On my trip to Lexington, Kentucky two weeks ago, Greg, Emily and I attended The Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event. We had a great time watching the competition and cheering on the riders.

The event was held at Rolex Stadium at the Kentucky Horse Park, which is a well-known and popular destination featuring The International Horse Museum, The American Saddlebred Museum, the Hall of Champions where several celebrity horses are living in retirement and many other interesting sites.

As with all good tourist attractions, it also has a gift shop. The three of us are unable to resist the opportunity to add to our ever-growing t-shirt collections, so we went right in and found new shirts. What we didn’t notice as we were browsing was the line to the registers that was growing longer and longer. We finally learned the problem: the registers were unable to connect to the internet and, as a result, were unable to process electronic payments.

The three employees behind the counter were nervously trying to get the registers reconnected when, finally, the manager swooped in. He looked very managerial, but I could tell as I listened to him talk to the technical troubleshooter that he didn’t have much experience with the system in its current state, either!

Finally, one of the customers called out: “What if I have cash?!” The manager thought about it for a second and said, “Yes, we can do that.” Fortunately, the cash option satisfied many customers (including us) and we were soon on our way.

So, how about you? What’s your Plan B for the services that are essential for your business?

We’ve all got systems for running our respective businesses: formal and informal, tech-enabled and back of the envelope; long standing and brand new. And, if yours is like most small businesses, you’ve created processes that actually work pretty well, most of the time.

But, you’ve also probably got many potential points of failure throughout.

So a Plan B is important. Here are some tips for creating yours:

• If you’re using a password management software, routinely export the list so you can see the passwords if you can’t connect to the Internet from your own computer.
• Use a system like Dropbox to store your digital files so they are accessible when you’re connected to the Internet and when you’re not.
• Invest in a spare laptop and make it a habit to keep it charged and synced with all your applications and data.
• Create an operating manual with key contact information for all your critical information – your payroll company, Internet Service Provider, website hosting company – so that you can just pick up the phone and call them.
• Make a list of all your company credit card numbers, bank account numbers and anything else you’d need in case of a financial emergency.

Like a retail store that suddenly can’t sell T-shirts to eager buyers, make sure you don’t wait until you’re in the middle of a problem to figure out your Plan Bs!!

Life at my house took a drastic turn over the weekend. Tax season is in full swing so Greg (he’s a CPA) is pretty much living at the office (poor guy!). Not only that, my 16-year-old daughter, Emily, left for a fabulous vacation with her dad for a week.

Both of which mean lots of alone time for me!

As someone who’s used to – and enjoys – feeling at capacity most of the time, I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. I began by cleaning out every closet in the house, a task which actually turned out to be quite rewarding. Next, I began reading Simon Sinek’s, Start With Why.

After a while, though, it occurred to me that this newly found time is rare and temporary. So I decided to take more deliberate steps to improve things here at RocketGirl headquarters.

If you’re interested in doing the same, here’s what I recommend:

1. Examine your business from the outside in. Listen to your outgoing voicemail message – is it friendly and clear? Look at your email signature – is your phone number included? When was the last time you read your website homepage? Or subscribed to your own newsletter to see what happens?

2. Check out your LinkedIn profile. Make sure your profile picture is a professional head shot and that it’s up to date. Ask for those recommendations you’ve been thinking about.

3. Post past content. If you’ve got past newsletters that are not yet up on your website as well, take steps to add them.

4. Clean up “tolerations.” You know, those annoying little things that you are still putting up with. Are you always struggling to find client phone numbers? Do you keep needed supplies in the basement instead of near your desk? Is there a pile of papers in the corner that you’ve ignored for months (years?)? Take the time now to handle these little annoyances.

5. Organize your desk. Take everything off (yes, everything) clean it thoroughly, and only add back what you need.

6. Review your finances. Why wait until tax time to organize your expenses? Bring them up to date now.

7. Plan your next big project. What are you waiting for? Jump in!

For solo-professional who are used to being at capacity, a little down time can be disorienting. So yes, make sure you relax. But when you’re ready to jump back in, take advantage of the opportunity to take your business to the next level.