses

-Our clients fall in to two main categories:

Those running or working in established small and medium sized businesses

Those who want to start their own business

-Both client groups can access independent, impartial and, in most instances, free help and support from Business Link in the form of:

Free one-to-one help from an experienced Business Adviser (established businesses) or Enterprise Champion (start-ups)

Workshops and briefings on a range of business subjects such as business planning, sales and marketing, legislation, developing people

Telephone and online support through our Regional Information and Intelligence centre

-Business Link in the East of England works with businesses and entrepreneurs in the 6 counties in the East of England:, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk,

-Business Link is a government initiative to promote enterprise, funded in the East of England by the East of England Development Agency