One of the most overlooked items for most brokers is a Disaster Recovery Plan – also known as a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) or your “HIT BY A BUS” plan. Ensuring that the business you worked so hard to build continues during a crisis or illness is imperative. They are also now required by most institutional and government accounts. Here is everything you need to know to create a DRP including a sample template in the library.
Little late to come up with a plan after something bad happens.
If something happens to you, who is going to run it, how do they run it, where is everything?
Physical location: What is your entire office gets flooded, power outage, etc. what is your plan?
Having these plans in place, gives your clients more confidence and trust in what you do for them. It also adds to the value.
- Assemble the most pertinent human and physical resources.
- Define all job duties and responsibilities for entire staff.
- Workflow for your office – not just REO. Accounting, management.
- Cross-training – who can pick it up if a key person leaves. You may have an amazing manager who may quit, have a child, have a family emergency – and there you are needing to have someone or four people take over their duties.
- Create a checklist of instructions for all staff roles so they can be duplicated by another staff member if necessary.
Appoint a response team with redundancies. company message, core message that is consistent through everyone who is speaking. Who is to speak to the media, the public, the banks, who is NOT to speak. Who is the response team?
Action plan: who does what and when.
Potential disasters:
- Illness or death of owner.
- Technical – internet down, servers broken, flooded data and services. BACKING up OFF-SITE.
- Staff members – illness, accidents
- Physical location damaged or unusable. Have a local hotel you can set up quickly. What happens to your staff? Where will they go? Have a place for them to report and work.
Response:
Reference disaster plan for instructions. How do they get it? Where is it stored? CLOUD, in your company library.
Is it long-term or short-term? How fast can you get new computers replaced and your system backed up? Need to have that set ahead of time. Same with ISP, Payroll, banking. Who can get to all of this?
Think about it, long-term change in location – building burned down. How many places to you have to notify with your change of address? Business cards, associates, associations, suppliers, utility companies, loans – so many people to update. Post office can get you started with a forwarding address order.
RIO Genesis is committed to bringing you the un-franchise solution: the best tools, training and technology without the headaches, restrictions and cost of a franchise. We are your partners for real estate success.
