How do you manage if you need to go away for business, or even a holiday? Is your business set up so that it can run without you, or do all your communication points go unanswered? We use so many communication channels these days that it is not just a matter of putting a message on the answering machine and an ‘out-of-office’ email and going off to enjoy a holiday or conference. We must have systems in place to deal with enquiries and sales while we are away. Unless you can afford to ‘shut up shop’, literally, you need to keep the money flowing to your business. Most of us would prefer to keep the business running, so how do we do that?
- Put a support team in place that can handle enquiries, e.g.: virtual assistants.
- Leverage your business by having others work for you, servicing your clients or customers and removing the need to temporarily shut down the business.
- Remove yourself as the chief problem solver in your business. Let your team use their initiative to sort out problems. Remember a problem is just a system waiting to be implemented.
- Implement communication systems within your business that don’t rely on face-to-face contact, and which don’t keep you chained to your desktop.
Putting a support team in place, leveraging your time and implementing communications systems in your business all require systems.
And one of the best ways I have found to create these systems is in ‘the cloud’, otherwise known as operating solely on the Internet. These are the systems that I can access from anywhere via my iPad, my laptop (if I chose to take that with me) or an Internet cafe:
- Time Management System – Harvest
- Project management system – Basecamp
- Customer Relationship Management System – Highrise
- Accounting System – Saasu
- Email – Gmail
- Files – Boxnet, Dropbox
- Business Intranet (how my business runs) – Backpack
Unfortunately these are not systems you can implement three days before you leave for that conference or holiday. But, if you can see how online systems would give you more flexibility with your business simply look at the systems you use now, what their actual purpose is, note their functionality and look for the equivalent online. You’ll be amazed at what some of them can actually do for you. Do you have online tools (other than those listed) that you use? Let me know.
