‘Julie has resigned, I don’t know what to do. She's the only one that can cover for me, no one else knows how the booking system works. I’ll be lost without her! Shall I offer her money to stay?’

My client Patrick called in a panic as the administrator/controller of his chauffeur business had handed in her notice. He’d recently changed his booking system and had sent Julie on the two-day training so that she could be the superuser and train his other controllers and drivers.

That system was the lynchpin of his business!

Do you have systems and processes in your business that only one person can complete?

Building a business that can work without you is key, you shouldn’t feel like you are being held hostage by your staff.

As awesome as your team is you have to be prepared for the fact that people will leave and you’ll need to adjust.

If Julie didn’t have all the knowledge of the new system Patrick wouldn’t have been concerned by her resignation. She was late often and overrode the price list without asking for approval for discounts.

I told Patrick that offering an increased salary would only be a sticking plaster on a gaping hole, but would give him a chance to get a few members of his team up to speed with the new system if she accepted - in the end, we managed to get the team trained during her notice period and a detailed manual created to train new joiners.

And then we reviewed the business functions to make sure that there weren’t any other single points of failure, we found a few and put a plan into place for those too!

To ensure your business can function you need to eliminate single points of failure and have up to date process manuals so that your business can still function should anyone leave or fall ill.

It’s also important to think about succession planning so that you can start training your staff and giving them acting up opportunities to prepare them for their next role.

Need help with future-proofing your business? Schedule a call to see how we can help you.