Making Changes to Your Business? A Business Impact Analysis Will Save You

7 steps to understand what will happen to your business before you make a move

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As a microbusiness owner, small business leader, or solopreneur, you make countless decisions that shape your business every day. But what happens when a single decision or change sets off a chain reaction of unintended consequences? A price change that alienates customers, a software switch that disrupts operations, or a marketing shift that confuses your audience or violates industry compliance — these are all real risks that could have been anticipated by doing a business impact analysis before making changes to your business.

Like other small business owners, I didn’t always realize that I needed a deliberate, structured approach to thinking through the potential ripple effects of my decision to make a change. As a result, I had to learn the hard way.

The better way is to use a business impact analysis before making those changes.

What is a business impact analysis (BIA)?

A business impact analysis is a structured approach to evaluating how a change in your business might impact these 7 core business dimensions, including:

Financials: Will a change improve profitability or create hidden costs?
Marketing: Will this decision strengthen your brand or confuse customers?
Team: Will this create additional workload or require new skills?
Product or service: How does this affect quality, delivery, or pricing?
Customer experience: Will this enhance or disrupt how customers interact with your business?
Technology: Does this require new tools or integrations?
Operations and compliance: Will this impact legal requirements, security, or logistics?

Take some time to thoroughly answer these 7 questions before making changes to your business.

Why is a business impact analysis important?

Without a structured way to predict consequences, you’re operating on assumptions. A business impact analysis helps you:

avoid costly mistakes by identifying risks before they happen.
make informed decisions based on data, not guesswork.
minimize disruptions to your business and customers.
strengthen resilience by preparing for potential challenges.
gain clarity on whether a decision aligns with your long-term goals.

When should you use a business impact analysis?

A business impact analysis isn’t just for major business overhauls. Use it any time you’re considering making changes to your business such as:

launching a new product or service
adjusting pricing or payment structures
switching software or service providers
changing your business model or target market
hiring (or reducing) team members
expanding or downsizing physical or digital operations
changing anything that might affect compliance requirements (legal, regulatory, industry-specific)

Be aware that if you’re making a change to your business, it will have an impact — good or bad, intended or unintended — and whether you recognize it or not, you just started a project. For example, a few years ago, we decided to move our website to a WordPress site and create a new logo. We deluded ourselves into thinking it was just a matter of doing some marketing-related tasks. Instead, it was a project that had far-reaching effects in all the above-mentioned 7 core business dimensions.

So, your change is a project — and every project requires planning, tracking, and structured execution. One of the best ways to ensure success is by using objectives and key results (OKRs) to define clear goals and measurable outcomes. OKRs help keep your change project on track by ensuring that everyone involved understands the objectives and how success will be measured. For example, your key results would be related to customer retention, compliance with regulations, and more.

How to conduct a simple business impact analysis (without overcomplicating it)

A business impact analysis doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Here’s a streamlined process to follow before making changes to your business.

1. Define the change

Be clear about your objective, not just the task. Example: Updating our brand identity with a new logo, colors, and messaging was focused on tasks. Our objective was to implement a re-branding strategy that strengthened customer recognition and engagement. That means we needed to establish key results to achieve and pitfalls to avoid.

2. Identify key business areas affected

Go through the list (financials, marketing, team, etc.) and list out potential impacts of making changes to your business. For example:

Financials: Costs for design, printing, and digital updates.
Customer experience: Possible confusion if changes are not clearly communicated.
Marketing: Need to ensure consistency across all platforms.

3. Involve key internal and external stakeholders

A business impact analysis is not something to do in isolation. The best insights often come from involving others who have different perspectives. Depending on the change, consider including:

your team (employees who will implement or be affected by the change)
your accountant or bookkeeper (to assess financial impact)
a business coach (to provide strategic insight)
your tech support or IT specialist (if new software or systems are involved)
a customer representative or trusted client (to gauge customer reactions)
your marketing consultant (to ensure brand consistency and audience engagement)

4. Assess risks & benefits

For each area, ask: What are the possible downsides? What’s the upside? In all likelihood, there will be risks and benefits. The key is to anticipate what they are and to make an informed decision before the change you’re implementing unravels every aspect of your business. You’ve heard me talk about decision making, and making changes to your business is really about decision making.

5. Develop a phased rollout plan

Implementing a significant change all at once can lead to disruption, unforeseen problems, and resistance from internal and external stakeholders. Instead of making an abrupt switch, consider rolling out changes in phases. A phased approach allows for smoother adaptation, ongoing evaluation, and necessary adjustments along the way. Key considerations for phased rollouts include:

Pilot testing: Start with a small group to gather feedback before full implementation.
Incremental implementation: Roll out changes in steps, such as updating internal processes before public announcements.
Monitoring and adjustments: Track impact, resolve issues, and refine before moving forward.
Training and support: Ensure team members have the tools and knowledge to implement changes successfully.
Gradual scaling: Expand the change once early results confirm effectiveness.

6. Decide and monitor

Make your decision with confidence, but track results over the next weeks and months. Be prepared to adjust if unexpected issues arise.

7. Consume a few user-friendly resources first

This post shows you only the tip of the iceberg. Here are a few resources you might want to take a look at if you’re making changes to your business:

Book: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. Helps you think about small, testable changes before fully committing.
Podcast: HBR IdeaCast (Harvard Business Review). Offers insights on decision-making and business strategy.
Tool: Business Model Canvas (Strategyzer). A one-page visual tool to map out changes before executing them.
Article: How to Make Better Business Decisions (Harvard Business Review). A practical guide to evaluating business moves.
Checklist: Small Business Decision-Making Framework (available through SCORE). A structured way to assess business changes.

Have you ever made a business decision that had unintended consequences? What would you do differently if you had used a structured approach like a business impact analysis?