Emergency plan: how to get your business up and running again
- 4 May 2026
- Edited 3 November 2026
- 3 min
- Managing and growing
- Rinke den Os
Suddenly, everything goes wrong. Cybercrime, fire, severe weather, or a major power cut can shut down your business. You can only restart fast if you are well prepared. To do this, you need to know what risks your business faces, what the results of a crisis might be, and which fixes work well. A good plan for an emergency will help you start.
Less than 25% of self-employed professionals and small businesses are well prepared for an emergency that could temporarily shut down their business.
With a strained power grid, wars, cybercrime, and a changing climate, there are many issues that could affect your business. Large companies are already taking measures and preparing for disruptions. However, SMEs and a large group of self-employed professionals are lagging behind, according to a KVK study (in Dutch). They don’t know what to do, underestimate the consequences of an emergency, or are daunted by the potential costs.
Still, you want to prevent your business from coming to a standstill and your income temporarily falling away. Preparing for such an emergency largely means raising awareness, with yourself and your staff. And expensive investments are not always necessary.
Prepare your business
Risks come in all shapes and sizes and from all directions. Any business can be affected. Yet as an entrepreneur, you are not necessarily vulnerable to all those threats.
Identify which risks could affect your business
It is important to identify which threats could affect you, where you are vulnerable, and what the consequences of an emergency might be.
- For an agricultural business, for example, extreme weather can be disastrous: hail, heavy rain, and drought can lead to a failed harvest.
- A wholesaler operating out of a warehouse might not be affected by weather conditions, but could suffer significant damage in the event of a fire or cyberattack.
Risk Awareness in 5 Steps
An emergency can catch you off guard. Still, you can take steps now to prepare for the day you might need them.
1. Identify your key risks
Want to know where you are vulnerable? First, determine what you want to protect. Think of data, products, machinery, or ongoing deliveries, for example. Once you know what you want to protect, start thinking about the risks. What threats could affect your business? Talk about your ideas with staff, other business owners, or an expert. They may add to your thinking.
Example: You sell handmade personal care products. You rely on shea butter for this. You order herbs and oil from another supplier. A third supplier provides you with the appropriate packaging. Without the delivery of these items, you cannot sell your skincare products. So you want to ensure that you always have sufficient stock and that deliveries arrive on time. It would directly affect you if one of your suppliers could not deliver.
2. Make plans
Now that you have a clear view of the risks, it is time to look at solutions. You may need some help with this. For example, an expert who can advise you on what you can and cannot insure. Or an expert who can explain how to protect your business and data from cybercriminals.
Example: As an online marketer, you ensure that various clients are easily found online. Your laptop is your most important tool. So, a cyberattack is one of the biggest risks. An expert will explain, among other things, that you should store your data in triplicate and that you need back-ups in the cloud and on a hard , preferably at a different location.
3. Test the plans
How do you know if the solutions you have come up with actually work? Try them out with your staff. Set aside a few hours in your schedule and investigate. Do all your machines run on the generator if the power goes out? Does your cash register still work without an internet connection? This exercise is also a good test to see if the division of roles among your employees is correct.
4. Define your role
In a crisis situation, take care of yourself first. Once you are in control, take a good look around. Consider which customers and partners you need to inform immediately about the situation. Also, carefully assess whether people are heavily dependent on your business. For example, if you are a baker delivering fresh bread daily to healthcare facilities, it is important that they can find a solution in time. Consider where you may be able to offer your assistance with this.
Create an emergency plan
Once you have gone through the 5 steps above, you will have gathered a lot of valuable information. With this information, you are well on your way to drawing up an emergency plan. It is important that your plan fits the situations that may arise in your business. Do you mainly work digitally? If so, think in detail about the results of a cyberattack or an internet or power cut. And think about what you will need to find a solution in a crisis. Do you make and sell a physical product? If so, think about what could go wrong in your process: from the supplier and production, right through to sales and transport.
Take action now and create your customised emergency plan.
Frequently asked questions
Perhaps nothing. But a shutdown of your business costs money straight away. You cannot work and are therefore unable to carry out the activities that normally generate your income. Costs continue to mount up. In addition, as a business owner, you may have to deal with issues such as damage, spoilage, loss of customers, or delays. It often involves a great deal of organisation to get back up and running, and you will need to inform customers and suppliers about the crisis.
Good preparation won’t prevent an emergency, but it will ensure you know exactly what to do if it happens to you. You might be lucky and never experience an emergency. But the likelihood of your business being affected by cybercrime, extreme weather, power and internet outages, supply chain issues or, for example, the consequences of global tensions is growing.
Not every emergency poses a threat to your business. A self-employed professional providing digital services is not affected by drought or extreme rainfall, but is affected by internet outages. You can assess for yourself which emergencies might affect your business. First, determine what is essential to your business, then identify which situations could cause problems.
In your emergencyy plan, you should list the situations that could cause problems or even a shutdown. For each emergency, set out what needs to be done during and after the crisis. Do you work with others? If so, make it clear what roles the people in your business have to ensure safety and get things up and running again. Don’t forget to include key contacts. Read how to make an emergency plan.
If your business stops, you must first look after yourself, your staff, and your own business. Then, you should think about those near you: customers, suppliers, and the local community. Who needs to know about your problems, and who can help you recover? Read the article Help in an emergency situation.
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