Running a business means making plans.
You plan for growth, staffing, cashflow, and customers. You plan for the things you can influence and control.
What’s harder to plan for are disruptions that sit outside your control - Events like fire, natural disasters, sudden illness, the loss of a key person, or access issues that prevent a business from operating as normal.
When these unexpected events happen, they can change how a business operates overnight.
That’s where business resilience comes in.
It's being prepared enough that if something unexpected disrupts your normal way of working, the business can respond rather than scramble.
It’s about understanding how your business would cope if income slowed, access was restricted, systems were unavailable, or key people couldn’t work for a period of time.
Why resilience matters in business
Most business owners are hardworking, committed, and responsible. They put a lot of thought into building something sustainable.
What often gets less attention is resilience, not because it isn’t important, but because it can feel uncomfortable to think about.
Yet resilience isn’t about expecting the worst. It’s about protecting what you’ve built.
Businesses that cope best when something unexpected happens tend to have clarity in a few key areas. Not perfect systems. Not endless contingency plans. Just enough thinking done ahead of time so decisions aren’t made under unnecessary pressure.
In my work with business owners, the businesses that cope best tend to have clarity in a few key areas.
Cash and cashflow
When income slows or stops suddenly, time becomes your most valuable asset. Knowing how long your business could continue under pressure, what cash reserves exists, and which costs could be put on hold, gives you options instead of rushed decisions.
Cash doesn’t remove problems, but it gives you space to think clearly.
Insurance
Business interruption, access issues, and loss of income cover are often the policies that matter most when disruption occurs.
Many business owners have insurance in place, but haven’t had the chance to fully understand what is covered, what isn’t, how long cover applies for, or who to contact first if something happens.
Clarity here avoids uncertainty at the worst possible time.
Information and access
If critical information lives with one person or in one location, recovery becomes harder than it needs to be.
Systems, passwords, supplier details, payroll processes, and key contacts should be accessible and backed up, so the business isn’t reliant on a single individual or place to keep operating.
This is often one of the simplest areas to improve and one of the most impactful.
Communication
When plans change suddenly, staff don’t expect certainty, but they do need communication.
Knowing how you would contact your team, who would communicate, and how often updates would be shared removes stress and speculation. Clear communication supports people and helps the business stay steady during uncertainty.
This doesn’t require a formal crisis plan, just some forethought.
Clarity
Resilience doesn’t mean having all the answers in advance.
It means knowing what parts of the business could continue in a different way, which decisions you could make quickly, and which ones you would want advice on before acting.
Clarity here helps you respond deliberately rather than reactively.
Thinking about resilience doesn’t mean running a business from a place of worry or worst-case thinking.
It means acknowledging that not everything is within your control and choosing to strengthen the foundations that matter most.
If reading this has made you pause, that’s not a bad thing. Awareness is usually the first step toward better decisions.
To make this practical, I’ve created The Business Resilience Check that walks through these five areas with simple Yes/No questions.
It’s designed to help you pause, sense-check where your business currently sits, and identify where a small amount of attention now could make a meaningful difference later.
Download the Business Resilience Check here
