18/09/2026
Most businesses insure their building, stock, and equipment without a second thought. Fewer stop to plan what they’d actually do in the hours and days after something stops them trading altogether. Here’s why both matter, and a simple way to start putting the second one in place.
Why this is a risk worth taking seriously
A fire, a flood, a serious cyber incident, the sudden loss of a key supplier: none of these are unlikely risks. They’re the ordinary, unglamorous things that stop a business trading, sometimes for days, sometimes for months. According to Databarracks’ Data Health Check 2026, an annual survey of UK IT decision-makers, 65% of organisations now believe a serious cyber attack could threaten their survival, and cyber remains the leading cause of business downtime for the fourth year running. That’s a significant shift in how seriously disruption is being taken, and it reflects what many businesses are already experiencing.
The same research found that updating continuity plans is now one of the top three resilience priorities for 2026, named by 38% of organisations. That tells you something: plans exist, but many businesses know theirs is out of date. Having a plan and having tested it are two different things, and smaller businesses have historically lagged well behind larger ones on both counts. A plan that’s never been read since it was written isn’t much use when you need it.
What it means for your cash flow
The financial risk here isn’t just the cost of putting things right. It’s what happens to your income while you’re not trading. Rent, payroll and supplier invoices don’t pause just because your business has. If a serious incident stops you trading for a few days, or a few weeks, the gap between money going out and money coming in can do more damage than the incident itself, particularly for smaller businesses without a large cash reserve to fall back on.
This is exactly what Business Interruption insurance is designed for. It’s not there to prevent the disruption, and it’s not a substitute for having a plan. It’s there to help protect your cash flow while you recover, covering things like lost income and the increased cost of working from a temporary location, so that a bad few weeks doesn’t become a business-ending one. Insurance and a continuity plan do different jobs.
One thing worth checking now rather than later: the indemnity period on your policy. Many are written for 12 months, but recovery from a serious incident often takes longer, and a period that was right when the policy was set up may not reflect how the business trades today.
Building a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
A BCP doesn’t need to be a lengthy document. It needs to answer a few practical questions clearly enough that anyone in the business could pick it up and act on it under pressure. At a minimum, it should cover:
- Key contacts. Who needs to be told, and how, if something goes wrong. Staff, suppliers, key clients, your Account Executive, your bank.
- Critical functions. The handful of things your business absolutely cannot operate without, whether that’s a particular system, a piece of equipment, a supplier, or a specific member of staff.
- Recovery priorities and timescales. What needs to be working again first, and how long you can realistically afford for each critical function to be down.
- Alternative arrangements. Where you’d work from, what you’d use, and who you’d turn to if your usual premises, systems or suppliers weren’t available.
- What you’d tell staff, clients and suppliers, and who’s responsible for saying it.
- Review and testing. A note of when the plan was last checked and by whom, and a commitment to revisit it at least once a year or whenever the business changes materially.
The bottom line
Underinsurance gets talked about often. Under-preparedness doesn’t get nearly as much attention, but it can be just as costly. The businesses that come through a serious disruption in the best shape are rarely the ones with the biggest insurance policy. They’re the ones who’d already thought through what they’d do and had the cover in place to see it through.
Get in touch to discuss your Business Interruption cover or request our Business Continuity Plan template.
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