Plan for Stepping Away

You're not planning for disaster—you're just trying to get through the week. I get that.

But what happens when disaster does strike?

We asked over 200 ecommerce business owners if they have a succession plan or cross-training in place for their most essential roles.

Almost half said no.

No plan for if someone gets sick. No plan for if someone quits. No plan for if you need to step away.

Here's what we've seen.

About half of you have no plan at all.

If your key person disappears tomorrow, whether it's you or someone critical on your team, your business stops.

Some of you have some level of preparedness.

Maybe you've talked about it. Maybe you've written a few things down. But it's not actually documented or tested.

And only about one in ten people feel confident that their business could keep running if someone critical had to step away.

What that means to me is that your business is completely dependent on specific people showing up every single day.

And the second they can't, because of illness, burnout, family emergency, or they just decide to leave, you're scrambling.

Operations halt. Customers wait. Revenue stops. Relationships you spent years building start to crack.

All because you didn't take the time to document what people do and train someone else to step in.

Look, I know what you're thinking: "I don't have time for that."

You're busy. Daily fires are consuming your attention. And cross-training feels like something you'll get to eventually.

I've been there. I understand.

But I've also needed to step away from my business. I had to leave for several months to be with my brother in his last few months dying of cancer.

And because of cross training and planning, I did that without worry and my business trucked on without me.

You're not irreplaceable. And neither is anyone on your team.

But what is irreplaceable is the knowledge sitting in people's heads that no one else has access to.

The logins. The vendor relationships. The process for handling returns. The way you manage inventory during Q4.

When that knowledge walks out the door or can't show up because life happened, your business is in crisis mode.

And that's not fair to you, your team, or your customers.

Business continuity isn't just about surviving a disaster.

It's about protecting what you've built. Maintaining customer trust.

Making sure your business can actually support your life, even when you need to step away.

Without a plan, you're one unexpected event away from chaos.

So let me ask you, where does your business stand?

Do you have processes documented? Is there cross-training happening?

Could your business survive if you or your key people had to step away for a month?

Take our Ecommerce Business Performance Assessment and find out where the gaps are.

Cyndi