by Katie Lawry AE
Presentation by Sally Asnicar at the IPEd conference.
Sally’s presentation on planning for the unplanned was an excellent reminder of good business practices that many of us think about, but often forget to actually put in place. Sparked by some personal experiences, Sally’s recommendation was to write up an ‘in case of emergency’ (ICE) business plan now, rather than relegate to the ‘later’ pile.
One of the main points that Sally stressed was the necessity to nominate at least one ICE person for your business, preferably someone who is not your next-of-kin or executor of your will. She suggested a trusted friend or colleague who could sort out your business logistics should there be an emergency. It is solid advice, but not something most of us have thought about specifically for our businesses, even if we have done so for our personal lives.
There is a surprisingly large amount of information about our businesses that someone taking over in the event of an emergency would need to know, ranging from daily task information (such as deadlines or invoicing status on jobs) to subcontractor or employee information and other miscellaneous information (such as the status of services ordered from other suppliers). On top of that, there are many other considerations, such as taxes, subscriptions and bank details.
Sally also made the point that once completed, the plan needs to be reviewed at least annually and kept up to date.
I really enjoyed Sally’s presentation ー it was full of great advice and useful things to think about, and was a good prompt that it isn’t just our personal affairs that need to be kept in order when we run a business.
Katie Lawry AE is a professional member of IPEd and runs her editing business, Red Spark Publishing Services.