A luminous lighthouse supplied from two shores offers a painted metaphor for keeping essential work supported when one route is disrupted.
A small business becomes better prepared when it knows which missing item could stop the work, and what a realistic alternative would require.
By Arbab Naseebullah Kasi, Chief Executive Officer - CEO, Feel Worldwide Foundation Inc.
Imagine a small workshop making canvas bags. The fabric has arrived. The sewing machines work. The orders are ready to begin. Then the owner learns that the usual supplier cannot deliver the required zips this week.
A modest component suddenly becomes the most important item in the room.
This is an illustrative situation, but it offers a useful way to think about business resilience. The size of a purchase does not always reveal the size of the disruption its absence could cause. Something inexpensive can hold up something valuable.
For a small business, planning for that possibility can feel like one more job in an already crowded week. There are customers to serve, bills to pay and decisions that cannot wait. Still, a little attention before a disruption can replace some of the guessing that would otherwise happen during it.
The starting point is manageable: choose one product or service you need to keep delivering. Ask what it depends on, which dependencies are difficult to replace and what you would do if one became unavailable.
Start with the work that would stop
It is tempting to begin with a list of your largest suppliers. A more revealing approach is to follow an actual order through the business.
What must arrive before work can begin? What is needed before the finished item can leave? Which outside service makes a promised delivery possible? Where is the only acceptable substitute already known, and where are you relying on hope?
Business Queensland recommends identifying the activities and resources a business needs, then examining how supply interruptions would affect them. Its guidance places this assessment within a broader continuity plan. That is a useful sequence: understand the consequences before choosing the response. Read Business Queensland's supply-chain guidance.
In our workshop example, thread might be available from several nearby shops, while a particular zip needs to match a specified length and finish. The owner would learn more by investigating that difference than by treating both purchases as equally urgent.
Keep the first review narrow. Write down the item, the work it supports and the point at which its absence becomes a problem. Include the person who actually orders or uses it. Their practical knowledge may reveal a dependency that an invoice alone would miss.
Recognise that alternatives take time to find
A second supplier can sound reassuring until you need to place the first order.
In the U.S. Census Bureau's Small Business Pulse Survey, 38.8 percent of small-business respondents reported domestic supplier delays during July 12 to 18, 2021. In the same survey period, 18.9 percent reported difficulty finding alternative domestic suppliers. These were pandemic-era survey findings, not current estimates or predictions for an individual business. They show why the assumption that another supplier will be easy to find deserves examination. Read the Census Bureau's August 2021 account.
For the workshop, a search result is only the beginning. Does the alternative carry the required specification? Is the item actually available? What quantity must be ordered? How long will delivery take after payment? Does someone need to approve a sample before the material can be used?
Those questions belong in the plan while there is still time to answer them.
A useful record can be quite short: a verified contact, the relevant specification, the last availability check and the remaining uncertainty. “Possible supplier, sample not checked” is more helpful than a confident label that hides unfinished work.
Keep quality inside the decision
Urgency can make the first available substitute look like the only practical choice. Give yourself a clearer standard before that moment arrives.
Australian government guidance on choosing suppliers asks businesses to consider reliability, delivery, quality and other factors alongside price. It also recommends documenting important terms, including what will be supplied, timeframes and quality standards. These are practical matters to settle, rather than assumptions to carry into an order. Explore the government's supplier guidance.
In the illustrative workshop, a zip might look suitable in a photograph but fit poorly or change how the bag works. A small sample, checked through the actual making process, could reveal the problem before a larger purchase.
Where a modest trial is affordable and appropriate, record what you checked and what you did not. One successful sample does not establish that a supplier can deliver a much larger quantity on short notice.
Safety requirements and contractual specifications still apply when supplies are scarce. If a change affects what a customer agreed to buy, address it openly before proceeding. Regulated products or specialist materials may require qualified review that a general business checklist cannot provide.
Ask whether two suppliers share the same weakness
Two names on a contact list do not necessarily mean two independent sources.
Japan's Cabinet Office makes this point in its March 2023 Business Continuity Guidelines. Its procurement guidance warns that several suppliers may be affected by the same disaster, or may depend on a single supplier further upstream. It also identifies specifications that permit alternative procurement as one possible preparation. See the Cabinet Office guidelines, printed page 17.
Applied to our example, two local shops could obtain their zips from the same wholesaler. A second shop might help if the first closes unexpectedly, but not if that shared source runs out.
You will not always be able to trace every connection. Ask proportionate questions about where a critical item comes from and what could interrupt its delivery. Record an unknown as an unknown.
This also invites a design question. Is the exact component essential to the product, or has it simply become familiar? Exploring a more widely available alternative during normal development may offer more room to adapt later. Any redesign still needs the usual checks for quality, suitability and customer expectations.
Give spare stock a job, not just a shelf
Buying more can be a reasonable response to uncertainty. It can also leave a business with money committed to items it cannot use.
The UK government's supply-chain resilience framework, published in November 2022, presents several approaches, including alternative sources, stockholding and demand management through substitutes or other changes. It treats them as options to examine. The appropriate response depends on the dependency being addressed. Read the UK resilience framework.
For an explicitly hypothetical calculation, suppose the workshop normally uses 20 zips a working day. An extra 100 usable zips would cover five working days at that rate. That arithmetic does not establish that five days is enough. A larger order, damaged stock or a longer delay could change the picture.
The owner would still need to consider storage, available cash, delivery uncertainty and whether the same component will remain part of the product range. Spare stock is useful when it covers a defined need and can be maintained in usable condition.
Sometimes the more workable choice is a smaller buffer combined with a checked alternative. Sometimes it is an honestly longer lead time for customers. There is no responsible universal quantity to recommend without understanding the business.
Prepare with your supplier, not only around them
A dependable supplier is a relationship worth looking after. Planning for disruption can include that supplier rather than treating them as a problem to escape.
The U.S. Small Business Administration's continuity guidance recommends developing relationships with alternative vendors, asking about key suppliers' recovery plans and keeping important contact details available. Read the SBA's continuity-planning guidance.
A useful conversation might begin with the order you actually place: what could delay this item, how early would we know and what options would you suggest?
Be realistic about the answer. A small supplier may have limited capacity and no ability to reserve stock without an agreement. Another may be willing to suggest a substitute but unable to guarantee it during a widespread shortage. Understanding those limits is progress.
Consider your part too. If your business repeatedly changes specifications at the last minute, an additional supplier will not resolve the uncertainty you are creating. Better planning on the buying side can make the conversation more constructive.
Do not assume an informal discussion changes a contract or secures priority. Confirm any important arrangement clearly, including its costs and conditions, before relying on it.
Practise the first decisions before the real interruption
Once the basic information exists, try a short discussion exercise with the people involved.
New Zealand's business.govt.nz recommends testing continuity plans with relevant staff at least annually. Its guidance suggests brief scenario exercises focused on managing the consequences of a disruption, then reviewing what the exercise revealed. This is planning guidance, not a guarantee of uninterrupted trading. Read the New Zealand continuity guide.
For the workshop, the scenario could be simple: the usual delivery will be one week late, and the owner is away until tomorrow.
Who checks the stock already available? Who contacts the supplier? Who can approve an alternative purchase, and within what limit? Which orders might be affected? At what point should someone stop accepting promises the business may not be able to keep?
Keep the exercise on paper. There is no need to cancel real orders or disrupt customers to discover that nobody knows where a specification is stored.
Notice the gaps without turning the discussion into a test of individual competence. Perhaps the alternate contact is outdated. Perhaps only the owner knows the acceptable finish. Perhaps the stock count includes items already committed to another order.
Choose the most important gap, assign someone to resolve it and check that it has been resolved. A shorter plan that people can use is more valuable than a detailed document built on assumptions nobody has examined.
Begin with one dependency you can understand
The aim is not to predict every interruption or build a second version of the whole business. Small enterprises have limited time, money and bargaining power. A realistic plan respects those limits.
Return to the workshop. The useful achievement would be knowing which zip is required, how long existing stock will last, which alternative has been checked and who can make the next decision. That knowledge cannot prevent every delay. It gives the people doing the work a clearer starting point.
Choose one dependency this week. Follow it closely enough to find the unanswered question. Then answer that question before the missing item becomes the most urgent thing in the room.
Which small item or outside service could interrupt your work, and what would you need to check before calling its alternative ready?
