PG&E sends the shutoff notice on a Tuesday, and your Carmel Valley office will be dark Thursday through who knows when. Somebody has to decide where people work, and how the phones get answered. Then there's the server. Does it get shut down cleanly, or does it just lose power? A continuity plan answers those questions ahead of time, in writing. We build them with Monterey County companies so the first day of an outage doesn't get spent arguing.
When You Need Business Continuity Planning
If your business can't afford to close for a week, you need one.
Most offices here have already had a rehearsal they didn't ask for. Winter storms take down lines in Big Sur and Carmel Valley, and fire season brings planned power shutoffs from PG&E that can run for days at a stretch with little warning. Each time, the same scramble happens: who has the client list, who can get into email, whether anyone knows the internet provider's account number. Usually nobody does.
Ransomware is the bigger risk for a lot of companies. When it locks every computer at once, there's no office to go back to, even with the lights on. Someone has to call the insurance carrier. Someone has to talk to clients. And one system has to come back before the others, so you'd better know which.
A cyber insurer may ask for a plan, too.
How Continuity Planning Works
We start with a meeting with you and whoever runs operations. The question is plain. What can't the business go without, and for how long?
That gives us two numbers for each system. The recovery time objective, or RTO, is how long it can be down. The recovery point objective, or RPO, is how much recent work you could stand to lose and redo. Your scheduling system might need an RTO of a few hours, while the archive of old projects can wait a week.
Then we write it up in plain language. The plan names people and phone numbers. It lists backup internet options and the order systems come back in. It also says where staff work if the building is closed. Keep a copy off the server. The server may be what's down.
Last, we walk your managers through a pretend outage around a table. The gaps show up fast.
Continuity Planning Cost in Monterey
The price depends on how many locations and systems the plan has to cover, and on how much of your setup we already know. A single office with one server goes faster than a company spread across Salinas and the Peninsula. HIPAA adds paperwork. We'll scope it on a call and put the price in writing before we start.
Why Local Companies Plan With Us
We've been in Monterey since 2008, through more storm seasons and shutoffs than we can count. When a plan turns into a real emergency, our 24/7 line answers and critical tickets get a technician within 15 minutes. Managed clients also get quarterly planning meetings, which is a natural time to update the plan when staff or systems change.
FEMA's Ready.gov continuity planning toolkit is a good free starting point. We also wrote a plain-English primer on business continuity. The plan works alongside our backup and disaster recovery services for Monterey County, which handle getting the data itself back.
Call (831) 649-5050 to book the first planning meeting.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between a continuity plan and disaster recovery?
Disaster recovery is getting your systems and data back. Continuity covers the rest, meaning how the business keeps serving customers while that happens. You need both, and they should agree with each other.
How often should we update the plan?
Any time you add a location, change a major system, or lose a key person. Otherwise, review it at least once a year. Managed clients can fold that into a quarterly planning meeting.
Do small offices really need a written plan?
Yes, and small offices often need it more, since one person tends to hold all the passwords and phone numbers. A two-page plan is enough for many of them.