I have to preface this article by saying that I am not any type of ‘prepper’- meaning I don’t stockpile, or have a bunker, or have a fully-stocked off-grid cabin somewhere. I have nothing against people who do. In fact I have great respect for people who are prepared with backup water supplies, backup energy sources, and backup food sources. And I do see the wisdom in being prepared for some things – especially when it comes to my business.

I remember during 2020, while teaching online that one of my webcams went out. Fortunately, I had bought a couple of new ones during lockdowns so that I could use different camera angles in online teaching. So when the camera stopped working, I simply swapped it out. I remember talking with a colleague after my USB microphone quit working and he reminded me that’s why he tries to keep a spare of most everything in terms of equipment in his studio. Even if the ‘backup’ equipment is not as good or new, it can still get the job done. I realized the wisdom in slowly adding to my collection of gear while keeping the ‘old stuff’ around as my back-ups. 

Fast forward to…

The past two summers I have spent working for a friend’s tech company doing business development while also getting an inside look at a tech company that provides tech solutions for residential and business customers. 

When I arrived this summer, it was the tail end of a regional Cellcom outage that had lasted a couple of weeks, leaving subscribers without phone, cell, and internet services. A few weeks later, another local provider’s services went down for several hours. It knocked out our business phones and internet as well. It didn’t take long for us to switch over to all of our backup systems and respond to our customers wondering why nothing was working. A few weeks later Starlink experienced a global outage for roughly six hours, which is a major provider in the areas we service. 

I ended up talking with several business owners over the course of the summer about their unique situations and set ups. I listened to their frustration when one part of their system failed – phone service, internet, their point of sale, a server, or security system because of a power outage, an internet service provider outage, an electrical surge or outage, a software hack, or satellite outage. They all recognized the loss in sales when they couldn’t tap credit cards, book a reservation by phone or online, or provide the promised WiFi for their guests. I asked about building redundancy into their environments and what they thought of having backup power sources, backup internet providers, backup phone systems, and alternative point of sale options. They all winced at the costs associated with that idea. But then I asked them to calculate the cost to their business of their most recent outage. And not just in terms of money, but also in terms of their frustration, and their reputation with their customers.

As a tech company, we have redundancy built into our systems so that we can always recover and restore data, in addition to having backup systems when one fails. So I started to question my own business. Was I prepared to continue doing business if any of my systems failed?

• Do I have a backup for my internet service provider?
• Do I have a backup for power or electricity?
• Do I have a backup for software failures and hacks?
• Do I have backup equipment for hardware failures?
• What are my options for collecting payment?
• What are my options for teaching or coaching online without my current internet provider?
• What are my options for teaching or coaching online if there is no power? Do I have a backup?

And, how much income would I potentially lose if I was ‘down’ for a day? A week? How often during a year could I absorb those losses?

We know hacks are becoming more frequent in all industries and across all platforms. We know providers increasingly deal with outages for a variety of reasons. These are no longer rare occurrences that no one could predict. 

I am looking at all of my options for redundancy in my business, how to pay for those extra services, and running some internal analyses so that I can make the smartest decisions for my business. I encourage you to join me in preparing your business for the inevitable ‘backup mode.’

Here is a quick checklist for you of things you might want to consider having as back ups:

• Cloud storage vs. Physical storage – do you have external hard drives where your great work is stored in case different platforms go down?
• Devices – do you have a backup laptop or other computer in case your device is unusable?

• Payment options – do you have alternate payment options available to make and receive payments if the internet or platforms go down?
• Online options – if much of your work is online, do you have options available if your favorite platform goes down, or if you lose power, or lose internet service? Are those options set up and ready to go?
• Equipment – do you have backup equipment for gigs or for when you travel/perform?
• Spaces – if your current space becomes unusable, do you have a backup space you could transition to easily and quickly?
• Platforms – if a platform goes away, fails, or changes their terms and conditions, do you have other platform options? 

If this was helpful, please let me know! Send a message, make a comment, or share with colleagues.