Your business has grown. Have your people grown with it?
The Business Is Doing Well.. So Why Does It Feel So Hard?
You’ve built something. Orders are coming in, revenue is growing, and the business is busier than it’s ever been. On paper, it looks like success.
But day-to-day? It doesn’t feel like success.
You’re still the one people come to for every decision. You’re covering gaps, chasing updates, and picking up the pieces when things slip through. Your team has been with you since the early days — but somewhere along the way, the business moved forward and some of your people didn’t.
It’s one of the most common challenges growing businesses face. And one of the least talked about.
How to build a succession plan before you need one
The Person You Can’t Afford to Lose
Every business has one. The person who just knows how everything works. They’ve been there for years — maybe over a decade — and somewhere along the way they became the institutional memory of the business. They know the clients, the quirks, the processes, and all the things that were never written down because they were always just there to handle them.
They’re brilliant. Dependable. Irreplaceable.
And that last word is where the problem starts.
The people plan your business plan is missing
It All Begins The Plan That Gets Written. And the One That Doesn’t.
Most growing businesses have a business plan. Revenue targets, service development, new markets, capital investment. The ambition is mapped out. The direction is clear.
But ask the same business owner a different set of questions — who are the people that will deliver this? What skills does the business need that it doesn’t have yet? What happens when key roles need to be filled, or teams need to grow to meet demand? — and the answers are often vague.
The business plan tells you where you’re going. The people plan tells you whether your team can get you there.
Most businesses only have one of the two.Here