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Solopreneur, How Would Your Business Survive If you Are (Unexpectedly) Out of Office?

Out of Office

Of course, when I *gasp* take a break/vacation / long weekend, I try to be over-prepared. My hope is if every task and action is accounted for, it won’t need me – Murphy’s Law of business is my motto. Over prepared is kind of how I do everything – I need a safety net in all aspects of life. When the pandemic hit and everyone was hustling to Costco, I was the one thinking “this is what I’ve been training for…”.

My first real job out of college was with Merkle Inc. I started in the Data Processing group and later Commercial Database section. My over preparedness and attention to detail was an asset when working with large lists of contacts for marketing campaigns. Merkle was adamant about a process called ISO 9001 – every group lived and died by their ISO process. In a nutshell, ISO Certification meant that each and every aspect of every person’s job had to be documented to the point that anyone could pick up their documentation and use it as an instruction manual to do the job. At first, the process was daunting, and the check-ups on the documentation were terrifying. But after getting into the rhythm of the process, it was easy to keep up with.

Flash forward to today. It dawned on me a few weeks ago that if I go out unexpectedly, how would BW Concepts survive? It got me a little panicky, but after some thought, I came up with a plan. Hoping it might help you too.

DOCUMENT

I shared that I started using Trello to organize tasks and I love it more every day. I am working on creating a checklist along with a task list for each client. My plan is that those are there should I need to ask someone for help – all the to-do lists are already put together.

GET AHEAD

I love to work ahead. When Teddy was born, I tried to build up two months of work to be able to take some time off. With new clients, new work, and pandemic marketing pivots, that buffer has shrunk considerably. My new goal is to take my normal, quieter weeks and really dig in to build that margin back into deliverables.

ASK FOR HELP

I am fortunate to have an amazing friend, Michelle, who agreed to jump on this crazy train and assist with social media engagement for each client. She absolutely kills it. I asked if I could loop her in on the content creation on posts so, in case of emergency, she could keep the train on the tracks. Thankfully, she agreed.

HOW ABOUT YOU?

What are your thoughts? Let me know what else I should be thinking of!

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