". . . I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." — DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

The majority of small businesses do not give Disaster Recovery much consideration because their expectation is that the cost of planning is not justified when compared to the expected losses.  However, there are some scenarios in which it does make financial sense to still mitigate those expected losses with good planning.

Define the scope of your plan:
- What is your tolerance for data loss?
- Which exactly are the critical systems and data files?
- What are the different scenarios to plan for?   Loss of building (fire, collapse)?  Public services (phone, electricity)?  Damage to equipment (flood, vandalism, theft)?

Assess the cost of implementing your plan:
- Is your business valuable enough that you should spend some money to protect it?  How much is reasonable?
- Which risks are the most important for you to plan for?  How do they align with your budget?
- Is it reasonable that you could implement your plan immediately?  Or should you roll it out over the next 5 years?