It was 7:42am on a Tuesday when the call came in. The site manager wasn't coming in. Not today, not tomorrow - not ever. No notice. No handover. No plan.
By 8:15am, the team was stood waiting at the gates, the client was chasing progress, and the only person who had half an idea of what was going on was already drowning in their own to-do list.
It’s not dramatic. It’s just reality. Curveballs like that happen in business every day – a key person leaves, a van breaks down, a major client changes the brief, or you get wiped out by flu the night before a big pitch.
You can’t always predict them. But how you respond to them says everything about how well your business is really running.
It’s not just bad luck – it’s a gap
When small businesses are hit by disruption, they often chalk it up to bad luck.
But in many cases, the issue isn’t the curveball itself – it’s that the business had no capacity to absorb it.
There’s no handover process. No cover plan. No one else with access to the files, the passwords, or the latest update. So everything screeches to a halt – or worse, someone makes a call with half the picture.
That’s not resilience. That’s survival.
Who else knows how to do this?
It’s a question I encourage every business owner to ask regularly. Not in a panic – but as part of how you build strength into your operations.
What happens if this person is off unexpectedly? What happens if you are?
If the answer is “we’d figure it out,” that’s probably not good enough.
You don’t need a crisis plan – just a little prep
You don’t have to spend weeks planning for every worst-case scenario. But a few small shifts can save you huge stress:
Rotate knowledge. Make sure more than one person knows how key things work. Get people to shadow each other even when they’re not leaving.
Keep things findable. Store information in shared locations. If something happened tomorrow, could someone else pick up where you left off?
Create quick handovers. For roles with regular absence (like holidays), create a one-pager with what’s in play, key contacts, and next steps.
Play the “what if” game. Ask your team: What would we do if X happened? The answers are often eye-opening -and solvable.
Build in bounce-back
Resilient businesses don’t avoid problems – they bounce back quickly. That bounceback comes from good people, yes – but also from having the right operational scaffolding underneath.
If you’ve been lucky so far, brilliant. But luck isn’t a strategy.
So before the next curveball hits, do yourself a favour. Take a look at what would fall apart if one person (including you) had to step away tomorrow.
Then fix that bit. Not all of it. Just one bit.
Don’t wait for the next disruption
At Simplified Operations, this is exactly the kind of support we give to small businesses – helping you build calm, capable systems that hold up when things go sideways.
If you’re tired of firefighting or constantly being the backup plan, get in touch.
We’ll help you find the pressure points and fix them before they break.
Get in touch: helen@simplifiedoperations.co.uk
0191 694 1349