Small Business Boomers

This can’t be a crisis - I’m too busy!

by Jean on February 10th, 2008

Ever have one of those days in your business? It seems like everything is going wrong. An employee quits, a major piece of equipment breaks, and there is a storm (the snow kind) on the horizon.

We here at b5media had a crisis this past week - the systems kind, involving the servers that power the websites. A crisis by definition is “a situation of extreme danger or difficulty.” It can also be a “turning point, ” or a decision point.

Crises fall into three types:

• Operations, like the one that happened to b5media this week.
• Safety, like a storm or a fire or other Acts of God that threaten the physical safety of you, your employees, customers, and your location.
• Reputation crises, like the one that happened to Johnson & Johnson (makers of Tylenol), back in 1982.

As someone once said, it’s not what happens to you but your attitude toward what happens that matters. What happens to you in a crisis? What do you do when you hear the tornado sirens and you have customers in your store? What do you do when a disgruntled ex-customer goes after you in the local media? What do you do when your computer “blows up”?

The origin of the word “crisis” is from the Midlde English back to the Greek, meaning “to separate or judge.” A crisis will certainly judge your character.

Some suggestions for dealing with a crisis:

1. Plan ahead as much as possible. Take a day and think of all the possible types of crises and plan what you will do. For example,

• You know your computer might crash. Back up daily; do a full back up weekly.
• You know what kinds of severe weather happen in your area. Plan what you’ll do in the event of an emergency.
• You know that people sometimes go crazy. Decide how to handle this kind of situation.
• OSHA requires you to have a “crisis management” plan for hazardous chemicals. Where is yours?

2. Write this stuff down. You will never remember in the middle of a crisis.

3. Get your employees together and talk about what to do in each of the situations you have laid out. They might be able to come up with others. Add these to your “crisis” plan book.

4. Put your “crisis plan” book where everyone can get to it quickly and, most important, review it at least once every 6 months, so you and your employees don’t forget.

Other b5media bloggers are going to write posts about crisis management. I’ll share them with you. In the meantime, what are your suggestions for crisis management?

Share This

Related Stories

• Crisis Management - People are the key
• When is a crisis something worse?
• Happy 60th birthday to … ME!
• Sub-prime fallout shelter: Some advice from Accounting$olver
• Start-Up Diary - You Thought I’d Given Up

POSTED IN: Business Plan, Mindset