You know how it goes. You make a sale on eBay. The payment hits your account. You print the label, drop the parcel at Australia Post before the cut off and that’s one more happy customer ticked off the list. Job done.
In August 2025, Australia Post shut down U.S. parcel deliveries and small businesses discovered just how fragile “business as usual” really is.
One day goods were shipping. The next, anything worth more than a postcard was “held until further notice.”
That was just one example. Disruption does not care whether you sell products, deliver services or run a one person show. And it won’t be the last.
COVID slammed the brakes on entire industries. Gyms shut. Restaurants went silent. Professional services pretended Zoom calls were as good as meeting in person.
Semiconductors proved that a $5 chip can stop a billion-dollar car factory. For services, it’s the same story: one specialist off sick, the project stalls, a major client walks and the cash flow vanishes.
And who could forget the single ship stuck in the Suez Canal froze twelve percent of global trade while the world laughed at a tiny bulldozer trying to dig it out.
Then there are the personal disruptions no one likes to admit. You catch the flu and the business slows. You lose focus and tasks pile up. A family emergency drags you out of the office. For small business, these hit just as hard as any blocked canal or broken supply chain.
If too much of your business rests on just a few points of failure, the risk is obvious. Broaden your options and disruption becomes an inconvenience, not a crisis. Customers don’t care why it went wrong. They only care how quickly you fix it.
Australia Post says parcels may resume to the U.S. by late September. That’s progress, but it doesn’t make you disruption-proof.
There will always be another disruption. Tariffs, pandemics, blocked canals, bankrupt suppliers, sick staff, personal setbacks. Pick your flavour.
If your business only works when nothing goes wrong, then real life will eventually walk in and test it the hard way.