When Japanese drinks giant Asahi was hit by a cyber attack recently, production ground to a halt. Staff were quoted saying they’d “gone back to using pen and paper.”
It’s the kind of headline that makes you wince. A global company, world-class products, suddenly reduced to handwritten notes and manual workarounds.
If it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone.
That’s why business resilience for small business matters more than ever. It’s not just about cyberattacks; it’s about being ready for anything that interrupts your operations – from a power cut to a flooded office or another sudden work-from-home order.
At Commercial Networks, we help organisations of all sizes prepare for moments like these, not with panic plans, but with practical resilience strategies that keep you working, whatever happens.
Business Resilience for Small Business – More Than Just IT
When most people hear “resilience,” they think backups or cybersecurity, but real resilience goes further.
It’s about how your business continues functioning when normal conditions disappear, whether that’s because of a cyber attack, a power outage, a flooded office, or (as we all remember) a government order to suddenly work from home.
Ask yourself:
- Could your team still communicate if your main systems went down?
- Do you know where your critical data lives and who can access it remotely?
- If your premises were unavailable, how long would it take to get everyone working again?
Good resilience planning means you’ve already answered those questions.
At Commercial Networks, we start with a simple principle: keep the business moving while you fix the problem. That could mean switching to backup servers, activating cloud systems, or even something as low-tech as redirecting phone lines and enabling remote access overnight.
The Scenarios You’re Probably Not Planning For
Cyber attacks make headlines but they’re not the only thing that can knock a business offline.
Here are three other disruptions that often catch SMBs off guard.
1. Flooded Premises or Power Outages
It doesn’t take a full-blown storm to stop operations. A burst pipe, blown fuse, or local power cut can take your main systems offline in seconds.
Resilience tip:
Keep your data in the cloud (or have a hybrid backup) so it’s accessible from anywhere.
Make sure your key staff can log in remotely from laptops or home PCs, and that your phone system, whether VoIP or Teams, can reroute calls automatically.
Your office might be down, but your business doesn’t have to be.
2. Connectivity Loss or Hardware Failure
If your network fails, so does everything that depends on it.
That’s why redundancy matters, not just backups, but resilient internet connections and failover hardware.
Resilience tip:
Consider having a secondary internet link (even 4G or 5G backup) and test it regularly.
And don’t forget those routers and switches, they’re part of your resilience plan too.
When things go dark, being able to switch over in minutes instead of hours can make the difference between inconvenience and income loss.
3. A Sudden Return to Remote Working
Remember the early days of the pandemic? Dining tables became desks, and “You’re on mute” became the soundtrack of 2020.
Most businesses adapted but could you do it again, tomorrow?
Resilience tip:
Review your remote access setup. Are VPNs still configured? Do employees have secure devices ready to go? Is your cloud storage properly managed and backed up?
Business Resilience for Small Business – Getting Back on Track
Resilience and disaster recovery go hand in hand.
Business resilience keeps you operating during the crisis.
Disaster recovery gets your systems and data back to normal afterwards.
For small businesses, both are vital.
A solid disaster recovery plan covers:
- Where your backups are stored (and how quickly you can restore them).
- Who’s responsible for initiating recovery steps.
- How you’ll communicate internally and externally during the process.
- When and how you’ll test the plan.
Testing is key, there’s no point having a 30-page recovery plan if no one’s ever read it. We recommend running at least one tabletop exercise per year, even if it’s just a short “what if?” discussion with your leadership team.
The NCSC Small Business Guide is a great place to start for basic frameworks.
IT Resilience – Building Strength into Everyday Operations
Resilience isn’t something you switch on when things go wrong; it’s something you build into everyday operations.
That means:
- Keeping systems patched and up to date.
- Monitoring for threats before they cause downtime.
- Having redundant systems (or at least failover options).
- Regularly reviewing your setup as your business grows.
At Commercial Networks, we call it IT Resilience, the ability to adapt and recover quickly, whether you’re hit by ransomware or a power cut.
Because true resilience isn’t about eliminating risk; it’s about being ready for it.
Don’t Wait for the Wake-Up Call
Asahi’s story is a reminder that even global organisations can be caught off guard.
But small businesses have an advantage: agility. You can review, plan, and adapt faster than most corporations ever could.
Take that opportunity now.
Next step: Contact us for a simple resilience review.
Because you never want to be the team saying, “We’ve gone back to pen and paper.”
Further Reading
- BBC News: Asahi Cyber Attack Coverage
- NCSC: Small Business Guide – Resilience
- UK Government: Preparing for Emergencies
- Microsoft: Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery Planning
