Last week my client Sara called me in a panic. She’d been having trouble for a while with her office manager, Michelle, and things had been getting worse. It got so bad that, last Thursday morning, Michelle just grabbed her stuff and walked out the door for good.
Sara was unsure about what to do next. We had a long talk about Michelle’s responsibilities and how we could bridge the gap until she could be replaced.
I asked Sara questions about whether or not she had Michelle’s passwords for her computer, voicemail, and company email account. No, she didn’t.
Ok, what about other things Michelle took care of, like where to make changes to the company website? “No clue,” Sara replied.
That’s trouble.
Sara and I sat down and made a list of the information we’d have to get so that she could continue to run her company smoothly. It’s going to take a bit of time and effort , much more than if Sara had planned ahead for this kind of disruption.
Next time, we’ll make sure she’s got a handle on the following things:
- The name of the company that hosts her website, email and domain name (URL), and passwords for each. She’ll need these if her email ever goes down, if she needs to make a new email address for a new employee, if the website needs to be updated, or if there’s any kind of overall problem with the site.Knowing where the domain is hosted allows you to keep it current.If you don’t, it could expire, and, the site will suddenly disappear!
- Software CDs that shipped with her computers; product keys/activation for all her applications. It’s not unusual for software to stop working. When it does, it needs to be reinstalled. Other times, you may need to “reformat your hard drive,” which means putting it back to the way it was when you first took it out of the box. If that happens, you aren’t going to want to purchase your software again.The activation keys are antitheft controls and proof of purchase. They allow you to unlock the software, which is something you can’t always do with the disks alone.
- Instructions regarding data backup. Again, you’ll only need this when disaster strikes, but if you lose your hard drive, your laptop is stolen, or some nasty virus visits your company, you’re going to need to know how to restore everything from backup. (Not backing up? Read my previous newsletter on this topic here.)
- All your passwords in a safe, organized and secure place.This includes all of your employees’ passwords. You’ll want a copy in electronic form and off-site so that ,no matter what happens, you have access to them. This includes the password to your wireless network (Hint: You’ll often find this printed on your router somewhere).
Ok, those are the big pieces. And while it’s never a happy day when a key employee leaves unexpectedly, for whatever reason, there’s no need to compound the loss with these additional problems, all of which can be prevented with just a little bit of pre-planning!