On August 28, 2010 my father passed away. He was only 62 years old and expecting to come home after 3 days of recovery following surgery. My dad lived his life to the fullest and there isn't anything I know of that he wanted to do and didn't have an opportunity. I get my work ethic, drive, and entrepreneurial spirit from him. He was definitely a risk taker. I'm missing him dearly, however I can hear him saying 'I'm okay'.
My dad left us with one great and unbelievable gift: he'd planned his entire funeral. Sounds a bit strange I know, however my dad owned a funeral home for over 25 years. He selected the songs he wanted as well as two poems; he had everything neatly typed up including the program itself. He also selected two photographs and had written his casket number down. He had a separate insurance policy specific for his funeral, even listing the funeral home as beneficiary. We knew for sure how to plan his homegoing celebration exactly as he would have wanted.
By now you're probably wondering what this all has to do with you and your website. EVERYTHING!
I've come to realize that a pre-need is just that, it's planning before you need it. In the corporate world it was a contingency plan usually implemented during inclement weather. As an online business owner having a website pre-need is essential for your business.
Here are several questions to ask yourself:
- Do I have a list of specifics for each client project along with contact information? How would clients be notified in case of an emergency?
- If my email server went down, how would I communicate with my team, clients, or email marketing list?
- If my website were to shutdown today what is my backup plan?
- How will my website run when I'm on vacation? What if I fell ill or if there were a family emergency?
- How can I better prepare my assistant for when I'm unavailable? What training and material needs to be in place so my team can be successful ambassadors in my absence?
This is just the tip of the iceberg for planning a website pre-need. It can be complicated or very simple based on your business structure, whatever the case we all must have one before we need it most.
Would you like more information on website pre-needs or do you have tips you'd like to share? Submit your comments below.
PS- I was using my backup laptop as a test before I head to Indy in 2 weeks. I need to rush it to the emergency room (Staples). I'm still waiting for it to respond so I finished up the article on my blackberry. Backup to the backup what can I say? I was able to wrap up the post after rebooting. LOL!
Thank you for sharing this, it’s hard to realize how important this is until you are in that situation.
I had a major unexpected illness a couple of years ago and was hospitalized without internet access. My husband had to pick up on my business as well as run his own. It really opened up our eyes to how much information he still needed to run it. Fortunately I was available by phone and visit, but if I’d been truly incapacitated, it would have severely damaged the business while I was gone.
My pleasure:) We don’t realize what all we have to do for our businesses until we have to tell someone. It’s probably a good idea to pick a week and write down everything you do and fill in the steps it takes to complete along with access information. It comes in handy not only during emergencies, but also when outsourcing.