Being able to pull yourself up after a setback and move on from it – not just learning but thriving in the process – shows resilience. You can demonstrate resilience by your actions after disruption regardless of planning, but real business resilience is baked in from the day you start your business through planning, organization, and persistence.
If you have a resilient business, you have taken the time to plan every aspect of your business, from the workflows to the big hairy goals you’ve set, to determine precisely what is essential so that you can maintain even in difficult times.
A resilient business can:
- Adapt to Disruptions – There are always going to be setbacks and things that disrupt your business. It might be something internal with yourself, or it might be something external that you have no control over at all. Regardless of the issue, you can put in place planning to accommodate most issues.
- Maintain Continuity – If you take the time to put in place plans to keep going in hard times, your business may not be super-profitable during that time, but it can continue until the hard time is finished.
- Safeguard People – If you do hire people, sometimes disruptions come from having to lay them off, or from having them make a mistake or don’t show up. If you plan in advance for these contingencies, you can avoid disaster.
- Protect Assets – Good planning, saving for a rainy day, and using the right tools can protect your assets when something goes wrong. A business that has trouble should not mean that your entire life is put in jeopardy. With the right type of planning, you can protect your assets.
- Build Brand Equity – If a national disaster happens, which is a set back for all, but you can maintain business continuity even if it’s difficult and things change slightly, your business will build brand equity even then. Some of the most well-known companies today have survived the great depression, many recessions, and other internal and external disruptions.
- Recover Quickly – The future planning for disruptions will not be able to cover every single thing that might happen, but it can help you recover faster if you have at least given potentialities some thought and consideration.
- Reduce Stress – Continuity planning in the face of disruptions inside and outside your business will also help you personally by reducing your stress. Anyone who has experienced setbacks knows that the wrong thing happening at the wrong time without any planning can make things worse due to the stress it brings.
To accomplish this, each business, even a small sole proprietor online business, or mom and pop store, needs to think about – possibilities in advance as part of the normal business planning process to develop disaster and disruption strategies that help avoid downtime and shore up vulnerabilities.