We’ve been informed
that our electricity
will be shut down
from 8 am to 8 pm
a couple days this month.
I run my Romance Writing Business
from home.
I can’t go multiple days
with no electricity
during prime promotion/selling hours.
So I’m going to
an unimpacted library
to run my business.
Things happen.
Power goes out.
Flooding occurs.
Wildcat strikes
surprise us.
We all need
to be able to
run our businesses
from alternate locations.
Have one in mind
and ready.
I can’t believe
this has to be said
but…
here we are.
You need to have hard copies
i.e. print copies,
preferably laminated,
of your emergency procedures.
The odds are huge
that,
during an emergency,
you won’t have power
and
you definitely won’t have
internet access.
Those emergency procedures
saved to the cloud
or your hard drive
won’t help you then.
You need to have access
to emergency procedures
when the power is out.
Print emergency procedures
and preferably laminate
or waterproof them in some way.
Kill a tree
to save your people.
This could save lives.
I apologized to someone
for rushing her off the phone.
I explained
I had been awaiting news of
a loved one’s medical emergency
when she called.
She told me to
just say that
next time.
I wanted to tell her
to stop being a b*tch
and just accept the f*ckin’ apology.
Apologies are hard.
And they don’t need
to be extended.
At all.
Unless you require
that person’s behavior to change
for your relationship
to continue,
don’t critique their apology.
Accept it
and move on.
Humans downplay threats.
That’s what the average person does.
Again and again.
Threats lead to change
(and extra work)
and very few people like change
(or extra work).
So when someone on your team
comes to you
with a concern,
it is highly likely
they’ve already tried
to dismiss it as a concern.
They’re now talking to you
because they can no longer
ignore the problem.
The problem is THAT bad.
You’re human also.
So your first urge
will be
to dismiss it
as a concern.
Resist that urge.
Investigate the issue.
Immediately.
And thank the person
for bringing it to your attention.
One of my buddies
told me
she couldn’t afford insurance
on a certain high-priced item
so she installed highly visible
security cameras
around it.
Which is a type of insurance.
It is protection
from the possibility of loss.
Having an extra story
I can release
if I absolutely needed
that income
is insurance.
Having an extra $100
hidden in my home
is insurance.
Having an arrangement
with another business owner
that gives me
an emergency place
to run my business
is insurance.
We should have
different layers of insurance,
including the traditional kind.
And then we should hope
we never have to use
any of those layers.