Your 2ndChance at a First Impression: Time to Make the Donuts but Who Makes The Donuts When You Can't

It's Time To Make The Donuts. This famous line from Dunkin Donuts' Fred the Baker commercials of years gone by still remains my favorite. When I am trudging along and want to take a break or to stop I pluck myself, literally, and state aloud, no less, it's time to make the donuts. Like Fred I want the practice of putting in quality work to be such a part of who I am that sometimes I too might forget that I've already done the work.

Fred was seen getting up at the crack of dawn to go make the donuts no matter the weather. Nothing stopped Fred from getting the job done but I wonder what failsafe, what backup plan do we have for our businessses when we can't be there.

Unfortunately for the past 3 weeks I've been ill. I've trudged through and I've still made my donuts but my production levels were low or things totally fell off my plate. I met the needs of my clients but I haven't done a Periscope post in all of that time and a lot of other business building activities were abandoned as well.

Now I feel a little better but the mountain of things to do makes for a depressing start and so I ask, What Now. So, I slip in to consultant mode and treat myself the way I do my beloved clients. Here goes:
1. Accept the fail. Accept the fact that you loss money and it's not coming back. Enjoy your momentary mourning period but then recognize that if you don't move on your business can't either. Shake the dust off your feet but REMEMBER this experience. Remember the stress of monies that you expected, wanted and needed but did not receive because you couldn't do the work and had no backup plan to get it done. Remember this pain as a motivation to NEVER do it again
2. Develop a plan for your reinforcements. Partner with someone who does like business. Hire an intern (mine starts Tuesday). Hire a contractor as it's better to get a percentage than to get none at all. Even consider hiring a sales rep. This person is motivated to sell your business products/services and can be set up on a commission only basis thereby costing you nothing up front
3. Don't ever get sick or take a vacation or have an emergency. Oh, that doesn't sound realistic. Well then it's time to put in place better time management. For my vacations it's easy for me to plan my appointments around them or allocate time first thing in the morning (normally 2-3am) to knock out my daily tasks and then sleep in until the vacation day really begins after 10am. Your scheduling techniques might be different than mine and since you're a different person that's great but create a process that works for you.

I wasn't ready for a 3 week bug to hit me but it helped me because I'll never not be ready again. What about you? Because it's Time To Make The Donuts.