Having a Plan is of Utmost Importance

We go over this a lot. But because September is National Preparedness Month, we think it’s important to go over it again.

You simply never know when a disaster is going to strike your business. A single disaster or day of downtime can completely cripple you. If you don’t have a plan, you won’t be able to recover from such a situation, and you definitely won’t be able to keep functioning while it’s happening.

You need to make sure that all of your documents and archives have redundant copies. If your business can manage, there should be a copy on-site and off-site, and they should be updated at least once a day. Usually, backup services allow you to access these secure backups from any device with an Internet connection, including from a smartphone.

It may seem like common sense, but make sure your “about us” and “contact us” pages have e-mails, Facebook links, and Twitter links as well. That way, if your website is down or your services aren’t working the way they need to work, your customers can send you a note and get in contact with you somehow. If you make users jump through a bunch of hoops to get to an e-mail address, you’ll have to deal with angry customers once your website goes back up.

Make sure you have a copy of your client data handy and, preferably, printed out and updated at least once a week. If all else fails, you can at least find a way to contact your customers – probably via phone – to let them know what’s going on behind the scenes. More likely than not, they’ll understand if you get in contact with them – they may not feel the same way if you leave them in the dark.

When you make a plan, make sure it has your customers, your data, and the soundness of your business in mind.