Quick answer
A one-page business continuity plan lists what must keep running, who does what in an emergency, key contacts, how data is backed up, where you'd trade from if your premises were lost, which suppliers you'd switch to, and how you'd fund a few weeks of disruption. business.gov.au describes emergency planning in three parts — continuity, emergency action and recovery. A single page covering these is far better than a long plan nobody reads.
Key points
- One page gets read; fifty pages gets filed.
- Name a deputy for every critical task.
- Know where you'd trade from and who you'd buy from if the usual options vanished.
- Include a money plan — cash buffer, standby facility, key numbers.
Most small business owners know they “should” have a business continuity plan. Most don’t, because the templates look like they were written for a bank with ten thousand staff. The good news is that the version that actually helps a small business fits on one page.
This guide gives you that page — seven boxes — and explains what goes in each. Fill it in over a coffee, print it, and put a copy in your emergency grab bag.
What should a small business continuity plan cover?
business.gov.au describes an emergency management plan in three parts:
- a continuity plan — identify critical areas of the business and how to protect them, including products and services, key customers, insurance and information backup
- an emergency action plan — emergency contacts, evacuation procedures, where the emergency kit is, and team roles
- a recovery plan — assessing damage, contacting recovery partners, lodging insurance claims and planning how you’ll reopen, including marketing
The one-page version below covers all three in plain language.
Box 1: What must keep running?
List the three to five activities the business can’t stop for more than a few days without serious harm. For a café, that might be coffee, the lunch menu and the catering orders. For a trade business, the jobs under contract and the invoicing.
For each, write the maximum tolerable downtime — one day, one week, one month. This tells you where to focus when something goes wrong.
Box 2: Who does what?
| Task | Main person | Deputy |
|---|---|---|
| Calls emergency services and accounts for staff | ||
| Calls the insurer | ||
| Contacts key customers | ||
| Contacts suppliers | ||
| Runs payroll | ||
| Handles IT and passwords | ||
| Talks to the bank and ATO |
The deputy column is the important one. If the owner is injured or away, someone else needs to be able to act. See our page on losing a key person for why this matters.
Box 3: Key contacts
Keep this short and printed:
- Insurer claims line and policy numbers
- Bank, accountant, landlord
- IT provider, electrician, plumber, locksmith
- Top five customers and top five suppliers
- ATO Emergency Support Infoline — 1800 806 218
- Small Business Debt Helpline — 1800 413 828
- Australian Cyber Security Hotline — 1300 292 371
Box 4: Data and systems
- Where are your records stored? (Cloud accounting, payroll, CRM, file storage.)
- How often are they backed up, and where? business.gov.au recommends regular backups to the cloud or a drive kept securely away from your main premises.
- When did you last test a restore?
- Who can access the password manager in an emergency?
A backup you’ve never restored is a hope, not a plan. Test it once a year. Our cyber attack page covers what to do if systems are compromised.
Box 5: Where would you trade from?
If your premises were unusable tomorrow, where would you go?
- A neighbouring business with spare space
- A shared commercial kitchen or workshop
- A co-working space or business centre
- Working from home, with phones redirected
- A market stall, container or pop-up
Write down one or two options with contact details. business.gov.au suggests temporary relocation to business centres, hotels, co-working spaces or working from home, plus virtual office services. See funding temporary premises.
Box 6: Who would you buy from?
For each critical product or input, name a backup supplier. Keep them warm with an occasional small order if the product is critical. If your main supplier failed tomorrow, how many days of stock do you have?
| Critical input | Main supplier | Backup supplier | Days of stock on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
Our page on supplier failure explains why this is one of the most common crises for small businesses.
Box 7: The money plan
This is the box most templates leave out, and it’s the one that decides whether a business survives a long disruption.
- Fixed costs per week — rent, wages you’d keep paying, loan repayments, insurance, subscriptions.
- Cash runway — how many weeks your current cash would cover those fixed costs with no income. The shutdown cash runway tool works this out in a minute.
- Buffer target — how much cash you’d like to hold.
- Standby options — an overdraft, a line of credit, property equity you could draw on, or a funder you’d call.
- Insurance — business interruption cover and its indemnity period.
Knowing this in advance means a crisis becomes a decision rather than a panic. If you’d like to talk about a standby option now, you can enquire here, and there’s no credit check when you first enquire.
How do you test the plan?
A plan that’s never used tends to be wrong. Once a year:
- Pick a scenario — “the building floods overnight” or “the accounting system is locked by ransomware”.
- Walk through it with your team using the plan.
- Note what’s missing or out of date.
- Fix it on the spot.
business.gov.au also recommends evacuation drills so staff know the procedures and gaps show up before a real emergency. Our emergency action checklist gives you a ready-made scenario for each type of event.
What about recovery and reopening?
When you’re through the immediate crisis, the recovery part of the plan kicks in:
- assess damage and lodge insurance claims — see documenting damage for insurance
- check for disaster assistance — see finding disaster help
- build a 13-week cash forecast — see the recovery cash flow forecast
- tell customers you’re open — business.gov.au suggests a targeted marketing plan, including social media, to reconnect with customers
Who should see the plan?
Everyone who has a role in it. Give the deputies a copy, keep one in the emergency grab bag, store one in the cloud folder, and share the relevant parts with your accountant and insurance broker. A plan that only lives in the owner’s head, or on the owner’s laptop, fails exactly when the owner is unavailable. Walk new staff through it in their first week — it takes ten minutes and tells them you take their safety and the business seriously.
A one-page plan in practice
Illustrative example only: a small printing business fills in the seven boxes in an afternoon. The exercise shows that only the owner can run the main press, the backups haven’t been tested in a year, and there’s no backup paper supplier. Over the next month, a staff member is trained on the press, a restore is tested, and a second paper supplier is set up. When the main supplier goes into administration six months later, the business switches within days.
Which risks should you plan for first?
You can’t plan for everything, so start with the events most likely to hit your business and the ones that would hurt most:
| Question | Examples |
|---|---|
| What’s likely where you are? | Flood-prone area, bushfire-prone bush, cyclone region, a single access road |
| What’s your biggest single point of failure? | One key machine, one supplier, one person, one customer |
| What would stop you trading for more than a week? | Premises loss, systems outage, key equipment |
| What would drain cash fastest? | A big customer not paying, a fraud, a long closure |
Pick your top three and make sure each has a line in the plan. Our emergency action checklist has ready-made steps for each common event, which you can copy straight into your plan.
When the plan meets a real crisis
A plan won’t stop a flood or a supplier collapse, but it makes everything that follows calmer. If the money plan shows you need help, you’ll already have the numbers.
Looking at options carries no downside: we don’t check credit at the enquiry stage. We don’t farm out enquiries — one team holds your file from start to finish. The person who rings you back will have read what you wrote and will want the full story.
Please take a moment to get the amount, purpose, state and property details right; a well-filled form is the quickest route to a useful answer. See if you qualify.
Frequently asked questions
What is a business continuity plan?
It's a plan for keeping the most important parts of your business running, or getting them running again quickly, when something goes wrong — a disaster, a breakdown, a cyber attack or losing a key person.
Does a small business really need one?
Small businesses often have the most single points of failure — one premises, one key supplier, one person who knows the systems. A short plan helps you spot and reduce those risks.
What does business.gov.au say an emergency plan should include?
It describes three parts: a continuity plan (critical areas, key customers, insurance, backups), an emergency action plan (contacts, evacuation, kit, team roles) and a recovery plan (damage assessment, recovery partners, insurance claims, reopening and marketing).
How often should the plan be updated?
At least yearly, and after staff changes, a move, or a new key supplier or customer. business.gov.au also suggests running evacuation drills so staff know the procedures.
Should funding be part of a continuity plan?
Yes. Knowing how many weeks your cash lasts and what you'd do if it ran short is part of being prepared — whether that's a cash reserve, a standby line of credit or knowing who you'd call.