Business Makeover: Are You Prepared with an Emergency Plan
Recently I experienced unplanned downtime due to Internet outage which affected my ability to do business, receive/send email or even communicate via my social media outlets. I faced reality that I didn’t have a backup plan in case something like this happened. I didn’t have emergency procedures in place so that I wouldn’t have to go without Internet access.
So my first plan of action while I was down was to create an emergency backup plan in case this happened again. I began by looking for alternative solutions that I could have in place just in case my access was limited again. Below is a list of what I determined:
- Locate alternative external sources where I could gain access to the Internet freely (i.e., library or food establishments with Internet access)
- Obtain information from cell phone company on how I can use my cell phone with my computer to access the Internet
- The old tried and true method, have emergency dial-up access numbers just in case neither of the above worked
Having this plan in place will definitely be beneficial if I have Internet access problems again. Do you have an emergency plan in place just in case you loose your main source of access to the Internet? Please share your ideas on what you have included in your emergency plan.
Well that is definitely going around! We lost our wireless router in a storm a couple of weeks ago and I was without internet unexpectedly as well – I feel your pain!
In my case, my in-laws, my mom and my husband’s barber shop all have wireless internet that I can access if I need to. So that was ok. It was sort of a pain, but at least I could stay on top of things a bit.
I also have an emergency plan in place in case I’m out of commission for any length of time. I have a document with business procedures and contact information in case someone needs to get in touch with my clients or my community.
That way, people will know if they can’t reach me – or if I’m not responding to e-mails and voice mails.
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I don’t think that you can ever be prepared enough for those things to happen, but it’s great to try. My desktop computer was down for about 5 days this past week. Although I had most of what I needed on my laptop, the passwords to all my social media was stored on the computer that was down. That is something else to consider in your plan. I already have my most crucial email account coming to my phone so if the internet is down for whatever reason, I have that to notify me. We get so used to being connected to one another online, I forget what it was like when we didn’t have that communication.
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Great practical tips Kim. I have also had some outages recently due to storms and had to resort to my cell phone. (Dial up is just not an option
) This has prompted me to do some things like make sure I can access mobile versions of sites like twitter, plurk, and facebook. I have my email automatically retrieve and have access to my blogs. As I pay a set monthly fee for my cell internet access this doesn’t really hurt too much.
One of the things I did do for a few weeks too was really spend some time working on my phone so I am use to how everything works so I’m not trying to figure it out when it is most important.