"To err is human - and to blame it on a computer is even more so."Robert Orben
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(c) Copyright 2004
Do you run your own business?
If you do, have you ever stopped to think what would happen to it if you were sick?
Would it be able to continue without you for any time at all? You may be its driving force, its brains, the force behind its success and growth. That is all well and good. But if you are its sole key to survival - if it would it collapse without you present and active for even a short time - then you are in a very precarious position. You should be worried.
Are you indispensable?
If you run a successful business on your own, or with just a few employees, you are potentially very vulnerable to the state of your own health. You never know when you may fall ill to some bug or other, or more serious longer term disease. Unlikely? Well, maybe, but possible.
More likely, perhaps, if you are young and fit is a sporting injury of some sort. Injuries occur regularly in such activities as skiing, mountaineering, riding motorbikes, riding horses, and so on. You may be even be knocked down crossing the road.
All these events have a small but finite risk of occurring, but if and when they do you and your business had better be ready.
Imagine you were unexpectedly away for a week. Could your business run without you? What if you were away for a month?
A small business can fold in these timescales. Customers won’t always wait for an extra a week before receiving delivery of their orders. One in a thousand would wait an extra month. And if you are not even there to answer emails or the telephone then they will write you off straight away as a dud company or a fraudster.
So what can you do? Well, here are a few ideas to put into practice.
1.Keep records. Don’t keep all your knowledge in your head. Keep it on paper, electronically, wherever, but record it. Keep customer records, sales records, records of bills to be paid and when they are due. Keep records of everything that is essential to know to keep the business running while you are away. Record your business processes and procedures. And do it all in a way that someone else can understand.
2.Brief somebody you trust to be ready in an emergency to take those records and procedures and at the very least keep your
business ticking over. The absolute minimum would be to answer messages and to inform your customers and contacts of the situation and how it is being dealt with so that they do not suffer. It would be better, of course, if your stand in could at least run the business at a stable routine level so that your customers don’t even notice that you are away. Just postpone all your new plans and growth ideas until your return.
3.Keep copies of your vital records. Back up your electronic records regularly. The longer you are away the greater the risk of something going wrong in your absence. The more recent your latest backup, the lower the risk of having to repeat work going back weeks and weeks when you do return.
4.Insure your business against the risk of something happening to you. The more the business depends on you as an individual the more you need to insure against not being able to work. It is not always easy to afford premiums when you are starting out, but do seriously consider the consequences and do something as soon as you can if you feel that the risk justifies it.
5.Automate as much as you can. For those doing business on the internet this is relatively easy and you would be foolish not to. This makes sense for any company in any normal circumstances, so this is something to do whatever your view is on the risks to you yourself.
6.Get ahead of the game. If you have letters to send out at fixed times in the future, then prepare them in advance. If you intend to launch a new product in the future, be certain to have it ready well before the launch date. That way, even if you are absent, if the preparations are done the program can go ahead as planned. It can simply be set in motion by someone else (or by your automated systems).
Don’t lose sight of the disasters that can happen to your business should you be taken ill, however small the chances. Plan ahead sensibly for the possibility and make your contingency plans. Then sleep peacefully knowing that you can ride out the storm if it should ever come.
About the Author
Arthur Cooper is a writer and publisher.
For more of his articles go to:
http://www.arthurcooper.com/
For articles ebooks and courses go to:
http://www.barrel-publishing.com/
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