What should a business continuity plan include for a small business?

• A. Only financial projections.
• B. Marketing plan and sales targets.
• C. Critical processes, backup resources, communication plans, and recovery timelines.
• D. Office design changes.

Answer: (C)

A business continuity plan centers on keeping essential operations running when something disrupts normal activities. It should identify the critical processes the business must perform to survive a disruption, ensure there are backup resources to support those processes (such as alternative suppliers, data backups, and IT redundancy), establish clear communication plans so employees, customers, and suppliers know what to do and who to contact, and set recovery timelines that define how quickly operations should be restored and service levels met. This combination directly addresses resilience and rapid recovery, which is the core purpose of a continuity plan for a small business.

Financial projections are useful for overall planning but don’t ensure operations can continue during a disruption. A marketing plan and sales targets focus on growth and revenue under normal conditions, not on maintaining operations when interruptions occur. Office design changes don’t address the ability to continue essential activities or recover quickly after an incident.