Doing a "Fire Drill"...for Your Business!

It's not the strongest of the species that survive,
nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Charles Darwin

by Skip Cohen

When I was a kid, several times a year in school we'd have a practice fire drill. At the risk of giving up how old I really am, I also remember emergency drills during the Cold War and the craze for a need to have a home bomb shelter. Today's kids have even more to deal with because of school shootings. And right up to present day, we're in tune with hurricane, tornado, flood and fire threats. 

But so few of you are truly prepared for the "what ifs" in your business!

Think about the pandemic. It was March of 2020 and professional photography came to a screeching halt! If you were a one-trick pony exclusively devoted to a single specialty, most artists were dead in the water and might still be working at Home Depot!  It was horrible, as the world around us shut down.

We grew up on stories like the three little pigs - but we still built our houses of sticks and straw. So, what have you set up for your business to make it more secure? If a disaster like the pandemic rolled back in tomorrow, what would you have in place?

• How's your skill set? Diversity is one of your very best insurance policies. If you're a wedding photographer for example - if your audience disappeared what would you do?
• Who's got access to your computer, files and phone, text and email messages if something were to happen to you?
• What about a local emergency? Who would you call for help in the event you suddenly had to shut down?
• How's your presence in social media? I'm not suggesting you have to be posting every day, but do you have a circle of forums in which you're involved?
• Is your network contact information updated?
• Do you have a contact list of people/companies critical to your business? Is it complete with phone numbers and email addresses?
• More specifically, do have your gear set up in a way that you could leave in an emergency and take the necessities to run your business with you?

And you can drill this down as much as you want. For example, who's your back up if something goes wrong, short or long term and you can't make an appointment? Who knows all your procedures and passwords? Does somebody have account information, including your bank account and the ability to write a check or pay a bill in your absence?

Most of us know the safety drill from the airlines by heart. From the exits, to the life jacket to the oxygen masks we can lip sync every flight attendant's speech.  But we've got nothing in place for the one thing we do the majority of every single day - run a business!