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Emergency Planning for Entrepreneurs
by Beth Schneider
Having an emergency plan in
case of a natural disaster is important and so is having a plan for your
business.
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Think back to when you were
a kid. How many times did you quickly get in a single file line and
calmly follow your teacher out the door during a fire drill? It got
so routine, the drills just seemed silly, right? But think about,
had the bell been an actual fire, you knew exactly what to do
without thinking.
It's easy to pretend that nothing bad will ever happen. We'd all
like to think that emergencies, illness and accidents will only
happen to someone else.
But what would happen to your business if you, someone you love or
one of your team members was suddenly out of commission? Would your
clients go away? Your marketing efforts stop? Your cash flow wither
up and die? |
Now, I don't know about you, but
when I'm sick, sad and stressed out, I don't tend to do my best thinking.
The idea is to be prepared and ready BEFORE you need that emergency plan,
so that it just happens without thinking. Here's how to get started.
Figure out who would need to be contacted
If you were suddenly out of commission, who would need to know? People
like team members, clients, vendors, leads.
Have a communications plan. Determine who your communication lead is.
Maybe a VA, a manager, maybe even a friend or relative depending on the
size of your business. But be sure to choose someone that won't be
emotionally involved with your emergency. For instance, if you fell ill,
your husband probably wouldn't be the best choice because he'd be off
taking care of you.
For me, my communication lead is my coordinator, Tasha. Whenever anything
happens, she is the first person I call and she does the rest.
Determine what you want your communication lead to do
When you do make that emergency call, what do you want your communication
lead to do? Reschedule clients? Ship product? Reschedule speaking
engagements? Monitor email? Complete a project? Pay bills?
Here's how you determine what you need to do. Pretend that you have just
won an all expense, first class, once in a life-time trip. The only catch
is you have to leave tomorrow and you can't take your lap top with you.
Make a list of all the things that would need to happen immediately or be
delegated so that you could get on that plane. Those are your emergency
items.
Define how emergency items are handled
Now that you know who will handle the items and what they are supposed to
handle, you have to set up your lead to actually get to the information
they need. Here's where your systems really come into play. Lets say, one
of the items on your list is to reschedule appointments. How will your
communication lead access your appointments? Are they on a calendar that
only you have access to? How will they get the phone numbers of the people
to call? For me, I use an online tool that syncs my calendar and contacts.
Tasha just has to log in and she can see all my appointments, who they are
with and she can access their phone number and email address. All without
me lifting a finger. While I'm a big fan of online tools, this particular
item could be solved by simply giving someone you trust a key to your
office and a quick tour of your computer so they would know where to look
for your calendar and contacts.
So now go through your list of emergency items and figure out how the
information will be accessed.
The idea is to simply know what to do should something happen BEFORE it's
an issue.
Want to reprint this article, feel free as long as you include the
following:
Beth Schneider, Chief Infopreneur of Process Prodigy Inc.,
www.processprodigy.com is a highly sought after operations consultant who
reveals the insider secrets billion-dollar corporations pay thousands of
dollars for. Specializing in process creation, her tools and techniques
have helped entrepreneurs increase productivity by as much as 600%, and
revenues by as much as 250%. Visit
www.processprodigy.com and sign up to receive her Ezine, "Your Tips"
and for a FREE Report on how to Save Yourself Time Energy and Money.
© 2007 Beth Schneider, Process Prodigy, Inc.
Entrepreneurs Emergency Planning Article
Contact: admin @ topbusinessresources . com |