Are You Courting Disaster With No Personal Emergency Plan For Your Business?

Effective Freelancers Save Stress Planning for These 3 Emergencies

Last Monday found me spending more time than I relished near people with initials next to their names.  RN, DR, PAC - all great people, I'm sure.

Yet for some odd reason, I found myself preferring to discover their awesomeness in a different setting.  Especially without pain involved.

While it wasn’t life threatening, it was decidedly disruptive.  I certainly wasn’t getting work done that day.  Not much the next day either.

Fortunately, the disruptive affects have gradually diminished since then.  However, I know I must schedule a procedure within the next couple of months or so.  This will disrupt life again – for a week.

It got me thinking.  What sort of emergency plan should a freelancer put in place to minimize negative impact on clients?  What other emergencies might happen that need plans in place? 

If you want to be effective as a professional, you must address these.  It will save a LOT of stress if - or when - an emergency occurs.  The hard part of figuring out what to do will already will be done.

Looking online, business emergency plans seem to focus on natural or terrorist disasters that interrupt business.  However, personal emergencies are most likely to occur.  If you prepare for those, most everything else cares for itself.

3 Types of Emergencies

Personal crisis.  Maybe a loved one is diagnosed with a terminal illness.  An aging, ailing parent moves in – or doesn’t move in and you are spending a lot of time with care-taking at their home.  Lots of doctor appointments and care plans to oversee or implement.  Additional cleaning.  Additional distraction.  Long term stress while still being able to work on a part-time basis or more.

Personal illness or injury falls into the personal category, but it has its own considerations.  Maybe you can’t think clearly because of meds or pain.  Someone can’t step into your shoes and do your work when you are the only one in your business.  This may involve just a few days of complete disruption.  Depending upon where you are with your work on a project, you may be able to absorb delays without a hitch.  Then again, what happens if complications extend your delay?  

Community crisis.  Weather can play havoc on your best-laid plans, no matter the season.  You need to prepare for natural and man-made disasters.

Death.  This is the ultimate disruption.  However, even in death you can be professional by having order in your records and priority instructions.  Down payments on services can refund quickly.  Immediate client contact can minimize delays in their production timeline for projects not yet started.  It's your final professional courtesy.

Each of these require attention on both the client and the fiscal aspects.  Less work time means less billable hours.  Less money to pay business bills.  Less personal income.  Are you prepared to ride out the crisis? Will there be debts left to those you leave behind?

This month, I’ll be considering things to plan for each of these and developing a checklist.  Personal emergency will have my attention first, since that is something I must address.  Though not life threatening, I want to handle it professionally, with minimal client disruption.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your emergency plans.  Do you have any plans in place?  Have you planned for other types of emergencies I didn’t mention?   Please comment below!

Weekly Challenge

My information packet is all but done, except for fiddling with graphics.  This week I’ll be taking on the behemoth of challenges – building my website.  Wish me luck – or if you are the praying sort, please remember me in prayer.  I’ll need it with all the techie stuff!

What are you doing to build your business this week?