Emergency Planning for the Solo Entrepreneur

Book excerpt: The challenges facing a solo entrepreneur when calamity strikes are unique in the realm of disaster planning, and the only effective strategy for preventing a business failure after an unexpected major setback is to have a clearly thought-out emergency backup plan. This book guides you to being 100 percent ready for the worst-case scenario. Disasters are sudden, calamitous events that can bring about great loss and failure to a business. Some disasters can be prevented through good judgment and careful planning; others—whether "acts of God" such as flood or fire or a personal health crisis—cannot be. What will happen if the one person responsible for the day-to-day operations of a solo entrepreneurship is suddenly incapacitated and unable to manage the business? In cases of small businesses that do not have a clear backup or disaster recovery plan, the outcome is often the total failure of the business. This book is both a wakeup call and an action plan for small business owners. It will guide readers toward creating a backup system that will enable a business to "run itself" without the immediate presence of its owner—for a week, a month, or even longer. The author presents a tested strategy that has its roots in preparing for natural disasters, and replaces the all-too-common refusal to believe that bad things can and do happen with hard facts and realism. Clearly, solopreneurs cannot afford to take risks of failure when it comes to their businesses—the most important thing in their lives aside from family and health.