Where were you this past Friday during the snowstorm? I was writing this newsletter in the warm confines of my home and making preparations in case the power goes out. Fortunately, we have a wood fireplace and a kerosene heater with plenty of fuel.
We probably don’t have to worry about the power going out unless someone slides into an electric pole or a tree falls on an electric line.
This actually happened the day before the snowstorm. A service truck in Mt. Juliet wrecked at the Mt Juliet/ I-40 interchange and took down some power lines. As a result, traffic was blocked due to traffic lights being out. Local businesses lost power and their phone systems were down for a while. Did they have backup power supplies, fail-over internet and voice over IP? My guess is that not all of them did, so they lost business during that period of time.
Has this happened in the past? Absolutely. Did we know when it was going to happen? No, but we were prepared in case it did happen.
The same goes for your business and the potential for disaster. It’s important to be prepared for whatever comes your way in your business. Will that ensure you won’t have downtime due to computer failures, malware intrusions, power outages, tornadoes, flooding, employee mishaps, or other issues? No, but it will dramatically decrease your chances of having any downtime.
It’s likely at some point your business will face one or more of these issues. The businesses that stay in business are the ones that are prepared in advance to handle disruptions.
From having failover internet (cable/fiber failing over to a high speed wireless Wifi) to having offsite easily accessible backups of servers and computers, businesses need to be prepared for disasters of all types.
Here are four recommendations for making sure your business is prepared to avoid (or at least minimize) any disruptions:
1. Battery backups. These are essential for modems, routers and computers,
2. Training. Businesses that regularly train their employees in what steps to take and how to follow through with the steps to take above do much better responding instead of reacting to disasters. There is no point to having a plan that no one knows about.
3. Regular reviews. Regularly reviewing your disaster plans and making sure personnel charts are up to date is also important. There is no worse feeling than when a disaster happens and the disaster plan gets pulled off the shelf, dusted off, opened up and nothing has been updated for the last 10 years.
4. Personnel changes. Having a backup plan in place in case changes in personnel availability, such as death, sickness, or leaving the company is essential. This includes having access to critical items such as passwords, important websites, data storage locations, QuickBooks (or other accounting software), employee hierarchy contact list (who’s in charge of what in case of business disruption).
So if you’re stuck at home with the weather and are business owner, you may want to take a few minutes to see where you are with the respect to the above. Maybe get a notebook and start brainstorming ideas for how you could make your business less prone to any of the above situations or disasters.
A few brainstorming questions to get you started.
- Do I have battery backups in case the power goes out? Are they plugged in correctly?
- What training do I need to implement to make sure my employees know what to do when I’m not around?
- Am I scheduling monthly disaster plan reviews?
- What would happen if a key employee was not available? Do I have someone who could step in?
If you want to review your situation with someone, give us a call.
Stay warm, dry and healthy.
If you’re interested in learning more about securing your computer systems, send an email to jnay@jimnay.com. You can also call or text us at 615-443-4842.
All the best,
Jim Nay
Recent Comments