A Backup Plan For Your Business: How Good Is Your Second Serve? by Gihan Perera

On Saturday 31st January 2009, a technical bug in Google caused it to block every Web site on the Internet. Google engineers scrambled to fix the problem, and it only affected users for about an hour. But for that hour, anybody using Google wouldn't have been able to find anything online.

It happened on a weekend, and early in the morning in the USA. So if you were in a different time zone, this might not have affected you. But for a business relying heavily on Google traffic for sales, it could have been a disaster.

I remember my marketing mentor Mal Emery once saying, "What would you do if your main marketing method disappeared overnight?" This was long before the Internet became popular, but it's still as true now.

When my brother-in-law Neil was coaching me in tennis, I remember him saying to me: "You're only as good as your second serve".

In other words, it's one thing to work on a powerful first serve that wins every point whenever you get it in, but if you're too scared to use it because you've got a weak second serve, it's no good to you.

Start thinking about backup plans, scenario planning and foresight.

Are you relying too much on Plan A, without a Plan B, C or Q to fall back on?

What would happen to your business if...

You're a conference speaker, and the conference market dries up due to, oh, say, a global financial crisis?
People stop going to public seminars because they're saving money ahead of a recession?
Your landlord doubles your rent overnight?
Your main market is the real estate industry, and it's going through a market slump?
Your key decision maker at your #1 corporate client loses their job - or gets promoted?
Your main customers decide to switch to China for their manufacturing, or to India for their services?
Your main joint venture partner pulls out of a deal at the last minute?
A long-time staff member resigns, leaving you in the lurch?

Think it could never happen? It probably won't. But thinking about backup plans doesn't make you pessimistic or negative; it's prudent and positive.

Some businesses plan for "disaster recovery" (or the more positive "continuity planning"!), but that sometimes doesn't cover things like market conditions changing. That makes this sort of planning even more important and relevant.

After all, who would have thought that a bug in Google would one day block every Web site in the world?


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