So often people have given me positive feedback about my comments on something they’ve shown me regarding their own business.   I’ll see things they’ve completely missed, but think about it for just a second.  Yeah, I’ve got a lot of experience in our industry, but what could be easier than being asked to “Monday morning quarterback”?   We’re all too close to our own businesses to always see what’s really needed and that includes me.

Here’s an incredible lesson I learned this last week.  While I guess I should be embarrassed, I’m not about to go into seclusion.  Life is a learning process and it doesn’t slow down just because we’re still in class!

I’ve been out of commission for almost ten days with the gall bladder who wanted to be King.  As you’re reading this, King GB is being permanently banned from my body!  But I was totally unprepared to be out of commission!  I remember a bill board as a kid, “Accidents only happen to other people.  So all you other people, watch out!”  Stuff like this never happens to me.

Even those of you just starting out know the importance of backup gear.  No professional hits an event with only one camera body, lens, flash etc.   Professional photography is often about being prepared for something to simply go wrong and you’ve got backup on everything. 

I once watched Denis Reggie photograph an entire wedding (on film) with his strobes on manual because the humidity shorted out the connections on every adapter he had.  Nobody ever knew there was a problem.   I’ve seen professionals like Bambi Cantrell, Jerry Ghionis and even Avedon once, switch gear in a heart beat because of a technical problem.  Nobody even noticed the change.  The point is you wouldn’t schedule a shoot or take on a wedding without the right gear, but what about your business? What would happen right now, as you’re reading this if you suddenly disappeared for the next ten days?

Here are some things to think about:

1) Who’s your communication back up?  You need one person who knows your calendar and has access to appointments and your contacts.

2) Who’s got access to your accounts – not just banks, but your blog, Twitter, Facebook and email?  Do you have a simple “out of office” response set up in your email that anybody could activate in the event you were going to be unavailable.

3) Do you do regular planning meetings with your “staff” so they know what’s in the pipeline and the priority on projects?  “Staff” for a lot of us doesn’t exist, but we all have somebody we trust who can have access to all our information and most important of all is ready to help.

4) Is there at least one person who knows where everything physically is?  It sounds so stupid to even ask, but think about your saved documents – if you’re like me you often have challenges finding things you wrote just a few weeks ago.  Then there are documents somebody might need – are they filed somewhere or in that box in the closet?

5) Do you have an operations manual that lists key contacts, operational directions etc. if somebody had to come into your office to find important files and information.

This is one of those blogs that couldn’t be more timely and my questions are just the tip of the iceberg.  I’m guilty of having almost nothing set up for business back up, yet I never went on a dive trip without an extra mask and regulator!  I’ve always been a fan of Murphy’s Law and Murphy’s Law II.  Murphy’s Law is simply if anything can go wrong it will.  Murphy’s Law II is my favorite:  Remember that Murphy was an optomist!