Open Thread - Do You Have a Backup?
May 30th, 2008 (9:00am) Scott Blitstein 5 Comments
While we do talk a lot about data storage and security here at WWD - today I want to switch gears and discuss personal, or personnel, continuity.
In my business I’m mostly a one man show, and when schedules run amok or there is illness in the family it can cause a breakdown of productivity. Being a Web Worker, I do have a lot of flexibility in where and when I can work, but sometimes there really aren’t enough hours in the day to recover that lost time.
It occurs to me that we think a lot about continuity in terms of our data and even our hardware, but we tend not to have a contingency plan if we are unable to work as many hours or as productively as we need to.
How do you manage this? Do you have someone who can fill in for you?
5 Comments Post your own comment
dawn says: May 30th, 2008 10:01am
I have a backup plan but I’ve never needed to use it (knock wood and stuff). I have writer friends who I’d trust to pinch hit me both because of their reliability and the quality of their work.
Karla says: May 30th, 2008 12:04pm
I’m happy to say that I come from a family of writers, so my dad sometimes fills in for me or takes on some projects I cannot handle. There are months when I just want to slow down so it’s good to have someone you can “subcontract” to. That way, when you are energized enough and are able to do more, you don’t lose the client.
Annonymous says: May 30th, 2008 1:21pm
While I am currently a one man show web designer I have already planned Timothy Ferriss style to take myself completely out of the loop. I only lack the amount of work and money to make it happen.
If I sell a website then:
A professional designer friend of mine can create an entire website in Photoshop.
They, or I, can submit the Photoshop design to PSD 2 HTML and they will code the entire website for less than $200.
Then a junior web designer friend of mine (still in college) can add all the content to the website, and upload the product to my web hosting… They can also make any changes that the client requests for at a later date.. add pictures.. add text.. whatever.
Hopefully I can get to this point soon, so my wife and I can start traveling. :-)
Alana Post says: May 30th, 2008 5:21pm
It seems like a difficult toss-up between determining which is worse:
1. putting your reputation on the line by placing clients in the hands of someone you might not have full confidence in;
2. putting your reputation on the line by not being able to deliver a product, by yourself, as promised.
Dr. Jim says: June 2nd, 2008 7:06am
There actually is a name for this: BCP (Business Continuity Planning). Large firms have folks doing this full time because they realize that keeping the doors open the morning after a disaster hits is critical to their survival.
As a one-man show it’s even more important: once those doors slam shut, you’re out of business. BCP has a lot of details about how to plan properly; however, it all starts with taking a look at your risks and prioritizing them. For you the big ones would probably be: fire, laptop loss/failure, extended Internet connection / power failure, personal illness / injury, forced evacuation of where you live, etc. Rank ‘em and then think about what you would do if they happened. It’s not a perfect plan, but it’s much better than not being prepared.