When a web address lapses, two things stop at once: the website and the email. For a business that invoices by email, that is not an inconvenience, it is a trading halt - and the recovery is neither quick nor guaranteed, because somebody else can register the name the moment it is released.

We see the same three causes. Automatic renewal switched off, usually years ago and usually deliberately, to control spend. Renewal notices going to a personal mailbox of somebody who has since left. And the address registered in the name of a web designer or agency rather than the business, which turns a payment problem into an ownership dispute.

None of this is technical work. It is fifteen minutes in an account most people have not logged into since the site was built. Switch renewal on, point the notices at a shared mailbox, put a second factor on the registrar account, and check the registrant name is your company.

Worth saying plainly: this is the least glamorous risk we monitor, and one of the two or three most likely to actually stop a small business trading this year.