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Business Disasters! Worst Case Scenarios & How to Prepare

“I’ll do it when I have time”. This is one of the most common things I hear every day from busy, small business owners. It’s understandable, most of you are juggling many things on your plate.   As it should be, you’re busy keeping revenue flowing in and keeping your customers happy –  the business of business often falls by the wayside. It’s easy to go on like that hedging your bets that nothing “bad” is going to happen to you –  until – the unthinkable happens.

Recently, one of my clients lived the unthinkable. They lost critical data to a computer failure. Biting my tongue and resisting the urge to say “I told you so”, we made a recovery plan and after a few weeks of hair -pulling frustration, my client is back on track and has become the poster child for disaster proofing their business. Below is an article I want to offer you from a guest blogger intended to help you think about what you need to do to take care of your business.

A disaster can strike a business at any time and in many different ways. If the hard drive containing all of the important data needed to manufacture your new product is destroyed with no back-up, then that is a disaster that is very specific to that company. A building fire, on the other hand, is something that can affect any organization.

It’s important to plan for emergencies and run through drills that make sure that the company is ready to handle a crisis. Your company business plan should outline many of the crisis responses the company will have to many of the more common issues such as a natural disaster or fire. It should also contain an outline of the types of insurance the company needs and has. Business insurance can be an integral part of surviving a business disaster and is often required of companies of a certain size, so if you haven’t already researched a policy, you can find rate comparisons at resources like BusinessInsurance.org. There are as many types of insurance as there are disasters, so it’s important to find the policy that’s right for you.

While it can be difficult to plan for every disaster, it pays to spend time considering every possible scenario that could occur and how to handle them. The more time spent preparing for a disaster means less time spent trying to recover from one.
Data Loss

Think about what would happen if a power surge hit your building and wiped out all of the data on all of your company servers. Would you be able to stay in business? Would you be able to recover? Most business owners would agree that keeping the doors open if the company data is lost would be almost impossible.

The best contingency plan for potential data loss is off-site data storage. Many companies are utilizing technology known as the data storage cloud for their off-site storage needs. This is a secure storage service that the company pays for monthly like the phone bill. The data is archived and stored on third-party servers that are housed in an extremely secure structure.

If the local servers in the company location are damaged, then the company would simply access the back-up cloud and repopulate new servers. Some companies have eliminated servers and just use the cloud service for their networking.

Fire 

The worst part about a fire is that it destroys everything it touches. If your office is flooded, there is an outside chance that some of the important information and equipment can be saved. But when an office burns down, it’s much more likely that nothing is salvaged.

Contingency planning for a fire is something that the most proactive companies have already done. These kinds of contingency plans include having a temporary site to set up a new office already picked out, a plan in place with the phone company to route all calls to the new location and back-up computers stored in an off-site facility that can be put online immediately.

The cloud storage set-up discussed earlier would make the transition to a temporary facility even easier. In many cases, companies have pre-existing arrangements with local hotels to rent out conference rooms or suites in case of a fire.

Key Employee Leaves

As was mentioned, some business disasters can seem insignificant to outside observers, but they can be devastating to the company itself. For example, if your vice president of sales suddenly leaves the company, then that can send a shockwave through the entire client base.

Business contingency planning includes succession planning for all of the executives, managers and key personnel.. If the vice president of sales suddenly leaves, then the contingency plan may call for the top sales manager in the company to step in and keep things running smoothly.

Companies tend to rely a lot on key employees. But there always needs to be a plan in place to keep the company going if one of those key employees should suddenly leave.

The best way to avoid a disaster is to plan for it. The company that spends time developing disaster plans is the company that is best equipped to handle any challenge that is thrown its way.

YOU Are Your Businesses Greatest Asset: Four Personal Strategies for Business Success

Whether you’re in the early stages of creating a business or have been in business for a decade, it’s a good idea to revisit the basics and make sure you have a strong personal foundation for your business to thrive upon. It doesn’t matter how good your products or services are if you don’t stay in good shape, mentally, emotionally and physically eventually, you’re out of business.

Statistics tell us that most small businesses fail in the first 5 years due to lack of capital. While this is true, in my experience the other reason businesses fail is from owner burnout!

Owning your own business can be an enormous source of satisfaction and freedom. Running a business however, is also one of the most stressful and at times overwhelming undertakings there is. As you well know, it takes an enormous amount of your time, energy and resources every day. Many business owners start out filled with energy and excitement and soon come to realize the enormous investment and commitment they’ve gotten themselves into.

Chances are you’ve heard this before, that’s good. As we know from the marketing field it takes at least 7-9 exposures to a targeted message for it to sink in. Whether this is the first time or the twentieth time you’ve heard this message this time I’d like to invite you to take one action for yourself – TODAY – that will begin to refill the well.

Make an investment. Not an investment in a training program, or a new software package – an investment in you – you who are your businesses greatest asset.

Here are 4 suggestions to get you started on the path to taking care of your number one asset – you.  Pick one area to work on at a time. Maybe work on one each week. How might feel by the end of the month if you practiced each of these suggestions? Take a moment to imagine that.

Get More Done Get More Happy

Have you ever wished you could get more done and finish your day feeling accomplished instead of blasted? Would you like to have more energy to do the things in your life that are important to you?

Wouldn’t it be great if someone could teach you some real world, tangible strategies to help you renovate your relationship to time?

If so, catch my latest audio recordings from two of my recent teleclasses. Download them for free. The first one is about 45 minutes long the second 30 minutes.

Craving a Balanced Life – Forget Time Management

How to Double Your Effectiveness With Everything You Do

Why am I offering this? I hear the same thing day after day from smart, savvy small business owners – there’s not enough time and you’re often teetering on overwhelm. Enough. There are things you can do – I practice these strategies myself and I want to share them with you. Honestly, it’s not rocket science – but a few common sense things that if you implement into your life you WILL experience a profound change.

A wiser person then me once said the definition of insanity is repeating the same actions and expecting different results. IF you’d like different results, take different actions.  Invest some of your energy now – take the first step – even if you don’t think you have time.

Listen to the audios and please let me know what you think.

Warmly and supportively,
Helaine

How to Double Your Effectiveness with Everything You Do

Time, money, energy – three things every business owner I know wants more of.  You’re smart and you know as well as I do you’re not going to find a long term solution and solve this problem by putting your nose to the grindstone and telling yourself to just work harder.

In addition, there are some common mistakes I bet you make every day without even knowing it that contributes to the problem. If you give me 30 minutes of your time and come to my free Teleclass I’ll teach you five easy to apply actions you can implement right away without it costing you a single cent. You can correct these mistakes and become more effective.

Imagine how different life would feel if you ended each day knowing you could let go of work and focus on the other parts of your life without feeling guilty or exhausted. What dreams, goals or promises are you not able to fulfill because you can’t get it all done?

Here’s what you’ll learn in only 30 minutes:

• How to dislodge the three biggest invisible obstacles to getting stuff done so you can bring in more satisfied customers.

• How to make what already works work even better and bring you even more revenue.

• How to upgrade your personal operating system and overcome the fear that stops you in your tracks

• A revolutionary, proven way to promote and sell your product to your most perfect customer – that will make you feel even better about what you sell.

• The secret savvy business owners use to end the pain of procrastination and improve effectiveness and profits.

This information packed Teleclass is a little taste of my new 12 month small business development program From Passion to Profit starting in October.

Even if you’re not interested in the program, I promise you’ll get 25 minutes of strategies and actions to apply to your own business. After the call I will stay on the line for Q & A.

I hope you can join me Wednesday July 28 at 4 pm eastern time, (3 pm central, 2 pm mountain and 1 pm pacific).

Please register even if you can’t attend the class – I will record the call and make it available to you 24 hours later.

Register here: http://www.pathofpurpose.com/free-30-minute-teleclass/

Looking forward to hearing you on the call!

The Illusion of Freedom and the 3 Dirty Words that Cause It

Just about every small business owner I know wants a successful business because they value freedom. Most of us have been employed at some point in our lives and know what it’s like to work for someone else – you’re accountable to them, all your efforts conspire in the direction of making them successful and furthering their vision.

Remembering what it’s like to be employed by someone else offers a stark contrast that probably contributed to the decision to start your business or downright pushed you there. Your time and freedom is a highly valued asset.

The Most Overlooked “Must Do” of Marketing

Everyone knows that marketing is really a fancy business term for “putting yourself out there”.  And, true to human nature most people have some degree of resistance to becoming as visible as necessary to achieve success.  Fact – if you want to make more money – you have to build tolerance and capacity for being “out there” publicly.

Inspiration Comes When You Least Expect It

It’s so good to be back. It’s been a year since I stopped publishing my newsletter and actively engaging with my Path of Purpose community. For over eight years writing was part of my routine- part of my identity, part of my success and one day I woke up and realized I was tired and needed a break.

With a good dose of fear that I’d lose everything I’d built, I stopped, shifted my focus and slowed everything way down. As many of you know, over the past few years, my husband and I built a house, dealt with a major health issue, lost a family member all the while  forging full steam ahead building both of our businesses. I wasn’t aware of it at the time but I was exhausted and empty.

The Gift is the Path Itself

“The miracle of love comes to you in the presence of the un-interpreted   moment. If you are mentally somewhere else, you miss real life.”  —Byron Katie

“You have one year to live.”

For a good part of my life I have wondered, with a fair degree of anxiety, if someone, someday would utter these terrifying words to me. In my gloomy nightmare it’s been discovered that I have an incurable disease, and my life will soon be over.

Open Up The Flow to a Full Life

I had a really neat experience this morning. I was having a conversation with a friend when he suddenly asked me to chat with his wife and briefly explain what “life coaching” was about. Although I was a bit surprised by his sudden request, I happily agreed.

What is My Purpose?

“When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous.” –Wayne Dyer

For most of my life I can remember asking myself the question, “Who am I and why am I here?” My answer to myself often left me feeling empty and wondering if I would ever know my true life’s purpose.