It is just Thanksgiving and I am thinking: I am most thankful for those I could assist (and learn from) during and after Hurricane Sandy.
I thought I truly understood what virtual consulting had to offer – but I was wrong. There are situations that I have never applied my understanding to, and belief in, going virtual in all or most of business administration functions. One of these “situations” was hurricane Sandy.
As a consulting firm providing all its services virtually (as well), our systems are running as long as we have internet and battery life in our laptops. As long as all the systems and records are in the Cloud, data or productivity would be intact during or after a hurricane.
Businesses storing data and software programs on servers and office desktop computers were severely hurt. Some businesses are completely flooded; some are just without electricity for weeks. The cost for loss of business is unspeakable for these entities.
Being able to run a business at the basic level during a national disaster is critical. Employees can take unscheduled paid-time-off for the time of the hurricane, but they can be without pay for weeks if payroll can’t be processed. They may need the money to temporarily relocate as well. Invoices must be sent out in a timely manner so the entity’s cash flow remains healthy. Bills have to be paid to be in good standing. A lot of small businesses suffered from being unable to do some or most of these basic tasks.
We assisted the ones we could – with service or with a free advice. I had some brainstorming sessions to find out how to offer more to cover “out-of-ordinary” situations. We came up with new services available to any of our clients (some of them are free), and we set up the WishGroup to assist solo and small businesses in an “out-of-ordinary” situation.
We all hope there is no more hurricane like Sandy coming our way again. But if so, I am confident that those businesses our team has the opportunity to support will be able to continue operation at least at the very basic administrative level – as long as we have internet and battery life in our laptops.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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