How dependent are you?



If you haven't noticed, there were no postings on this blog for the last couple of days and this because my high speed internet service went down and was out for about 36 hours. There were no storms in the area or anything like that to explain why the service went down but it did go down.

Obviously without an internet connection it is a little hard to make a posting to this blog.

There are a couple of options for me to take advantage of.

My internet company proudly told me that they provide me 20 hours of dial up service for free and I could use that until the service was back up. They offer this service so that you can access the internet while you are traveling.

I could also go to the library and use their computers or use my laptop and to connect up with their free wireless service. The other alternative would be to use a internet café or similar type place to access the internet.

This is the reason why every business that uses the internet on a regular basis in their business needs to have a backup plan in place should their internet service goes down. Here is some things to think about went it comes to an emergency plan:

1. How necessary is the internet to your business? Can you live without the connection for a few hours (or almost 2 days as in my case)?
2. If you need it to do major functions in your business, can you use dial up which is the back up plan provided by the company I use?
3. If you need the internet to conduct business and dial up is not an option do you have another location to access the internet to do the transactions such as another office, home office, or another alternative location?

Every business needs an emergency plan to deal with natural disasters, weather (ice storms, snow storms, hurricanes, tornados, you name it), and man made emergencies. Your alternatives for internet service should be included in your emergency plan.

So are you ready if you loose that internet connection?

The All Business blog has some different articles on dealing with emergencies so take a look over there also.