Business mentor: Back up all facets of your business

Half our staff are away with the winter flu and as a result the rest of us are under huge stress. How do businesses cope with this sort of thing?

Small business sector specialist Sarah Trotman asked Malcolm Dennis of Worklinx Systems how small companies can inoculate themselves against the flu:

Like the seasons, flu arrives every year. Some businesses have discovered how to cope, but many haven't.

It's possible for businesses to go under because too many staff are away at any one time, for various reasons.

Customers won't wait. They have their own customers who want their products and services. If they have to wait for your staff to come back, they are likely to lose business, so what will they do?

Yes, they will call another supplier. And you know the consequences of that - if they get what they want when they want it at a fair price they are likely to buy there in future.

It only takes a few critical people to call in sick and extra stress hits your team. This stress can lower resistance and more go down. What's the answer?

You have to inoculate your business against the flu and staff downtime, just the same as taking personal precautions.

Start now, it's never too soon, but leaving it could be too late.

You need back-up systems throughout your business. These systems start with documenting procedures. But not just what staff do, you need to document why they do their work the way they do (including the consequences of not doing it the right way), and most important - how they do the work step by step.

Focus on the most critical areas such as who has the passwords, access and knowledge of your computer systems. How stupid is it when you can't view stock records, produce an invoice, advise an account balance or process a payment?

Who knows how to move money in your electronic banking?

Who can action payroll, PAYE and GST? Identify every area of your business with a customer interface and record how the work gets done.

It's really pretty easy to do all this, but unfortunately the problem usually happens when you have the least staff to do the extra work of recording your systems.

And the exercise can create a mountain of manuals that overwhelm you. Malcolm says the answer is to use a purpose-designed database.

Software like his Worklinx software captures the data in a structured way and allows you to report through job descriptions, checklists and action folders throughout your business so everyone can cover when staff are away.

Best of all, you can bring in temps when the heat is on because they can be productive immediately with instructions to follow.

Start inoculating your business today against flu and anything else that may strike.

These systems help you manage success better too.

* For more information contact Malcolm Dennis (click on link provided below)