Ok, we all know we should have contingency plans in the event of natural disasters.  In Santa Cruz we are earthquake country.  We all know the Boy Scout Motto to”Be Prepared.”

But, do you have a plan of action when your phone lines go down, or your internet goes down, or your computer crashes!  These are just the type of emergencies that need to be planned for because it is your business at stake.  At least with a natural disaster everyone is in it together but when the office has a melt down you don’t want to lose business, frustrate customers or add unneeded stress to your office.

I bring this all up because my office has been struggling with these such issues off and on for over a year!  I am in a very old building with wiring that leaves much to be desired.  Note to self – lease new office space in the future!  Having said that I love my little building but it needs to be completely rewired.

I had a server  – key word “had” and the  thought was we could all access our info from anywhere – well the server crashed and although I was paying to have the info backed up nightly and stored off sight the vendor wasn’t able to recover our data and had to go back 2 weeks prior to get clean data – needless to say that meant 2 weeks worth of accounting had to be redone by hand, emails were lost, etc. Fired company once I got back up on line.

Ok, we get rid of the server and go less high-tech, now our computer are working but our phones keep going down.  So, I cancel ATT and go VOIP (voice-over internet provider) and we are good for a while then we start having sound issues.  We can hear callers but they can’t hear us.  We get the run around for a couple weeks from all the different vendors pointing fingers and in the meantime our phones and internet are intermittent and my staff is getting really, really frustrated.  We are letting all calls go to voicemail then we collect the messages and return calls with our cell phones.  This works but is not ideal.

Our accounting software is in the cloud on the internet – think of google for accounting.  So when our internet goes down we are down.  Good news is we can access the data from home or elsewhere as long as we have a connection.

We are now shifting to Comcast for our internet and phones and should be running smoothly this coming week.

What this has taught me is to keep things simple so you don’t spend a lot of money on IT support, and have a back up plan for when things don’t work.  Have patience, a sense of humor and work through the issues.  Also, with current technology that is very cost effective for small businesses or the private owner you are able to work from anyplace you can get a wifi signal. 

The great thing about VOIP for phone is that I get the voicemail messages in my email box and I can play them on my laptop.  So, in a true worse case scenario I can take my laptop across the street, order a coffee, and use their wifi to do my work.  I can also have all the calls forwarded to my cell phone and keep humming along.

Bottomline, know what you are going to do when things go awry.  Have back up vendors for when they are on vacation or out of commission – such as surgery on that bad back – have options and know what they are.  This will allow you to continue conducting business, and keep your employees from walking off the job in frustration.

Also, don’t be afraid to communicate to your clients when blips come up and how you dealt with it.  This shows clients you are resilient and on top of things.  I am sure they can relate – who hasn’t had their computer crash or their cell phone die.

So be prepared and earn that Contingency Plan patch.  No I was never in the Girl Scouts but should have been.

Please check out my website at www.PortolaRentals.com if you are interested in properties in Santa Cruz or have rentals in Santa Cruz, CA.

Kathleen Richards

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