When "Plan B" Isn’t Enough

There’s a common piece of advice: keep three to six months of expenses in reserve. It’s a good rule of thumb, but what happens when the real risk isn’t cash flow at all?

This is a true story from the news. A mid-sized tech company was hit by a ransomware attack. Systems became encrypted, customer data locked, and operations came to a halt. It wasn’t money that saved them—it was a well-rehearsed backup plan. Within 24 hours, they were up and running again, thanks to secure offline backups and a clear, practiced protocol.

This story illustrates the fact that a real financial safety net isn’t always about money. It’s about resilience.

Let’s explore how to build a multi-dimensional, adaptive backup plan that’s aligned with the risks of your unique business—tailor-made.

🔍 1. What a Financial Safety Net Is Really For

A financial safety net isn’t just a bucket of emergency cash—it’s the infrastructure that lets your business stay standing when something unexpected happens.

The real purpose is survivability and agility, not to avoid problems because avoiding problems is impossible. Your backup plan should help you control how deeply your problems affect you. That means your plan should cover:

• Liquidity – access to cash or credit in flexible forms
• Continuity – the ability to keep serving your customers
• Decision-making – a calm, fast-response structure under pressure
• Relationships – trusted partners who help you absorb the blow

⚠️ 2. Know What Can Break You—Not Just What is Costing You

It’s tempting to stop at the obvious: slow sales, late payments, rising costs. But your real risks might be deeper and quieter.

Ask yourself:

• What would happen if you lost access to your customer list or data tomorrow?
• What if your core supplier went under—or ghosted you?
• If you had to pause operations for a week, how would you bounce back?

A ransomware attack, like the one that crippled many small firms in 2021, is a good example. Some lost everything. Others survived because they’d built invisible resilience into their systems.

In fact, companies that responded within the first 24 hours using secure backups and pre-planned protocols were able to limit damage and recover quickly, according to TechRadar’s article on responding to ransomware.

🧩 Key takeaway: Your biggest vulnerability isn’t always financial—it might be operational, relational, or reputational.

🔎 3. Understand Your Business’s DNA

Every business has unique pressure points. What’s essential to you may be irrelevant to someone else.

• If your business relies heavily on client trust, then your safety net may include contracts, insurance, and PR support.
• If your model depends on fast service, then your safety net should include backup suppliers, tech redundancies, or cross-trained team members.
• If you’re a solopreneur, your plan may need to address personal bandwidth and life events more than fixed costs.

The most effective safety net is tailored to your structure, not a generic formula or what your neighbour said.

🔁 4. Build a Living, Breathing Plan

Too many backup plans are static (ie. created once, then filed away).

Instead, treat your safety net as something that evolves alongside your business. As your revenue, team, or business model changes, so should your plan. That means revisiting key questions every few months:

• Are your reserves still appropriate for your current burn rate?
• Do you have backups for your current systems?
• Are your relationships still your best fallback options?

In the tech ransomware case, routine drills and updated documentation made the difference. They didn’t just have a plan—they lived it.

✅ Resilience Is Not Automatic—It’s Designed

Building a financial safety net isn’t about following a rigid checklist—it’s about honestly identifying your most fragile points, and designing for durability. That means going beyond cash reserves to include things like agility, partnerships, operational clarity, and real-time decision frameworks. There are many more to consider—those are just examples.

When the unexpected happens (and it will), your safety net becomes your lifeline—and your launching pad.

👉 If you’ve been thinking, “I should probably create a backup plan…”, then there’s no better time than the present.


Download our free Business Resilience Snapshot Tool today by filling in the form to quickly assess where your risks lie and where to begin strengthening your net —you’ll also explore every resource inside our free library.

Because your business deserves more than a fallback—it deserves a foundation.