The stark reality is that starting a business isn’t as simple as it may seem and a massive 60% will fail within their first three years, with 20% not making it through the first year alone.

You know the cost of recruiting a new member of staff to your business, the uncertainty of the candidate actually turning up on their start date or leaving within the first few months.

Succession planning is a useful exercise to carry out for any business. Obviously, the scale of the exercise will vary dependent on the size of the employer, but it is certainly a helpful way to future-proof any small organisation in terms of roles and skills gaps.

Have you considered recently which risks pose the highest impact on your business? Risks will vary according to the size of your business, the nature of your business and the markets you operate in.

Before our reliance on technology, we were forced to establish and document a process for our work. Reminders and tasks had to be written down. Letters had to be sent. Phone calls had to be made.