Personal crises don’t wait for a convenient time. A parent gets sick. Your child needs you. You face a health emergency, a death in the family or another unprecedented situation that suddenly consumes the time and energy you normally devote to your business. And if you’re a solopreneur, there’s often no one waiting in the wings to take over.
So what happens to your business when you can’t be fully present? That was the primary question at Lioness’ August roundtable, where women entrepreneurs shared how to crisis-proof your business before disaster strikes.
Build the boring systems before you need them
Crisis-proofing your business isn’t glamorous, and it isn’t something you do in the middle of the crisis. It’s the unsexy stuff, like batching, backups and documentation, stuff that you should do ahead of time.
Annie Meehan, a speaker, writer and coach, shared how simple automation helped her maintain a connection with her audience during an ongoing family crisis. She had a virtual assistant sending her newsletter on schedule, with six to eight issues already planned in advance.
“When you’re in a crisis, that extra 15 minutes to an hour in the morning before you have to be all hands on deck was my saving grace,” Meehan said.
Her newsletter system became particularly valuable because it kept going even when she couldn’t.
“That just felt like a beautiful system to have in place when I couldn’t be necessarily available,” she said.
In other words, look at the recurring activities that keep your business visible and ask: could this continue if I disappeared for a month?
Speaker and consultant Maartje van Krieken suggested the same: batch the repeatable stuff now, so it can run on autopilot later. “I need to schedule out some of the simple, repetitive stuff that needs to happen anyway, a bit further out, so I have longer runways,” she said, noting that she pre-batches LinkedIn and podcast content before travel. “It’s kind of nice for me anyway, and it means that if my week turns around, it’s fine.”
Batching content, scheduling social media, automating client communications and creating evergreen products can all create some breathing room. As Meehan put it, “your work keeps on working when you are not there!”
Get the important information out of your head
For many small-business owners, the biggest operational risk is the owner themselves; they’re the only person who knows how everything works. Ask yourself how much of your business lives entirely in your head. What would you do if someone else suddenly needed to contact your clients or access the systems you use?
Together, the group suggested creating a basic crisis file containing things such as:
- Current and former client lists
- Vendor and contractor information
- Important contacts and ongoing engagements
- A list of the apps and services the business uses
- Password and account information
- Instructions for handling email or setting an out-of-office message
- Key processes and recurring tasks
- Information someone would need to keep current projects moving
Mary Tettenhorst, president of Impact Talent Strategies, LLC, specifically suggested having “a list of vendors, services with passwords in place, list of clients who should be contacted if I am not able to, [and] directions on how to set out of office for someone else to do so if needed.”
You don’t document every tiny task you’ve ever done. Start with the things someone would need to know tomorrow morning if you suddenly couldn’t work.
Do you have an emergency network?
Or: do you have people you can call when you can’t do everything yourself?
Annette Mason, a succession architect with Trilogy Design Works, described these relationships as “3 a.m. friends”—people you would answer the phone for at 3 a.m. and who would do the same for you. The idea applies professionally, too. Meehan, for example, has a network of about seven people she knows and trusts enough to refer clients to when she can’t take on work. But she also emphasized that simply having those people somewhere in your mental notes isn’t enough.
“Don’t have it in your head. Have that conversation,” she said.
She recommends getting to know potential referral partners well enough to understand their work, values and approach. In her case, that means staying in touch regularly and even seeing people speak or work with clients before referring them.
Lisa Rothstein, a former Madison Avenue creative executive and current cartoonist and visual facilitator, described a similar network among graphic recorders. When one person can’t take a job, someone else may step in, creating a system that benefits both the client and the professionals involved.
The big takeaway: don’t wait until you’re in crisis to figure out who could help. Identify your people now. Talk to them now. Make sure they know you would be willing to help them, too.
When a crisis hits, prioritize what actually matters
You probably won’t be able to maintain your normal workload during a major personal crisis. That’s okay. Think about what actually needs to happen in the immediate. In most cases, that’ll be revenue-generating work: existing client commitments, booked speaking engagements, invoices or other activities that keep money flowing in. Prospecting, networking, new projects and nice-to-have initiatives may have to move down the list.
Decide your triage rules before you’re under pressure. Ask yourself:
- Which clients or commitments cannot be left hanging?
- Which activities generate immediate revenue?
- What can be postponed without creating a bigger problem?
- What can be automated?
- What can someone else handle?
- What can simply be canceled?
Having those answers ahead of time makes it easier to make decisions when you’re exhausted or distracted.
You don’t have to hide a personal crisis, but also you don’t have to share everything
Should you tell clients that a crisis is happening—and if so, when?
Judy M. Baker shared her experience going through ovarian cancer treatment in 2014. She chose to be transparent with clients, colleagues, friends and family about her situation and was clear about what she could and couldn’t do.
“Because I didn’t hide out, I had more support than I ever could have imagined,” Baker said.
When chemotherapy made it impossible for her to handle the production side of a book project, she handed that portion of the work to someone she trusted. She remained involved where she could and stepped back where she couldn’t.
Others took a similar approach but emphasized keeping the explanation brief. van Krieken said that if a crisis is significant enough to affect her ability to deliver, she gives the client “the one -line fact” so they understand the seriousness of the situation without needing the full personal story.
Ultimately, being transparent doesn’t have to mean oversharing. Your clients generally need to know what affects the work, so whether you’re available, whether deadlines need to move and what alternatives you can offer. They don’t necessarily need every detail of what you’re going through. Keep in mind that expectations around disclosure can vary by industry and culture, as van Krieken pointed out.
What you can do to crisis-prep right now
- Make a list of your collaboration partners.
- Reach out to the people you’ve mentally identified as your emergency network.
- Schedule time to batch more newsletters or other recurring content.
- Give at least one trusted person access to critical accounts, including LinkedIn.
- Update your password and account list.
- Make sure someone close to you knows where to find your most important business contacts.
Be sure to watch the full roundtable recording for even more insights on how to crisis-proof your business!
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