Business continuity planning: 7 critical risks SMEs overlook
When thinking about business continuity planning, it’s easy to prioritise major disasters like fires or security breaches. Those scenarios are rare and should be accounted for in any business continuity plan.
However, in our experience working with SMEs, the disruptions that cause the most damage tend to be far more ordinary. Whether it’s a deleted file or an untested recovery process, it’s these everyday operational issues that make an effective business continuity plan so crucial. Without proper business continuity planning, small issues can quickly snowball into costly downtime.
This blog draws on what we commonly see when supporting SMEs with business continuity plans. We’ll be looking at the most overlooked business continuity risks, why they’re so easy to miss, and how to address them practically.
Table of contents
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Risk #1: misunderstanding the cloud shared responsibility model
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Risk #7: lack of alignment with security and compliance standards
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How SMEs can address these risks without overcomplicating things
Risk #1: misunderstanding the cloud shared responsibility model
In our experience, many organisations assume that cloud providers like Google, AWS, or Microsoft back up everything. Unfortunately, this assumption is only questioned after data has already been lost.
Cloud services operate under a shared responsibility model, where the provider secures the underlying infrastructure, but the customer is still responsible for their data, access controls, identities, and recovery processes.
In fact, Microsoft’s shared responsibility documentation states that the customer is responsible for data, endpoints, access management, and accounts. A lot of organisations only realise this when it’s too late. And when nobody is internally responsible for cloud networks, there’s no one to turn to.
How to reduce the risk
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Addressing this risk must start with clarity. In practice, this means understanding both your own and the cloud provider’s responsibilities.
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We see the strongest outcomes when SMEs take ownership of data protection by implementing dedicated SaaS backup and recovery, rather than relying on default retention settings.
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Regular reviews of access controls and recovery policies ensure assumptions don’t creep back in.
Having an in-house expert is one way to mitigate these risks, but having an IT partner like Texaport gives the added assurance that you can call upon a team of specialists. As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, we regularly provide IT consultancy services and help organisations translate the shared responsibility model into practical controls that protect data and ensure recoverability.
Risk #2: human error and insider misconduct
According to an industry survey, 84% of IT professionals reported that human error has caused data loss at their organisation. Things like accidental deletion, overwritten files, permission errors, or interacting with phishing emails are things we regularly see. And while malicious insider activity isn’t totally unheard of, innocent mistakes happen every day and are just as disruptive.
In many cases, risk is amplified by overly broad access permissions and limited auditing or monitoring, which make it harder to prevent mistakes and even harder to spot them quickly when they happen.
How to reduce the risk
To manage human error effectively, you need to decide how each risk will be treated. In our experience, SMEs benefit from taking a layered approach:
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Start by avoiding unnecessary risk, such as removing access that isn’t required.
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Then focus on reducing the impact of mistakes through sensible controls like least-privilege access, user awareness, and reliable backups that allow errors to be reversed quickly.
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Where appropriate, some risk can be transferred through cyber insurance or contractual protections.
For low-impact scenarios, it may be reasonable to accept residual risk, provided it’s understood and reviewed. The key is to make these decisions deliberately, rather than leaving human error unmanaged.
Risk #3: single points of failure in IT infrastructure
Whether it’s one internet connection, one server, or one person who holds all the keys, such a narrow path to recovery can be very costly if things go wrong. This is something we regularly identify in the discovery phase with our clients.
Luckily, a single point of failure is usually easily spotted in any business continuity planning audit, and it's often a simple fix.
We’ve encountered this risk directly when supporting organisations with legacy or poorly documented systems, where a single server or individual became a critical dependency. When failures occurred, recovery was slowed not by complexity but by the lack of resilience built around those systems.
How to reduce risk
Reducing single points of failure starts with understanding which systems and processes your business depends on most.
We advise SMEs to focus first on resilience around those critical areas:
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Introducing redundant internet connections
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Putting reliable off-site or cloud-based backups in place
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Virtualising infrastructure so systems can be recovered more easily.
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It’s equally important to document key processes and cross-train staff, reducing reliance on individuals.
For essential services, even basic failover capability can significantly limit disruption when something goes wrong.
Risk #4: vendor, SaaS, and supply chain outages
Even the largest cloud platforms aren’t immune to outages. In the last two years alone, Salesforce, Microsoft 365, Slack, and Zoom have all experienced global outages.
Many SMEs are often shocked that global powerhouses can be so vulnerable to attack, but this only illustrates further the need for business continuity planning. In fact, in 2023 alone 91% of global businesses experienced at least one vendor-related disruption per quarter.
Any business continuity plan should account for third-party dependencies, and not just internal infrastructure.
How to reduce the risk
Reducing reliance on third parties starts with understanding where dependencies exist.
SMEs that manage this well map out which services are essential to operations and consider how they would continue working if those services became unavailable.
This often includes planning alternative communication channels, ensuring access to key data offline, and having clear escalation paths when suppliers experience issues.
Risk #5: no documented business continuity plan
A recurring pattern we see is that many SMEs rely on tribal knowledge with no documented processes or roles. This means that plans live in employees’ heads and not on paper.
Then, when something does go wrong, confusion runs riot, responses are inconsistent, and delays and indecision are inevitable. Such issues are often driven by time constraints, limited internal expertise, and the common assumption that having backups in place is the same as having a continuity plan.
How to reduce risk
Clear and accessible documentation provides structure, so this should be a high priority. A well-documented continuity plan will outline priorities, responsibilities, and recovery steps. This ensures decisions aren't made under pressure.
Well-prepared SMEs always focus on the first few hours following an incident, so be sure that your staff know who is responsible for what and where the critical information lives.
Risk #6: never testing the plan
Simply put: if a plan is untested, there’s no way to gauge its effectiveness. Unfortunately, we find that many SMEs never test their recovery processes. Testing is essential because when it does happen, things inevitably go wrong. But this is a good thing, because it’s how plans are refined and perfected. By failing to regularly test your plans, you won’t be fully prepared for real events.
Complacency, fears of disrupting daily operations, and the absence of clear internal ownership for testing are why this risk is overlooked.
How to reduce risk
Testing is where the reality of business continuity planning kicks in. Depending on the nature of your business and your needs, we recommend at least annual or quarterly testing – you’ll confirm that your recovery processes actually work under duress and ensure your staff know what their roles are.
It's common for even simple, controlled tests to uncover gaps that might not be obvious. This allows issues to be resolved long before they can affect the business. Testing also means plans don't become redundant as systems and teams change.
Risk #7: lack of alignment with security and compliance standards
We often see business continuity planning sitting separately from security and compliance safeguards. This gap can be operationally and financially costly.
And while standards like ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials don’t guarantee security, they do provide an established structure with real-world impact for businesses. 92% fewer insurance claims are made by organisations with Cyber Essentials controls in place.
Standards are often overlooked because they feel overwhelming, there is no dedicated security or continuity lead, and many SMEs assume they are “too small” to need them, but that’s simply not the case.
We’ve supported many organisations through Cyber Essentials Plus certification, and consistently see stronger continuity outcomes when security, compliance and continuity are planned together, rather than in isolation.
How to reduce risk
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Aligning your continuity planning with established security and compliance standards such as ISO 27001 will give you even more structure and consistency. Instead of treating compliance as a tick-box exercise, SMEs benefit most when these standards are used as a framework for identifying gaps and improving resilience.
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Ownership is vital too. Be sure to identify team members who will be responsible for continuity and compliance.
The most effective way to avoid running afoul of your compliance obligations is to find a trusted IT partner whose in-house experts ensure you're never out of step.
How SMEs can address these risks without overcomplicating things
Robust business continuity planning isn’t just for enterprise-level organisations. For most SMEs, the most important safeguards stem from consistency and ownership. When evaluating your processes, set a checklist and be sure to include:
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SaaS and server backups
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BCDR policy development
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Offsite and cloud-based backups
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MFA and account hardening
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Quarterly or annual testing
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Regular documentation & training
Need help with your business continuity plan?
Robust business continuity planning can be a complex endeavour, but that doesn’t mean it’s only for large enterprises.
At Texaport, we’ll work with you to find the most effective approach to embed continuity planning into your day-to-day IT management, rather than treating it as a standalone project. This is most effective as part of our managed IT services, where continuity planning, testing, and documentation are reviewed and maintained on an ongoing basis.
If you want to get started with building a robust business continuity plan, contact us today.
