February 20, 2024 • 14 mins
Is your business prepared for sudden absences? From personal loss to surprise illnesses, can your business stay afloat when you or your team members are navigating emergencies outside of work? In today’s episode, I will share my personal experiences with unexpected absences and what systems you need to have in place to keep your business afloat, even when you aren’t there.
This week’s episode is sponsored by our Search Engine Optimization Mini Course. Our Free online digital course that teaches eCommerce and website owners how to level up their search engine rankings with some simple, doable steps! Join us at www.ecommercemadeeasypodcast.com/seominicourse/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carrie Saunders (00:01):
If you're a regular listener and are
listening to our episodes asthey come out, then you probably
know that I have been sick forthe past several weeks and I was
actually well enough last weekto record an episode.
It was the first time I'd evermissed an episode was a week
before that, when I was supersick.
I was actually in the ER forthat and so this episode is not
(00:25):
going to be on the technicalside.
I know we talk a lot of techhere, but we're going to talk
about business here and we'regoing to talk about what do you
do when something comes up likeyou have a family emergency,
you're super sick or you have adeath in the family.
This is kind of like asensitive subject to talk about,
but something that's on my mind, and I'll tell you why as we
(00:47):
come back to this episode herein a moment after the
introduction.
Welcome to the Ecommerce MadeEasy podcast.
I'm your host Carrie Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
and a nine month old my maingoal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in theEcommerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
(01:08):
I love breaking down the hardtech and to easily
understandable bits to helpothers be successful in their
online business.
Whether you're a seasonedEcommerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place, so sit back, relax
and let's dive into the worldof Ecommerce together.
Welcome back to this week'sepisode of the Ecommerce Made
Easy podcast.
(01:28):
I'm your host, as I said in theCarrie Saunders, so this is
something that's a bit on mymind right now and, just so you
know if my voice sounds strange,it's because I've been sick
with the flu starting January31st.
I'm recording this for theepisode that releases on
February 20th, and I was sickfor over for about two weeks and
(01:50):
still recovering even last weekwhen I went back to work.
And why this is top of mind isthis season of the year is the
time that I I lost my mom sixyears ago in in January, and
then I lost my dad two years agoto the day that this episode
(02:11):
releases on February 20th, andthen also coming off of being
sick for over two weeks, whichis probably the longest I've
ever taken off work.
I actually took off a total ofeight business days, and that
included a couple of weekends ofrecovery in there and I still
wasn't myself when I came backto work.
So the reason I want to talk toyou about this is that it is a
(02:35):
really important subject as abusiness owner no matter what
your business serves, who theyserve, being able to handle and
adapt whenever something comesup like this.
You know the my mother's deathsix years ago was pretty
(02:57):
different.
I'll just say it that way, tobe short, because our
relationship was not typical,but it still was very hard on me
.
There were so many unansweredquestions and so many things
going through my mind, and shewas what I consider young.
She was in her 60s when shedied.
I think she was like 62 or 63.
(03:17):
So not really that old when youreally think about how long
typically people live anymore,and it was.
It was really difficult.
It was certainly wasn't asurprise.
She was not.
She was not one to take care ofherself, but, like I said, it
was still very difficult and itwas just.
It's really a great way to seethat your team really stands up
(03:38):
and takes care of things whenyou're gone.
So the whole point of thisepisode is I want to talk to you
about how you can set yourselfup for success when unexpected
things like this happen.
For example, I have an awesometeam.
Many of them have been with mefor 10 years or more and they
just really are just an awesometeam.
(03:59):
We try to create such acommunity in our business.
We try to really look aftereach other from a business
perspective and where we havethe connection, of course we
look after each other from moreof a kind of a family
perspective too.
But I want to, I want to kindof caution you there, you know
(04:21):
you, you want to make sure thatyour business place is is
business and doesn't cross toomuch into the friend realm,
because then that can complicatethings in the long run.
But we are all human and we docare for each other.
You know, from a businessperspective as well as from a
personal perspective.
I feel like we all have thatyou know, caring there for them,
(04:45):
and so I feel like if you havea business and let's say you
have maybe no employees yet,then I want you to keep these
things in mind as you grow.
Or if you do have some employeesor even some subcontractors,
really think about what systemsdo you need in place so that you
, the business owner can beabsent for a week, two weeks,
(05:08):
maybe even up to a month.
What, what systems do you needto make sure that the business
doesn't crumble and fall down?
You're gonna want to somestandard operating procedures
and you can look this up on theinternet for some like templates
of it.
I've gotten one from one of mymentors, Amy Porterfield, and
one of her classes.
(05:28):
I got some standard operatingprocedures templates and they're
really great because theyreally spell out why are we
doing this task, what it is itfor and then the exact steps to
follow to do the task.
This is something that we havehad in our business.
When we first started on, itwas, but it wasn't written down,
(05:51):
so that was kind of the problem.
It was all in our heads that wewere such a small group, we
didn't really need it to bewritten down, although we really
should have.
And that has been somethingI've been working on in the over
the past year is, as a businessthat's over 20 years old, we
have lots of processes and lotsof systems and some of them are
old and need to be revised andwe need to do things differently
(06:13):
.
So I'm we're working as a groupto really document standard
operating procedures.
For example, let's say, somebodycomes on board and hosts with
us.
You know, let's say, one of ourmain hosting onboarding people
is out, either on vacation orsick, etc.
What are the little steps?
I know I can do that, but I'mnot going to possibly remember
(06:36):
all the little tiny steps.
So what do you need to documentin your business?
What are the critical things?
So I challenge you, afterlistening to this podcast
episode, I want you to gothrough and write down what are
those critical things that needto happen each day or each week
to make sure the business isgoing For us.
For example, we need to bedoing quotes to our customers
(06:58):
and responding and making surethat we respond to the timing
parameter and get them a quoteout.
Now here's something thatactually happened.
So when I was sick, at the sametime the other person that does
quotes was on a vacation forthem.
One of the weeks, for the fullweek that I was actually out, I
was out a half, you know alittle bit over a half a week
and then a full week.
(07:19):
So we didn't have quotes foralmost a week and a half because
of that and, honestly, I was sosick I completely forgot that
this staff member asked for thatweek off, and I didn't even
realize it till the Friday ofthat week, and so I had to you
(07:40):
know, of course apologize andlet the people waiting for
quotes know what was going on,so that they knew that we
weren't like ignoring them onpurpose.
But if I had a standardoperating procedure in place for
that, which is one of the onesI don't have, I could have at
least gotten one of our staffmembers.
(08:02):
They may not have been able todo the quote, but they probably
could have gotten at leastenough information so that when
we came back to work, we coulddo the quote more quickly the
person and I who do quotes.
So whenever you experiencesomething like this, where
you're unexpectedly out, that'sreally going to light your eyes
up to what's really needed, andso it would be better though
(08:26):
right if I had already beenprepared for that before it
happened.
Same thing goes for, you know,two years ago, when I lost my
father.
I was up in Columbus, which isthe capital of Ohio.
That's where some of our mainmajor hospitals are, and the
(08:47):
hospital down in our area wasn'tgoing to be able to handle his
case.
They had him for a little bit,but they just couldn't handle
what was going on, and so I wasup in Columbus for several days.
Sometimes I would drive backhome it's only about an hour and
15 minutes away from my homeand my stepmother would stay all
night with him and then we weretrading back and forth.
(09:08):
But that was a lot of disruptedwork One mentally, of course,
because my father was in hislast days, but also because
there was a lot of driving.
You know, there was a lot ofjust moving parts in being there
for him and being there for mystepmother.
And then, of course, you know, Ihad the, the grief recovery
(09:30):
after that, which you know Iprobably didn't take enough time
off for that.
And me, that's just kind of mypersonality.
I'm working, it's something Iam working on.
But when you really got tothink about these things even
though they're either a bitmorbid to think about or they're
just something that I expectedto think about what are those
(09:54):
things you need to be doing tomake sure that one your
customers know that something isgoing on and that you will be
back to them just as soon as youcan?
That was one thing that mystaff did great on was letting
customers know hey, carrie's outwhen I was sick, carrie's out,
very sick, and she will be backwith you as soon as possible.
(10:14):
And then, as I got sicker,because I had several things
stack on top of on top of justhaving the flu, I had several
things stack up behind thathealth wise some mistakes were
made.
Let's just say that with withsome diagnosis afterwards and
you know my staff was reallygreat is saying, hey, sorry,
(10:38):
she's still out.
You know we expected her to beback by now and they just
updated the customer and we'vetalked about this in our
customer trust series too andthat being upfront and clear
with your customers is veryimportant to continue that trust
.
And I feel, like all the peoplethat I have seen, that I've
(10:58):
looked at the communication withthem in this situation where I
was out.
It seemed like they were, youknow, very patient, they were
understanding and theyappreciated being known upfront,
what was going on and knowingthey weren't being ignored.
So, especially if you're aservice provider or something
like that, you need to make sureyou have things in place.
(11:20):
Or if you sell products andcert, you know, sell products
you're going to want to makesure that that your customers
know why there might be like ashipping delay, for example, if
something unexpected comes up,like, you know, a major illness
or a death in the family orsomething like that.
So this is going to be a littlebit of a short episode because
(11:40):
my voice still hopefully you canprobably hear it is not real
strong still and it's been likethree weeks now almost, but it's
just something that I findthat's really important and with
my father's passing anniversarycoming up on February 20th when
this one releases you knowthat's that's very high on my
(12:01):
mind also coming off of beingsick, and it's just just
something we won't always thinkabout until we're in that
situation.
So I hope this is helpful tomake you really think about that
.
What are the things I need inplace to be successful when I'm
not in my business?
And it also helps you takevacations a bit better too my
(12:25):
staff has gotten so great overthe many years and helping us
unplug as much as possible whenwe go on vacation.
So making sure you have backuppeople, whether it's
subcontractors or relatives orsomebody who can access your
stuff in a you know that youtrust in a secure way that they
(12:45):
can update your customers andclients Super important in
situations like this.
So that's all I have for thisweek's episode of the Ecommerce
Made Easy podcast.
I appreciate you sticking withme and with my weak voice.
Hopefully the recording comesout okay and you can still hear
me.
All right.
One thing I do wanna startdoing is I want to answer
(13:06):
questions that you have.
So find me on social media justlook up Carrie Saunders, ohio,
and you'll probably find me.
And or you can drop us an emailat podcast at bcsengineering.
com, and I'd love to feature youin your question on our podcast
.
So find us on social.
(13:26):
You can find us under BCSengineering or BCSE solutions,
or you can find me as CarrieSaunders on social, and we'd
love to hear from you.
What questions do you have thatyou would like us to feature on
the podcast and answer for you?
That's all we have for thisweek and we will see you next
week.
If you're a regular listener and are
listening to our episodes asthey come out, then you probably
know that I have been sick forthe past several weeks and I was
actually well enough last weekto record an episode.
It was the first time I'd evermissed an episode was a week
before that, when I was supersick.
I was actually in the ER forthat and so this episode is not
(00:25):
going to be on the technicalside.
I know we talk a lot of techhere, but we're going to talk
about business here and we'regoing to talk about what do you
do when something comes up likeyou have a family emergency,
you're super sick or you have adeath in the family.
This is kind of like asensitive subject to talk about,
but something that's on my mind, and I'll tell you why as we
(00:47):
come back to this episode herein a moment after the
introduction.
Welcome to the Ecommerce MadeEasy podcast.
I'm your host Carrie Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
and a nine month old my maingoal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in theEcommerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
(01:08):
I love breaking down the hardtech and to easily
understandable bits to helpothers be successful in their
online business.
Whether you're a seasonedEcommerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place, so sit back, relax
and let's dive into the worldof Ecommerce together.
Welcome back to this week'sepisode of the Ecommerce Made
Easy podcast.
(01:28):
I'm your host, as I said in theCarrie Saunders, so this is
something that's a bit on mymind right now and, just so you
know if my voice sounds strange,it's because I've been sick
with the flu starting January31st.
I'm recording this for theepisode that releases on
February 20th, and I was sickfor over for about two weeks and
(01:50):
still recovering even last weekwhen I went back to work.
And why this is top of mind isthis season of the year is the
time that I I lost my mom sixyears ago in in January, and
then I lost my dad two years agoto the day that this episode
(02:11):
releases on February 20th, andthen also coming off of being
sick for over two weeks, whichis probably the longest I've
ever taken off work.
I actually took off a total ofeight business days, and that
included a couple of weekends ofrecovery in there and I still
wasn't myself when I came backto work.
So the reason I want to talk toyou about this is that it is a
(02:35):
really important subject as abusiness owner no matter what
your business serves, who theyserve, being able to handle and
adapt whenever something comesup like this.
You know the my mother's deathsix years ago was pretty
(02:57):
different.
I'll just say it that way, tobe short, because our
relationship was not typical,but it still was very hard on me
.
There were so many unansweredquestions and so many things
going through my mind, and shewas what I consider young.
She was in her 60s when shedied.
I think she was like 62 or 63.
(03:17):
So not really that old when youreally think about how long
typically people live anymore,and it was.
It was really difficult.
It was certainly wasn't asurprise.
She was not.
She was not one to take care ofherself, but, like I said, it
was still very difficult and itwas just.
It's really a great way to seethat your team really stands up
(03:38):
and takes care of things whenyou're gone.
So the whole point of thisepisode is I want to talk to you
about how you can set yourselfup for success when unexpected
things like this happen.
For example, I have an awesometeam.
Many of them have been with mefor 10 years or more and they
just really are just an awesometeam.
(03:59):
We try to create such acommunity in our business.
We try to really look aftereach other from a business
perspective and where we havethe connection, of course we
look after each other from moreof a kind of a family
perspective too.
But I want to, I want to kindof caution you there, you know
(04:21):
you, you want to make sure thatyour business place is is
business and doesn't cross toomuch into the friend realm,
because then that can complicatethings in the long run.
But we are all human and we docare for each other.
You know, from a businessperspective as well as from a
personal perspective.
I feel like we all have thatyou know, caring there for them,
(04:45):
and so I feel like if you havea business and let's say you
have maybe no employees yet,then I want you to keep these
things in mind as you grow.
Or if you do have some employeesor even some subcontractors,
really think about what systemsdo you need in place so that you
, the business owner can beabsent for a week, two weeks,
(05:08):
maybe even up to a month.
What, what systems do you needto make sure that the business
doesn't crumble and fall down?
You're gonna want to somestandard operating procedures
and you can look this up on theinternet for some like templates
of it.
I've gotten one from one of mymentors, Amy Porterfield, and
one of her classes.
(05:28):
I got some standard operatingprocedures templates and they're
really great because theyreally spell out why are we
doing this task, what it is itfor and then the exact steps to
follow to do the task.
This is something that we havehad in our business.
When we first started on, itwas, but it wasn't written down,
(05:51):
so that was kind of the problem.
It was all in our heads that wewere such a small group, we
didn't really need it to bewritten down, although we really
should have.
And that has been somethingI've been working on in the over
the past year is, as a businessthat's over 20 years old, we
have lots of processes and lotsof systems and some of them are
old and need to be revised andwe need to do things differently
(06:13):
.
So I'm we're working as a groupto really document standard
operating procedures.
For example, let's say, somebodycomes on board and hosts with
us.
You know, let's say, one of ourmain hosting onboarding people
is out, either on vacation orsick, etc.
What are the little steps?
I know I can do that, but I'mnot going to possibly remember
(06:36):
all the little tiny steps.
So what do you need to documentin your business?
What are the critical things?
So I challenge you, afterlistening to this podcast
episode, I want you to gothrough and write down what are
those critical things that needto happen each day or each week
to make sure the business isgoing For us.
For example, we need to bedoing quotes to our customers
(06:58):
and responding and making surethat we respond to the timing
parameter and get them a quoteout.
Now here's something thatactually happened.
So when I was sick, at the sametime the other person that does
quotes was on a vacation forthem.
One of the weeks, for the fullweek that I was actually out, I
was out a half, you know alittle bit over a half a week
and then a full week.
(07:19):
So we didn't have quotes foralmost a week and a half because
of that and, honestly, I was sosick I completely forgot that
this staff member asked for thatweek off, and I didn't even
realize it till the Friday ofthat week, and so I had to you
(07:40):
know, of course apologize andlet the people waiting for
quotes know what was going on,so that they knew that we
weren't like ignoring them onpurpose.
But if I had a standardoperating procedure in place for
that, which is one of the onesI don't have, I could have at
least gotten one of our staffmembers.
(08:02):
They may not have been able todo the quote, but they probably
could have gotten at leastenough information so that when
we came back to work, we coulddo the quote more quickly the
person and I who do quotes.
So whenever you experiencesomething like this, where
you're unexpectedly out, that'sreally going to light your eyes
up to what's really needed, andso it would be better though
(08:26):
right if I had already beenprepared for that before it
happened.
Same thing goes for, you know,two years ago, when I lost my
father.
I was up in Columbus, which isthe capital of Ohio.
That's where some of our mainmajor hospitals are, and the
(08:47):
hospital down in our area wasn'tgoing to be able to handle his
case.
They had him for a little bit,but they just couldn't handle
what was going on, and so I wasup in Columbus for several days.
Sometimes I would drive backhome it's only about an hour and
15 minutes away from my homeand my stepmother would stay all
night with him and then we weretrading back and forth.
(09:08):
But that was a lot of disruptedwork One mentally, of course,
because my father was in hislast days, but also because
there was a lot of driving.
You know, there was a lot ofjust moving parts in being there
for him and being there for mystepmother.
And then, of course, you know, Ihad the, the grief recovery
(09:30):
after that, which you know Iprobably didn't take enough time
off for that.
And me, that's just kind of mypersonality.
I'm working, it's something Iam working on.
But when you really got tothink about these things even
though they're either a bitmorbid to think about or they're
just something that I expectedto think about what are those
(09:54):
things you need to be doing tomake sure that one your
customers know that something isgoing on and that you will be
back to them just as soon as youcan?
That was one thing that mystaff did great on was letting
customers know hey, carrie's outwhen I was sick, carrie's out,
very sick, and she will be backwith you as soon as possible.
(10:14):
And then, as I got sicker,because I had several things
stack on top of on top of justhaving the flu, I had several
things stack up behind thathealth wise some mistakes were
made.
Let's just say that with withsome diagnosis afterwards and
you know my staff was reallygreat is saying, hey, sorry,
(10:38):
she's still out.
You know we expected her to beback by now and they just
updated the customer and we'vetalked about this in our
customer trust series too andthat being upfront and clear
with your customers is veryimportant to continue that trust
.
And I feel, like all the peoplethat I have seen, that I've
(10:58):
looked at the communication withthem in this situation where I
was out.
It seemed like they were, youknow, very patient, they were
understanding and theyappreciated being known upfront,
what was going on and knowingthey weren't being ignored.
So, especially if you're aservice provider or something
like that, you need to make sureyou have things in place.
(11:20):
Or if you sell products andcert, you know, sell products
you're going to want to makesure that that your customers
know why there might be like ashipping delay, for example, if
something unexpected comes up,like, you know, a major illness
or a death in the family orsomething like that.
So this is going to be a littlebit of a short episode because
(11:40):
my voice still hopefully you canprobably hear it is not real
strong still and it's been likethree weeks now almost, but it's
just something that I findthat's really important and with
my father's passing anniversarycoming up on February 20th when
this one releases you knowthat's that's very high on my
(12:01):
mind also coming off of beingsick, and it's just just
something we won't always thinkabout until we're in that
situation.
So I hope this is helpful tomake you really think about that
.
What are the things I need inplace to be successful when I'm
not in my business?
And it also helps you takevacations a bit better too my
(12:25):
staff has gotten so great overthe many years and helping us
unplug as much as possible whenwe go on vacation.
So making sure you have backuppeople, whether it's
subcontractors or relatives orsomebody who can access your
stuff in a you know that youtrust in a secure way that they
(12:45):
can update your customers andclients Super important in
situations like this.
So that's all I have for thisweek's episode of the Ecommerce
Made Easy podcast.
I appreciate you sticking withme and with my weak voice.
Hopefully the recording comesout okay and you can still hear
me.
All right.
One thing I do wanna startdoing is I want to answer
(13:06):
questions that you have.
So find me on social media justlook up Carrie Saunders, ohio,
and you'll probably find me.
And or you can drop us an emailat podcast at bcsengineering.
com, and I'd love to feature youin your question on our podcast
.
So find us on social.
(13:26):
You can find us under BCSengineering or BCSE solutions,
or you can find me as CarrieSaunders on social, and we'd
love to hear from you.
What questions do you have thatyou would like us to feature on
the podcast and answer for you?
That's all we have for thisweek and we will see you next
week.
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