T–BC Free template

Business Continuity Plan template for contract bids — sized for small businesses.

Six sections — critical functions, risks, arrangements, activation, recovery objectives, testing — each annotated with what evaluation panels verify. Built for the continuity section public solicitations require, not for an enterprise binder. Full template below; Word file downloads directly.

Download the Word file Have us write it — $490

No email required. Free to use and share, unchanged. Last reviewed: October 5, 2026.

T–BC–01 The template

Six sections, with evaluator annotations.

Replace every [bracketed] item with your facts; delete the grey annotation lines before submitting.

1 · Purpose & critical functions

“This plan keeps the services under [solicitation number and title] running through foreseeable disruptions.” Rank the functions: what must continue same-day, what can pause 48 hours.
Evaluator check: functions are ranked with explicit tolerances — “everything is critical” reads as unplanned.

2 · Risk assessment

The disruptions most likely to hit THIS contract — severe weather, an illness wave, key-person loss, vehicle or equipment failure, supplier failure, an IT outage — each with likelihood and impact (L/M/H).
Evaluator check: a guard contract and an IT contract do not share a risk table. Generic registries score as filler.

3 · Continuity arrangements

Staffing backup (cross-trained staff, float or on-call, mutual-aid or subcontract with response time) · key-person backup (who assumes the role, within how many hours) · equipment and vehicles (spares, rental agreement, lead time) · supplies (secondary supplier, lead time) · systems and data where relevant (backup cadence, who restores, alternate connectivity).
Evaluator check: every arrangement has a lead time attached. An arrangement without a lead time is a hope.

4 · Activation & communications

Who declares activation and on what trigger · the agency notified within the exact window the contract sets, then updated at a stated cadence · the internal phone tree, tested · one point of contact for the agency throughout.
Evaluator check: the notification window matches the contract clause word for word — the first line agencies verify.

5 · Recovery objectives

A recovery time objective per critical function — and each one traces to a named arrangement from section 3.
Evaluator check: “restored in 4 hours” with no mechanism is an elimination risk, not a strength.

6 · Testing & maintenance

An annual tabletop or post-incident review, a review after each activation, a named owner, and a dated current version distributed to the people in it.
Evaluator check: a dated review cadence turns the plan from a bid-day artifact into a living document.

Download this as a Word file

T–BC–02 Template vs. finished section

The hard part isn't the outline. It's the lead times.

Panels don't score the structure; they score whether your backup supervisor, your rental agreement and your notification window are believable — and consistent with the staffing and safety sections elsewhere in your bid. That cross-section consistency is the work.

Have it written to your RFP — $490, 5 business days

We write the finished Business Continuity Plan from your real resources, to your solicitation's clauses — Word + PDF. Credited in full toward a Full Proposal Draft ordered within 30 days.

What the finished section contains →

R–07 Straight answers

Continuity plan template: short answers.

Is this business continuity plan template free, and who is it for?

Free, on this page, Word download with no email gate. It is sized for small service businesses whose solicitation requires a continuity (or COOP) section — security, IT managed services, janitorial, facilities. It is deliberately NOT an enterprise framework: a 12-person company that names real people, trucks and suppliers beats one that invents a "Crisis Management Office".

What does a continuity plan need to pass an RFP evaluation?

Ranked critical functions with explicit tolerances (what continues same-day, what can pause 48 hours), risks specific to the contract, continuity arrangements with real lead times, an agency notification window that matches the contract clause word for word, and recovery time objectives that each trace to a named arrangement. The template’s annotations cover all five.

Is business continuity the same as disaster recovery?

They overlap but differ: disaster recovery usually means restoring systems and data; business continuity means keeping the contracted service running — people, equipment, suppliers, communications — with DR as one component. Write to whichever term and scope your solicitation uses.

Can you write the finished plan for us?

Yes — $490 flat, 5 business days, written to your solicitation and your real backup resources, in Word + PDF. It is the longest of the flat-fee sections we write, and the price is credited in full toward a Full Proposal Draft ordered within 30 days.

R–08 Get it written

Your deadline won't wait for a blank template.

Send the solicitation through the quote form. Fixed $490, 5 business days, written to your bid.

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