Recently, I had a major flood from a broken pipe in a unit above mine, which has resulted in my unit being reduced to concrete walls and floors while the insurance companies sort things out. I was fortunate I had the computers backed up and had redundancy with mirror set up in another location. While I was back operating in matter of hours I started to think, what if? During my coaching with the Massimo Group, I have had only one client so far that had a major system crash; and luckily, they were able to recover all their data quickly by outsourcing to a data recovery company. It was a painful call from that client that day thinking all his data and business were gone, until we put a plan in place to help the recovery.
We talk about having a good database and CRM system which we run our business on, which I hope you back up each and every day. But what would happen if your assistant decides to leave you or junior goes to the competitor? What would happen to your work flow process? Have you documented the process so someone else can pick it up if you went on a long vacation?
Here are 4 things you should consider to prepare for your worst possible day as a CRE professional:
1) Do you have a backup for all your data? Whether it be external hard drives or the cloud, back up your data often and access your data often. I had one comment, “my office backs up the computer I think”. make sure it is your data and how do you access it.
2) Do you have phone numbers and contacts of resources you may need handy such as data recovery? Or someone to outsource your marketing to if your marketing person leaves?
3) As above, if a team member leaves, can you replace him or her quickly? Can you outsource that function until you find a replacement to get over the hump? Do you have a backup plan?
4) Can you be replaced? Do you have checklists of systems and processes documented so someone can step in and carry on quickly?
[Tweet “Back up your data today so you are prepared for the worst day as a #CRE Professional.”]
We hope nothing ever happens and every technical device we use works perfectly forever. The old boy scout motto of “Be prepared” is a good one. If we take a minute to think “what if” and look at our systems and processes we use daily in our business, we would be prepared for the worst. I highly recommend, from my recent experience, to take a minute or two to review “what if”. Review how you back up your data and files, and Massimo exercises, and be prepared.
