Working with the Right Tools: Can laundry really affect my business?

I’ve had some trials at home recently that I wanted to share with you in-between my usual blogging days. I have three kids, a husband, a dog, several fish, and a frog. To make a family run smoothly you need many things to be in place. You need a secure place to live, food to feed everyone and clothes to wear, as some of the basics. Last week our washing machine broke down. It broke in the middle of a wash with one more load to go. If you have kids you can imagine how much clothes they go through in a week.

I have an extended warranty on all my equipment through Sears, or so I thought, which I found had expired 10 days before this happened, so I booked a repair for the following week. That was 9 day’s without a washer and no free time to run to the local laundry mat. Mornings are spent repairing older, clean cloths while eating breakfast and evenings include hand-washing small items for re-wear. One lost tool has added stress, extra work, and obviously extra costs to our family but we are moving through it with very little struggle because we know what we have to do.

In business we have many things that must be in place for our business to run smoothly. Like home, we need the basics; a place to reside – whether that is a physical location (like a store or office) our a virtual one (like a website), food on our tables – which in this case is the financial support to purchase inventory, office supplies or other day-to-day items, and clothes to wear which is our brand – and that is a huge part of how our business is viewed by our potential clients.

So what do you do when something breaks down in your business? I have a friend whose ISP did not renew her web domain. It was her personal name and she has owned it for 10 years. Someone snatched it up and is holding it hostage for $300. Her clients and prospects cannot even email her because the email address is connected to the domain. What would you do?

There are lots of stories of business owners loosing a key part to their business and consequently loosing their business. Don’t be that person. Be prepared by knowing what can go wrong and how you can survive that time.

So what happened with my washer? I was advised by my sister, who knows how to shop for  the best price, that I was going to pay way to much for the Sears call, so I googled “appliance repair barrie” and called the first service provider in the Google Local map. He came out in about an hour and charged me less for the diagnostic and repair then I was going to pay for just the visit from Sears, plus it was done a day earlier. Andre’s business location was his website and the tool to find it (SEO) was not broken so Andre’s customers, like me, could find him.

Get your tools in place and know what to do if something goes wrong.

By the way – If you live in the Barrie area and you need a good appliance repair specialist call Andres with Mobile Appliance Repair. Also, if you want a resource for information on SEO check out my friend’s NetConnexion blog.