5 Critical Services Every Business Owner Should Have On Speed Dial

Featured article by Andre Smith, Internet Marketing and E-Commerce specialist

Launching a business is one thing, but keeping it running is a whole different story.

The day-to-day operations of your business will generally run smoothly once you’ve become established in the marketplace but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t moments when things need to kick into high gear to get to the next level.

Ask yourself if you have a plan for these:

·  What happens if suddenly your orders jump by 1000% and you’re backed up on shipments?

·  What happens if your site is slammed by a massive cyber attack?

·  What happens if there is a fire and your hardware is wiped out?

·  What happens if your managers suddenly walk out in protest?

These things do happen.

It’s good to have a plan of action in place during these worst case scenario type moments even if they’re something we don’t like to think about. With that said – here are five types of critical services you really should have on speed dial … just in case:

1. Web Hosting Provider

Sites go down for any number of reasons, which is why you’ll want some form of quick access to the web hosting provider to see what’s happening and the ETA on when things will resume to normality. You may catch these outages faster than the provider; every minute you’re down is potential earnings lost so keep them on speed dial so you can get back up and running ASAP.

2. Data Backup Services

Uh-oh, a lightning strike just took out your system or maybe someone haphazardly spilled their coffee on their laptop. What happens when this data is critical and not available through backups? Well, business is going to come to a screeching halt. For these type of occurrences, you’ll want a company that does secure data recovery so you can quickly recover your files and get back up and running.

3. Staffing Agency

This one may sound quite strange but ask yourself what would happen if you exploded in popularity and you suddenly hit a choke point in your product delivery? Going from a modest 10 shipments a day to 100 for a small business is a huge win but who is going to do the fulfillment? A staffing agency is good to have saved during these events so customers can receive their orders on time.

4. Advertising/Marketing Experts

Say you did go viral in one of your campaigns but the people in-house aren’t the type to be able to adapt to this rapid online presence from social channels – that’s a big opportunity wasted. A marketing or advertising expert on dial can be there to capitalize on these spikes which can result in incredible bumps in your profits. You don’t want to leave money on the table because you couldn’t get someone to capitalize on a great campaign.

5. Public Relations

Since we’re on the topic of going big and being caught off guard let’s go ahead with that idea but take it in a negative direction. What happens if you have a PR nightmare? Will you or one of your employees be the one to take the public scrutiny? Will you or the other individual hold under the pressure? Even if you do you’d have to wonder if you’re handling it the right way. Good PR people really come in handy when things go off the rails; just hope you never have to use them but be happy that you know they’re there.

It really gets you thinking about those little events that could turn quite troublesome or amazing, doesn’t it? These are definitely some services you’ll want to have on speed dial in case of emergencies or heavy work overload. Don’t get caught off-guard. Start looking into the services that complement your business today.

Andre Smith is an Internet, Marketing and E-Commerce specialist with several years of experience in the industry. He has watched as the world of online business has grown and adapted to new technologies, and he has made it his mission to help keep businesses informed and up to date.