30-Minutes Risk Plan

Your last project went over budget. The one before that missed its deadline. The one before that… let's not talk about it.

You're not bad at what you do. You're just skipping the one conversation that could change everything.

The 30-Minute Risk Plan is the book for people who would never pick up a risk management book — and that's exactly why it was written.

If you run projects in a small company, you've probably told yourself one of these lies:

"We're too small for that." "We'll deal with it when it comes up." "We don't have time for documentation."

Here's the truth: small teams need risk management more than large organisations — not less. When a big company hits a problem, they absorb it. When your team hits the same problem, it hits everything. One person leaves, and the project stalls. One client changes direction, and weeks of work evaporate. One missed assumption eats your entire margin.

This book gives you a complete, practical risk management system that takes 30 minutes to set up and 10 minutes a week to maintain. No certifications. No jargon. No software. Just a conversation, a one-page register, and a weekly check-in.

Inside, you'll learn:

• The five risks that disproportionately kill small projects — and how to spot them early
• How to run a 30-minute risk identification session with your team (full facilitator script included)
• Why your "12-week estimate" probably has a 70% chance of being wrong — and what to do about it
• The simple weekly check-in that keeps risk management alive without becoming a burden
• What to do in the first 24 hours when things go wrong anyway
• How to talk to clients about risk without scaring them — and actually build more trust
• How to build a risk culture that survives beyond the first busy week

Every chapter opens with a real-world failure story, delivers one core concept, and closes with something you can do today. Templates and cheat sheets are included in the appendices — ready to use immediately.

This book is for:

• Small business owners running projects with 2–20 people
• Startup founders managing development without formal PM training
• Freelancers and consultants juggling multiple client projects
• "Accidental project managers" — anyone who ended up running projects because someone had to
• Agency and consultancy team leads who are tired of firefighting

This book is NOT: a textbook, a certification guide, or a 600-page enterprise manual. It's 120 pages of blunt, practical, experience-backed advice from someone who's spent 50 years watching small teams make the same avoidable mistakes.

"Risk management isn't a luxury for big companies — it's a survival skill for small ones."

Stop borrowing time at a brutal interest rate. Start the conversation your team is avoiding.