Be ready for the bad day: a business continuity and crisis plan built in 8 weeks
A complete continuity toolkit for small and mid-size companies: the business impact analysis, the strategies, the crisis team, the runbooks, the words to say and the exercises, organised so one owner can build it part time and keep it alive.
- A 10-chapter e-book that takes one composite 52-person freight company from 'we'd phone people' to a tested plan, week by week
- The Continuity and Crisis Workbook: 14 sheets with critical activities, MTPD, RTO and RPO checks, single-point-of-failure flags, risks, strategies, crisis team, suppliers, backup tests, exercises, actions and a 21-measure dashboard
- 4 fillable PDF forms and 8 Word templates, including a full plan template, 8 scenario runbooks, 34 crisis communication templates and 29 AI prompts
- A downtime cost calculator, a Start Here map, a first-hour card, a mistakes card, dated law and standards notes, a 47-event calendar and a 39-task CSV
The Business Continuity and Crisis Plan · Bodhih Pro Kits · 189 by Bodhih Training, trainers to 2,000+ companies since 2008.
How do I write a business continuity plan for a small business?
Start with a business impact analysis: list the activities that matter, how long each can stop (MTPD), when it must be back (RTO) and how much data you can lose (RPO). Then choose strategies, name a crisis team with deputies, write runbooks and messages, and exercise. The Business Continuity and Crisis Plan Kit from Bodhih Training covers each step.
Want the full free guide first? Read How to Write a Business Continuity Plan for a Small Business.
You already feel the problem. Here is what it is costing you.
One of everything
One site, one server, one main supplier, one person who knows the passwords. A small company has no spare capacity to absorb a bad day, and most of its single points of failure are invisible until the day arrives.
A plan nobody can open
The continuity plan, if there is one, is a template downloaded years ago and saved on the file server. On the day the server is down, the plan goes with it.
Nobody knows who decides
When something goes wrong at 3 a.m., people wait for the boss, who is on a flight. Without written decision rights, deputies and spend limits, the first hour is lost to asking permission.
Backups that have never been restored
The backup runs every night and the dashboard is green. Nobody has timed a restore, and nobody knows whether the copy can be reached by the ransomware that would encrypt everything else.
The wrong words at the worst moment
Customers hear about the incident from social media, a manager guesses at the cause on the phone, and a journalist gets 'no comment'. A small incident becomes a reputational one in an afternoon.
Customers and insurers are asking
Contracts ask for a documented and tested plan available on request. Insurers ask about backups and incident response. The Allianz Risk Barometer 2026 put cyber incidents first and business interruption third among global business risks.
Picture the next few weeks with the kit open beside you.
Picture week 2. Instead of writing a plan, you sit at the warehouse manager's desk with the business impact analysis worksheet and ask what would happen if dispatch stopped on a Tuesday in peak season. 'A week, maybe' becomes 'a day', and by Friday the Critical Activities sheet has ranked every activity and flagged the three recovery times you cannot yet meet.
Now it is week 5. As you open the Strategy Value sheet, the cheap laminated booking sheet shows a payback in the first hour of use and the expensive standby system does not. Leadership funds the partner warehouse agreement in one meeting, because the loss curve is on the screen.
Imagine week 7. Nine people around a table, a facilitator reading the ransomware injects aloud. Someone reaches for the power button and someone else reads the runbook's first line. The observer writes it all down, the hot debrief takes twenty minutes, and five actions with owners go onto the Actions sheet before anyone leaves the room.
And then the quarter after. Fifteen minutes on a Friday with the Dashboard open, a restore test logged, a one-page report that asks leadership for two decisions. Whether you start with the Start Here map tonight or the workbook's Settings sheet tomorrow morning, the response to the bad day is decided before it comes.
21 files that do the work for you
The e-book shows you how. The tools make it happen. Here is exactly what you download.
The Business Continuity and Crisis Plan (e-book, PDF)
The guide: methods, worked examples, scripts and exercises
Start here: the continuity programme map
The eight-week build and the live response on one page, naming the file to open at each step, your first hour with the kit and a 30/60/90-day use plan.
Continuity and Crisis Workbook
14-sheet workbook: settings, critical activity register with MTPD, RTO, RPO and priority rank, dependency map with single-point-of-failure flags, risk and scenario register, strategy options with cost and readiness, crisis team and call tree, recovery tasks by scenario, supplier continuity, backup and restore tests, exercise programme, action log, plan maintenance and a dashboard with a readiness score and an actions chart.
Downtime Cost and RTO Prioritiser
Six-sheet calculator: cost of downtime per hour and per day for each critical activity, a loss curve from one hour to two weeks, a ranking to set recovery time objectives in order, and a strategy value test with annual benefit and payback.
Business impact analysis worksheet
Three-page fillable worksheet for one activity at a time: what it does and when it peaks, how impact grows over time, MTPD, RTO and RPO, dependencies and single points of failure, and the workaround you could use today. Transfer the results to the Critical Activities and Dependencies sheets.
Crisis activation checklist and log
Three-page fillable form used live: the activation decision in the first fifteen minutes, the first-hour checklist with times, and a running crisis log of decisions, actions and information with time stamps. Print copies for the grab bag.
Scenario runbook card
Two-page fillable card for one scenario: triggers, the first-hour actions with owners, the recovery sequence with target hours, who to call, what to say, and stand-down criteria. Complete one per scenario from the Runbooks Pack and print for the grab bag.
Exercise observation and after-action review form
Three-page fillable form: the observer's sheet for a tabletop, walkthrough or simulation (timings, what worked, what stalled), then the after-action review for an exercise or a real incident, ending with owned actions that go to the Actions sheet.
Business continuity plan template
The full plan document in 16 sections and three annexes: document control, purpose and policy, roles, critical activities and objectives, dependencies, strategies, activation, runbooks, communications, IT recovery and safety links, suppliers, people and welfare, insurance, multi-site notes, exercising and review, grab bag and glossary. Guidance in brackets to delete as you write.
Crisis management plan and team charter
A one-page team charter to adopt (11 commitments), then the roles with decision rights and first tasks, activation levels, the war room set-up, the 20-minute check-in agenda, the logging standard and a shift handover.
Scenario runbooks pack (8 scenarios)
Eight editable runbooks: cyber attack or ransomware, fire or building loss, flood or extreme weather, power or utility failure, IT or cloud outage, key person loss, supplier failure, pandemic or illness wave. Each has triggers, a first-hour table, a recovery sequence, rules and stand-down criteria, plus three shorter patterns for strikes, product failures and reputational crises.
Crisis communication templates
34 ready-to-adapt messages in seven groups: staff alerts, customer notices (including the top-account phone script), supplier and contractor notices, insurer, bank, regulator and data-breach notices, media holding statements and spokesperson lines, social media posts and replies, and internal updates, stand-down and thanks.
Supplier continuity requirements and questionnaire
Ten continuity requirements to write into critical supplier contracts, a cover letter, a 22-question questionnaire in five areas, and an internal scoring table with decision thresholds.
Tabletop exercise facilitator guide with two scripted scenarios
The exercise planning card (10 rules), a facilitator script, and two fully scripted 90-minute tabletops with timed injects and questions: a Monday-morning ransomware attack and a monsoon flood at the warehouse, each with a list of what a good team does.
Worked example pack: Meridian Freight Services
One composite 52-person logistics company taken through the whole programme: scope and policy, the business impact analysis with real numbers, the dependency map, the risk register, strategy choices, the crisis team, the ransomware tabletop and its after-action review, so you can see what good looks like.
AI prompt pack for continuity and crisis management
29 tool-agnostic prompts grouped by step of the programme, each with what to paste in and what to check before you use the output, plus the crisis limits for AI on one page.
First-hour and activation decision card
The first sixty minutes minute by minute with owners, and the 'if X, do Y' activation decisions, for the war room wall and the grab bag.
Continuity and crisis mistakes to avoid
Twenty programme mistakes with what to do instead and the file that prevents each, plus five AI-specific mistakes.
Laws, standards and research notes (October 2026)
Dated quick reference: the standards behind the method, notification duties that can start during a crisis across the EU, UK, India, US, Singapore, Australia and Nigeria, country practice notes and verified research headlines.
8-week build calendar with quarterly exercise reminders
47 calendar events: the eight-week build from kick-off to the first leadership report, Friday fifteen-minute reviews, then quarterly restore and call-tree tests, the month-6 tabletop and the annual review. Import into a new calendar and move to your dates.
Continuity build task board import
39 tasks as a CSV ready to import into Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner or Jira, with week, description, owner, file to open and due date.
Chapter by chapter
Each chapter opens with a real situation, gives you a method and ends with something to do today, using the tools in your kit.
- Format
- PDF e-book + XLSX + fillable PDF + DOCX + PDF cheat sheets + ICS + CSV
- Files
- 21 files plus a one-click ZIP
- E-book
- 60 pages
- Works with
- Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice, Word, Google Docs, Acrobat Reader, GoodNotes, Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner, Jira
- Best for
- Small and mid-size companies building their first business continuity and crisis management programme, or rebuilding one that has gone stale
- Standards
- Follows the shape of ISO 22301 and BCI good practice, explained in plain words; not a certification
Be Ready for the Bad Day
Why a company with one site, one supplier and one server needs a plan most, and the eight-week method in one page.
Scope, Policy and the Person Who Owns It
Scope, a five-sentence continuity policy the boss signs, the programme owner, the crisis lead and a team named in week 1.
The Business Impact Analysis in Plain Words
Maximum tolerable period of disruption, recovery time and recovery point objectives in plain words, found in 40-minute interviews.
What It Costs to Stop, and What You Depend On
Cost of downtime per hour, the loss curve, and a dependency map that exposes every single point of failure.
Risks and Scenarios
A small-company risk register scored on a 5 x 5 matrix, with every risk assigned to the runbook that would handle it.
Continuity Strategies and Supplier Continuity
The short menu of continuity strategies, a payback test for each, and supplier continuity requirements and questionnaires.
The Plan, the Crisis Team and the Runbooks
A short plan that works on a phone, a crisis team with deputies and written decision rights, a war room rhythm and eight runbooks.
The First Hour and the Words You Will Use
The activation decision in fifteen minutes, the first hour minute by minute, and crisis communications through one voice.
IT Recovery, Safety and People
Backups you have restored, the handover from the safety plan, and people welfare during and after a crisis.
Exercises and After-Action Reviews
Tabletops, walkthroughs and simulations, a facilitator's craft, the hot debrief and the blame-free after-action review.
Keeping It Alive
Maintenance triggers, the annual review, a readiness score, a quarterly report that asks for decisions, country notes and AI limits.
The Plan Is the People Who Have Rehearsed It
What you now have, the light rhythm that keeps it alive, and the first hour with the kit.
Glossary in Plain Words
Plain definitions of the terms used across the kit, matched to the workbook.
Six Rules for AI in Continuity and Crisis Work
Six rules that keep AI tools useful in continuity work and out of live crisis decisions.
Not just reading. Tools you will actually open again.
E-book
- The Business Continuity and Crisis Plan: introduction, 10 chapters, conclusion, 2 appendices and 6 hand-drawn figures (PDF)
Start here
- 00-Start-Here-Continuity-Map: the eight-week build and the live response with the file to open at each step, your first hour and a 30/60/90 day use plan
Spreadsheets
- Continuity and Crisis Workbook (14 sheets): Start here, Settings, Critical Activities, Dependencies, Risk Register, Strategies, Crisis Team, Recovery Tasks, Suppliers, Backup Tests, Exercises, Actions, Maintenance and a Dashboard with a readiness score, 21 live measures and an actions chart
- Downtime Cost and RTO Prioritiser (6 sheets): cost of downtime per hour and per day, a loss curve from one hour to two weeks, a ranking to set recovery time objectives, and a strategy value test with payback
Fillable PDF forms
- Business impact analysis worksheet: three pages per activity, from impact over time to MTPD, RTO, RPO, dependencies and today's workaround
- Crisis activation checklist and log: the 15-minute activation decision, the first-hour checklist and a time-stamped crisis log
- Scenario runbook card: a two-page card per scenario for the grab bag and the phone
- Exercise observation and after-action review form: observer sheet, hot debrief and a blame-free review with owned actions
Word templates
- Business continuity plan template: 16 sections and three annexes with guidance to delete as you write
- Crisis management plan and team charter: an 11-commitment charter, roles with decision rights, activation levels, war room, check-in agenda, logging standard and shift handover
- Scenario runbooks pack: 8 runbooks (cyber attack, fire, flood, power, IT outage, key person loss, supplier failure, illness wave) plus three shorter patterns for strikes, product failures and reputational crises
- Crisis communication templates: 34 messages for staff, customers, suppliers, insurer, bank, regulator, media and social media
- Supplier continuity requirements and questionnaire: 10 contract requirements, a cover letter, 22 questions and a scoring table
- Tabletop exercise facilitator guide: a planning card, a facilitator script and two scripted 90-minute scenarios with 10 injects each
- Worked example pack: Meridian Freight Services, a composite 52-person logistics company, taken through the whole programme
- AI prompt pack for continuity and crisis management: 29 prompts, each with what to paste in and what to check, plus the crisis limits for AI
Cheat sheets
- First-hour and activation decision card: the first sixty minutes with owners and 15 if-this-then-that activation decisions
- Continuity and crisis mistakes to avoid: 20 programme mistakes and 5 AI-specific mistakes, each with the fix
- Laws, standards and research notes, dated October 2026: standards, notification duties by country, country practice notes and verified research
Calendar and import
- 8-week build calendar (ICS): 47 events for Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar, including quarterly tests, the six-month tabletop and the annual review
- Continuity build task board (CSV): 39 tasks for Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner or Jira
When you have worked through it, you will be able to…
Every outcome is practised with a worked example and a tool, not just described.
- Set the scope, sign a five-sentence continuity policy and name a crisis team with deputies in the first week
- Run business impact analysis interviews that set MTPD, RTO and RPO for each critical activity and flag objectives you cannot meet
- Put a cost per hour on downtime and rank activities so leadership can see what to fund first
- Map dependencies, find single points of failure and choose continuity strategies with a payback for each
- Write a short plan, eight runbooks and pre-approved messages that work printed or on a phone with the server down
- Make the activation decision in fifteen minutes and run the first hour from a checklist and a log
- Plan and facilitate a tabletop exercise and turn its findings into owned actions
- Keep the programme current with review triggers, quarterly tests and a one-page readiness report
Know your starting point. Prove your progress.
People who measure before and after improve faster and can show it. AssessAll, our sister assessment platform, has AI-graded assessments that pair with this kit. Take one now, work through the kit, then re-take it.
A taste of Chapter 2
Maximum tolerable period of disruption (MTPD). The time after which the damage from an activity stopping becomes very hard to reverse: customers leave for good, a deadline is missed, penalties begin. Suresh's "a day" is an MTPD. Recovery time objective (RTO). When you aim to have the activity running again at a minimum level. It must be shorter than the MTPD, with a margin, because recovery never goes to plan. MTPD 24 hours, RTO 12 is sane; RTO 24 is a bet on a perfect day. Recovery point objective (RPO). How much data or work you can afford to lose, as time since the last good copy. If bookings are keyed all day and the backup runs at night, your RPO is a day, and on a bad day you redo a day's keying from emails. If that is unacceptable, the backup runs more often.
The honest comparison
| Free templates and typical advice | This kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | Download a plan template and fill it in | A business impact analysis first, with MTPD, RTO and RPO set in interviews and checked by the workbook |
| Priorities | Everything is critical | Cost of downtime per hour, a loss curve and a ranked list leadership can fund |
| Weak spots | Discovered on the day | A dependency map with single-point-of-failure flags and a strategy against each |
| The crisis team | The boss decides everything | Roles, deputies, written decision rights, spend limits, a war room rhythm and a log keeper |
| Communications | Written in a hurry on the day | 34 numbered templates, pre-approval in advance and one voice outside |
| Testing | The plan is never tested | A facilitator guide with two scripted tabletops, an observer form, quarterly restore and call-tree tests |
| Law and AI | Assumes one country, or not mentioned | Dated notes on notification duties by country, and written limits on AI in a live crisis |
Made for you if…
- Compliance officers and risk or business continuity owners in small and mid-size companies
- IT managers who also own security, backups and disaster recovery
- HR and office managers who have been handed the continuity policy alongside everything else
- Founders, COOs and managing directors who want to know what would happen if the site, the server or a key person were gone tomorrow
- Data protection leads who need breach response and notification clocks built into the crisis plan
- Companies with customers, insurers or contracts asking for a documented and tested continuity plan
Probably not for you if…
- Anyone looking for legal advice or a certification: the kit helps you organise a programme and prepare for ISO 22301 alignment, and points you to your regulator, counsel and local law, with notes dated October 2026
- Teams that need a full cyber security programme: the Information Security kit covers prevention and detection; this kit starts where an attack has succeeded
- Readers wanting a library of one-page workplace policies: The Employee Handbook and Policy Builder covers that ground; this kit goes deep on continuity and crisis management
Built by trainers, tested in real rooms.
Bodhih Training has designed and delivered corporate programmes since 2008. Bodhih Pro Kits package what works in those workshops into a guide plus the exact tools we use, so you can apply it the same day without a facilitator in the room.
From here to using it in three steps
- STEP 1
Tap Get the kit
Name, email and country. UPI, card or netbanking in India; international cards everywhere else. No account to create.
- STEP 2
Download instantly
Your download page opens at once, with every file and a one-click ZIP. A permanent link lands in your inbox too.
- STEP 3
Open the first tool
Start with the quick-start chapter, then the main spreadsheet or planner. Most buyers use something from the kit the same day.
Decide the response before the bad day decides it for you
Open the Start Here map, type your settings into the workbook, and list the five activities you already know matter. Whether you begin with the business impact analysis this week or book the first tabletop for next month, every file you need is already in the kit.
Personal licence for the buyer's own use (and use with your own team or clients where the kit says so). Please don't share or resell the files. Team and company licences: solutions@bodhih.com.
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The Business Continuity and Crisis Plan: FAQs
Read the free guideAlready bought? Resend my linkWhat is the difference between business continuity, crisis management and disaster recovery?
Business continuity is the whole programme for keeping critical activities going or bringing them back in time. Crisis management is the live response: activation, the team, decisions, the log and communications. Disaster recovery is the IT part: restoring systems and data. In a small company the same few people do all three, so this kit joins them up.
What is the difference between RTO and RPO?
The recovery time objective (RTO) is when you aim to have an activity running again at a minimum level, and it must sit inside the maximum tolerable period of disruption. The recovery point objective (RPO) is how much data or work you can afford to lose, measured as time since the last good copy. The workbook checks both against your strategies and backup tests.
How long does it take to build the plan with this kit?
The method is designed as eight weeks of part-time work, roughly four hours a week for the owner plus short interviews with activity owners. The calendar and the task board lay out every session. After week 8 the rhythm is light: fifteen minutes on a Friday, quarterly tests and a tabletop every six months.
Does this make us ISO 22301 certified?
No. The kit follows the shape of ISO 22301 and Business Continuity Institute good practice in plain words, which helps if you later choose to align with or certify to the standard. Certification is done by an accredited body. The kit is educational and is not a legal opinion; check your regulator, counsel and local law.
How often should a business continuity plan be tested?
The kit's programme is a tabletop exercise every six months, a restore test and a call-tree test every quarter, and a walkthrough per site each year, with an annual review. The Exercises sheet works out the next due date and the calendar reminds you. Adjust the rhythm to your contracts and regulator.
Does it cover cyber attacks and ransomware?
Yes, from the continuity side: a ransomware runbook, a scripted ransomware tabletop, backup and restore testing with offline copies, and holding statements for a cyber incident. Preventing and detecting attacks is a security programme, which the Information Security kit covers.
Will it work for our country?
The method is the same everywhere. The dated Laws and Standards Notes sheet summarises notification duties for the EU, UK, India, US, Singapore, Australia and Nigeria, with country practice notes for the Gulf, Africa and the Philippines. Rules change, so confirm with your regulator and counsel.
How should we use AI tools in continuity and crisis work?
AI is useful for drafting policies, interview questions, scenarios, injects, holding statements and reports, and the prompt pack has 29 prompts for those moments. It never decides whether to activate, pay a ransom, notify a regulator or what to tell customers. A named person checks every fact and approves, and the runbooks work on paper with no AI at all.
How can I measure my starting point in crisis decision making?
AssessAll offers separate assessments matched to this kit: Crisis & High-Stakes Decision Making, Crisis & Pressure Judgment, and Incident Response & On-Call Judgment. They are useful for the crisis lead, deputies and on-call staff before the first tabletop. They are not included in the kit.
How do we turn what we learn into a development plan for the crisis team?
Use the after-action review findings and any assessment results as the input, then turn them into a development plan with Jobulary, which shows how a development plan works step by step. Pair it with the deputies' tabletop six months later to see whether the gaps have closed.
How much does The Business Continuity and Crisis Plan cost?
₹999 including 18% GST for buyers in India, or $29 for buyers outside India. One-time payment, no subscription, with an automatic invoice.
How do I get the files after paying?
Instantly. Your download page opens the moment payment succeeds, and a permanent download link is emailed to you. Download each file separately or everything in one ZIP.
What software do I need?
Any of the usual tools: Excel or Google Sheets for spreadsheets, Word or Google Docs for templates, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview, Xodo or GoodNotes for the fillable PDFs, and Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar for the calendar plan.
Can I get a refund?
Because it is a digital download, kits are not refundable once downloaded. We always refund a duplicate charge or a failed delivery, and if a file is corrupted and we cannot fix it within 3 working days. Full terms: bodhih.org/refunds.
Can my company buy this for a team?
Yes. Team and company licences, and workshops on this topic run by Bodhih Training, are available. Write to solutions@bodhih.com or call +91 99000 11601.
