Business Plan Risk Assessment Builder

Risk Profile Overview: TaxMate operates in a regulated financial services adjacent market with moderate-to-high execution risk given its early stage, but the core risks are manageable through the mitigations outlined below. The business is not exposed to inventory or physical distribution risks, which limits tail-risk scenarios significantly. Risk 1 — Regulatory Classification Risk. Category: Regulatory. Description: The IRS or state tax authorities may classify automated deduction flagging as tax advice, requiring licensing the current team does not hold. Likelihood: Medium. Impact: High. Mitigation: Legal review completed in Q1 to establish product positioning as expense categorization, not tax advice; tax attorney retained on retainer for ongoing compliance monitoring. Risk 2 — Key Person Dependency. Category: Operational. Description: Both co-founders hold critical undocumented knowledge — loss of either would significantly disrupt operations. Likelihood: Low. Impact: High. Mitigation: Knowledge documentation sprint completed in Q2; first engineering hire in Q3 absorbs CTO-specific technical knowledge. Contingency Planning: If the regulatory classification risk and key person dependency risk materialize simultaneously, the business will immediately engage an M&A advisor to assess whether a strategic acquisition by an established tax platform is the fastest path to business continuity.