It is a sign of perhaps the worst of the pandemic being behind us that the retail market is beginning to grow in and around the suburbs and villages of York.

This is despite imminent National Insurance tax rises, rocketing fuel bills and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Napoleon supposedly described the UK as a nation of shopkeepers, but according to a local property agent in this green and pleasant part of England, there are more people looking for retail premises than there are properties available.

We have all heard the phrase, square pegs in round holes, usually mean putting people in positions they are completely unsuitable for.

In business and for SMEs in particular it can have far-reaching consequences and weaken the long-term health of that firm.

So, managing the businesses efficiently call for square pegs in square holes, in other words, proper succession planning.

At some point, every business owner needs to move on from their business, whether to retire, to deal with a change in personal circumstances, to embark on a new project or for any number of other reasons.

Equally, businesses can reach a stage in their growth, where scaling up becomes increasingly difficult, as meeting the cost of the investment in layers of management, support functions and new premises needed to grow becomes unfeasible.

Your IT systems will likely have anti-virus, firewalls, two-factor identification and various policies to keep your data safe.

And when it comes to the risk of employees or former employees disclosing information, there will usually be provisions restricting them from doing so in their contracts of employment or settlement agreements.