Last updated on May 24, 2022

Last Saturday I went to “Rock on Windermere”, it was an event put on by Windermere Rotary Club to raise money for the Cumbria Floods Appeal.

During the 3-day event Status Quo were the main act on the Saturday and Top Loader were there that day too … I know you’re all singing “Dancing in the moonlight” in your heads right now!

On the Friday we woke up to news that Status Quo’s Rick Parfitt had suffered a suspected heart attack after their performance in Turkey.

We naturally assumed that they would pull out from the gig on Saturday, but thankfully they didn’t.  Freddie Edwards, the son of Quo’s bassist John ‘Rhino’ Edwards stepped in to enable them to perform as promised.

Now I’m not a diehard Status Quo fan, although thanks to my Mum playing them in the car constantly when I was a kid I knew all the words during Saturday’s concert, the change in the bands line up didn’t ruin the performance or atmosphere for me.

They were excellent performers; they were still “Rockin’ all over the stage at Windermere … if not the world”!!

This got me thinking that they must have had this contingency plan in place all along.  Rick Parfitt’s health hasn’t been great over the past decade and there is no way Freddie could have learnt all the songs they play over a period of two days to that standard.

From a business point of view this was a very smart move.  They didn’t let their fans down or lose any money by having to cancel.  Just a simple strategy for someone becoming ill and they can carry on their tour without much disruption.

All businesses, regardless of size, should make contingency plans for things out of their control.  Strategies such as:

  • Not having any one person in the company that is the only person who knows how to do a given task.
  • Have Policies and Procedures for every task that happens in the office, from the day to day operations to what happens in an emergency.
  • Having data and documents backups not only internally but making sure they are backed up onto the cloud (or other external media) in case of a fire.
  • Having ‘key man insurance’ to enable you to afford to replace personnel in case of an accident without jeopardising cash flow.

We all think “it will never happen to me” but just consider how much easier it is to put the above strategies in place as contingency plans just in case you are the ‘unlucky one’.

It’s better to be ‘business savvy’ and be prepared for the disasters that could lurk ahead enabling you to continue “business as usual” should you suffer a theft, a fire, or lose a key member of staff.  After all you wouldn’t want your business going “Down, Down Deeper and Down” would you ….

 

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