planning for disasters

If An Asset Is Old…

Our household’s
10 year old
purchased used
car
broke down.

It is taking a while
to repair.

And that is okay.

Because we kept
our previous much older car
as a potential backup.

I try to have backups
for all my older assets.

There is a replacement
for my 5 plus year old printer
in a closet.

I have multiple spare laptops
and keyboards
and other essential-for-my-business
devices.

If a device or other asset
is old
yet essential for your business,
invest
in a backup.

(This backup could be purchased used
or simply be the still functional device
the latest device replaced.)

The Revival Of The Travel Agent

Four years ago,
many people declared
travel agencies to be
a dead business.

It was super easy
to book flights
and hotels
and other vacations
online.
There was no need
to pay a middle person
to handle that.

In today’s environment
of climate change
and pandemics,
wars
and strike actions,
that has all changed.

Many people would love
to pay extra
not to have to worry
about all of that.
They would pay
to have someone else
monitor situations
and quickly rebook travel
and accommodations.

The key words
there are quickly
and monitor.

But those two requirements
are made easier
with AI.
Alerts can be set up.
Alternatives can be offered.

Dead industries
aren’t always dead forever.

Consider basing a new business
on one of them.

Flexibility As A Selling Point

Yesterday,
I talked about how
the world is challenged right now
and flexibility will be
key to success
going forward.

Flexibility will also
be a key selling point
for products/services
going forward.

It WILL influence
more and more buying decisions.

Flexibility could look like…

Offering cancellation insurance.

Making it easy for customers
to rebook services.

Allowing customers
to change delivery times.

Giving customers
a credit
when they cancel.

Allowing customers
to switch from pick up
to delivery.

Accommodating customers
with last minute bookings
or changes.

Flexibility WILL be
a selling point.

Can you factor flexibility
into your product or service?

Flexibility Will Be Key

A loved one and I
were planning to go on vacation
soon.

This vacation will likely
be postponed
due to a strike.

We’ll be okay financially
as we had planned
for a possible delay.

We had thought that delay
would be
climate change
or pandemic (COVID or the next one)
related.

It was a strike,
something entirely different.

Flexibility will be key
to success
going forward.

Try to make your plans
as flexible as possible
AND
try to increase
your customers’ flexibility
when using
your products/services.

Things happen.
They will continue
to happen.
Plan for that.

In Case Of Shortages…

With everything happening
in the world –
climate change disasters,
COVID,
other sh*t
– we are likely
to temporarily run out
of some of our products
now
or
in the future.

We won’t be able to
supply our products
to our faithful,
hard won
customers.

When that happens,
there will be bitter feelings.
Customers are loyal to us.
They expect us
to be there for them.

These customers will also
have to find replacement products.

The replacement products
could be purchased from the competition.
We could lose these customers
forever.

The replacement products
could be purchased from us.

Maybe, for example,
we don’t have any
of the yellow product
but we have plenty of units
of the red product.
They are exactly the same
except for their color.

Or we don’t have the regular product
but we have the organic product
at roughly the same price.

Suggestion substitutions
on your website.
Perhaps mention them
on packaging.

Supply the replacement products.

When Two Major Schedule Disasters Happen

My editor is struggling
with the impacts of COVID.
She told me
it would take her
4 times as long
to edit my next release.

That’s okay.
I factor in time
for one major ‘disaster’
into my release schedule.

After taking a month
instead of a week
to look at first rounds
of edits,
my editor told me
the story
wasn’t working for her.

I have to do
major, burn the story
to the ground
rewrites.

That’s an even BIGGER
scheduling disaster.

I didn’t have
TWO major scheduling disasters
built into my timeline.

And I should have that
factored in
because the world
is completely f*cked up
right now.
The odds of
two major scheduling disasters
happening
is high.

Schedule for two
major disruptions
to your product development
timelines.