Plan B
“Plan A” is to go about your business: sell and install glass and metal, pay your troops every Friday and hope there is something left for you. But what happens when a piece of your Plan A is disrupted? AHA! That is “Plan B.” Are you ready for that disruption? It is going to happen at some time in your business. This I can guarantee. Yesterday, my laptop toasted itself, and my backup is to use my wife’s computer. An easy solution.
Your office person will need just a couple of hours of research to create an “Emergency Book” that you and all of supervisors and foremen should have at home. This list contains the names and phone numbers of your Plan B partners, the folks you need to call who can help you with the unplanned emergency. Here’s a list of who that may be:
- Local police
- State police
- Local fire department
- Local ambulance
- Plumber, sprinkler repair
- Electric utility
- Electrician
- Natural gas utility
- Gas fitter/plumber
- Computer back up
- Landline phone company
- Cell phone company
- Insurance agent
- Lawyer(s)
- Alarm central station
- Payroll service
- Bank/Banker
- Accountant
- Taxi/car service
- FedEx/UPS and account number
- Tow truck
- Trash hauler
- Landlord
- Neighboring businesses
- Fire/flood remediation firms
- Office building cleaners
- Generator rental/service
- Hazardous material clean up
- Poison control center
- Counseling professionals to help employees
- Companies that provide day workers
- Construction contractor
- Demolition contractor
- Water pump rental
- Fire sprinkler repair
- Forklift/crane rental
Try to get the first person you would call and then add one or two extra names, in case you need to go to Plan C. This is really not overwhelming. Use your computer search engine or your local yellow pages. There is no need to call each person now if it appears they can do the job. In fact, you will know most of these people, anyway. The key to managing Plan B is to have this information readily available for you and your staff at home, or on your cell phone memory.
Need to go now; Elaine needs to send an email.