Business Continuity for DFW Owners: The Plan Without You

If you run a business in Dallas-Fort Worth, you've probably planned for weather.

You know who to call when hail hits the roof. You know what happens when the power goes out. Maybe you even back up the computers.

Now picture a different kind of storm. You're in the hospital for three weeks. Or you're gone for good.

Who signs payroll on Friday? Who can talk to the bank? Who knows the password to the accounting software?

That's the gap that's easiest to miss in a continuity plan: the owner. I'm Harvey Baker Jr., a licensed Texas agent in McKinney, and here's how to build a plan that works without you.

What a business continuity plan actually is

A business continuity plan is a written plan for keeping the business running when something important breaks. That "something" can be a building, a system, a supplier, or a person.

Big companies write long plans with binders and tabs. You don't need that. For a business with 5 to 50 employees, a few honest pages beat a binder nobody reads.

The question it answers is simple: What happens Monday?

The four pieces of a plan without you

1. People: who's in charge when you're not?

• Who makes decisions? Name one person, and a backup. Write down what they can decide on their own and what has to wait.

• Who can sign? Check whether anyone besides you can sign checks, approve payroll, or move money. Banks set these permissions ahead of time, not in the middle of a crisis.

• Who talks to customers? Your biggest accounts need to hear from someone they trust, fast.

2. Know-how: where is everything?

This is where a lot of small businesses are most fragile. Make a list of:

• Bank accounts, lenders, and account contacts

• Key customers, vendors, and their contacts

• Insurance policies, agents, and renewal dates

• Licenses, permits, and bonds, and who holds them

• Software logins (stored in a password manager, not a sticky note)

• How the critical stuff actually gets done: bids, scheduling, billing

If it only lives in your head, it isn't a process. It's a risk.

3. Money: how long can the business run?

A continuity plan needs cash to work. Ask:

• How many months of payroll and overhead could you cover if revenue dropped?

• Do you have a line of credit you can actually draw on if you're out?

• What insurance would pay out if you, or a key person, died or couldn't work?

This is where coverage comes in. Key person insurance can give the business cash if someone critical dies. Disability coverage can help if an owner can't work. Buy-sell funding can pay a family fairly for an owner's share. Insurance doesn't run the business. It buys time to make good decisions instead of panicked ones. Availability and eligibility vary.

4. Paper: are the legal pieces in place?

These are attorney questions, not mine, but they belong in the plan:

• An operating agreement or bylaws that say what happens if an owner dies or becomes incapacitated

• A buy-sell agreement, if you have partners

• Powers of attorney, so someone can act for you if you can't

• A will or estate plan that covers your business interest

Talk with your attorney about which of these you need and how they should be set up for your situation.

A hypothetical bad month

Hypothetical example for illustration only: Picture a landscaping company in Collin County with 14 employees. The owner has a medical emergency and is out for a month. The office manager knows the schedule and the crews, but the bank won't let her move money, she can't get into the payroll software, and the biggest commercial client only ever dealt with the owner. Nothing about the business is broken. It just can't move without one person.

Now picture the same month with a plan: the office manager is already authorized on the operating account, logins are in a shared password manager, the top clients know her, and there's a page that says who decides what. Same emergency. Very different month.

Build a one-page Monday plan this week

You don't need to finish everything at once. Start with one page:

1. Who's in charge if I'm out, and their backup

2. Who can sign and move money (and confirm it with the bank)

3. Where the list is: accounts, contacts, logins, policies

4. Who calls our top five customers, and what they say

5. How long our cash lasts and what insurance would pay out

6. Who to call first: attorney, CPA, insurance agent, banker

Put it somewhere two trusted people can find it. Review it once a year, or any time something big changes.

The real-vacation test

Here's the cheapest stress test there is: take a real week off. No email, no "quick calls."

Whatever breaks while you're gone is your continuity plan's to-do list. If you can't take the week, that tells you something too.

A few things owners should know

• Banks need permissions in advance. Signing authority and account access are much easier to set up now than after something happens.

• Your agreements may already say something. Leases, loans, and big customer contracts sometimes include terms about owners or key people. Have your attorney check.

• Plans go stale. New employees, new software, new loans. Put a yearly reminder on the calendar.

• Coverage should match the plan. If the plan depends on cash that insurance is supposed to provide, make sure the coverage is actually in place and the amounts still make sense.

Get your Gap Map (free, 20 minutes)

The Gap Map is a one-page look at where your home, your business, and your exit still depend on one person. Three columns. Plain English. You keep it either way, whether you buy anything or not.

Call or text 430-373-7752 with the word MAP for a free one-page Gap Map. Or learn more at bakerlegacypartners.com.

If it runs on you, it needs a plan without you.

Built by you. Protected without you.

Insurance products involve costs, limitations, exclusions, and suitability considerations. This article is educational and is not tax, legal, or financial advice.

Harvey Baker Jr., Licensed Texas Life, Accident & Health Agent, TX License #3470534. Coverage, eligibility, and rates vary by carrier and health.