I’m a big believer in contingency plans. In my business plan (which is a gigantic mindmap that I reference daily at MindMeister.com), I have a section that includes contingencies. I briefly describe the contingency (which could be a positive situation or a negative one) and then I list various actions or information that will be helpful. Sometimes it’s step-by-step, sometimes I’ll drop a link into the map that I know will be helpful. I’ll typically have anywhere from 3 to a dozen steps, potential solutions, ideas, resources, people to call, changes to make, things to read, etc.
So, what kind of contingencies should you plan for? There are some industry-specific ones I can’t effectively cover here, but most businesses should think about the following:
- If you need to replace all of your customers
- If one of your customers doesn’t pay
- If one of your customers has a complaint
- If the economy goes into freefall
- If the economy does really, really well
- If your workload grows dramatically
- If you suddenly get bad press
- If something you do goes viral (in a good way)
- If something you do goes viral (in a bad way)
- If you need to make money fast
- If you get into an accident and can’t work
- If a competitor or angry customer starts a campaign against you
- If a competitor steals your customers
- If a customer asks for work that you don’t do
- If you get a customer that you don’t like working with
- If your vendor/supplier doesn’t deliver on time
- If you start up your computer in the morning and don’t have any files
- If your computer doesn’t start up at all
Yes, this seems like a lot of work. But wouldn’t you prefer to prepare for these now when you’re not at the center of that particular storm?