Sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. 

I was reminded of that saying a few times this week.  Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I came down with a case of food poisoning.  Not fun to be sure.  I’m lucky that I work from home.  Have laptop, will travel… from office to bedroom to curl up under the covers with laptop volume cranked so that I could hear it ping away every time I tried to grab a few winks and an e-mail hit my inbox.

Luckily, I have a few people that I can count on when I’m under the weather to help me keep things afloat in my own business.  Luckily, I work with a bunch of great clients that know that tasks assigned to me will get done – maybe not by 10 AM as per usual but for sure they’ll get completed that day.  So I was able to break up my day to work when I was able and get in the rest that I needed too. 

I also have someone trained to manage the critical tasks in my business should the need arise.  I’m blessed with two younger brothers who love their sister to bits.  One is a code monkey like me so if I’m sick and need to crank out a website or two, I know he can get it done.  The other, being a musician like me, has the gift of the gab and has been trained on how to manage the Support Desk.  He may not be able to answer all of the questions but at least he knows how to log in and send a reply that the problem will be resolved as soon as possible.  Sometimes all Customer Service entails is just that – just a note to say “We’re here, we’ve read your concerns and will get back to you as soon as we’re able.”  And I even have a friend who will do some editing and proof reading on an on call basis should I need the support. 

So while I had a lot of downtime last week, the critical areas of my clients’ businesses were being taken care of.  Sure there are a few areas in my own “backup” system that need revision but in a pinch, I know there are people I can count on and that my clients are being looked after.   And I can rest easy knowing that mission critical stuff gets handled with a call or an e-mail to my support people. 

Not all of my clients have built their businesses so that they have backups in place.  Some clients have proudly built a team.  They have a graphic designer and a programmer and a bookkeeper and a customer service rep and… and… and.  But how many of those team members are cross-trained to lend a hand when one (or more) team members are down for the count.  For example, does the Customer Service rep know how to process a refund in a pinch if the bookkeeper is not available.  Does the graphic designer know how to create an HTML template should the programmer be on vacation and a new salespage needs to be put online.  Do you as the business owner remember how to log in to your different systems and lend a helping hand if need be?  What systems have you created or implemented to ensure that mission critical tasks are managed in the event of team member illness (or even vacation time)

Don’t become a victim of your best laid business plans going astray.  Take steps this week to work out your own “Back Up Plan.”