This is the complaint I get every time a Business Internet connection goes down for whatever reason.  It’s simply silly and causes completely unnecessary complaint calls to my office.  The business owner will call every hour demanding that we aren’t working hard enough to restore his or her internet connection and cries how he/she can’t take credit card transactions and online orders.  They whine that they cannot afford to be down at all and how dare we cost them money like this.

Odd how it’s always our fault the Business Owner in question didn’t think about such things when he or she was so superior in their thinking to start a business that requires internet to maintain income.  It’s never the overpaid “consultant” that should’ve suggested a backup plan.   Especially these small businesses that only use one computer.

Redundancy is Key!

Internet Businesses need redundancy.  Basically two of everything.  Especially the small one computer run companies.

At Least Two Computers

If your computer goes down, you should have a second one ready to go.  One that is unplugged in case the reason their PC died is because of lightening.  It should be plugged in occasionally to get updates and such though.  Or to synchronize customer data that may be stored on it.

Manual Credit Card Processing

OK, so maybe your internet didn’t fall over.  But still, can you guarantee you can get to your online credit card processing company?  What if there is a routing problem?  What if your router died and you don’t have a spare setup ready to go with information prudent to get online processing going again?  Or if the power goes out?  You need a way to manually process credit cards for your little coffee or bookshop.  Or whatever it is.  That good old fashioned imprinter can save your ass in a pinch.  You can record your customers payments manually and then batch them out later on when you get connectivity to your online merchant account restored.

Offsite Backups of Data

Loss of data can also occur if your connection, electricity or computer goes down.  What happens if when it comes back up your data is lost?  Not good.  You should invest in an online backup service that keeps your data encrypted, protected and offsite just in case it’s a fire, tornado, hurricane or flood that caused you to lose your data.

Dual Internet Connections

Most importantly, if your business hangs on every minute of the day to be connected to the internet, there is no better way to ensure this than to have dual internet connections.  This means two subscriptions to two different internet services.  I mean, if you are losing said thousands of dollars, surely you can afford to have two internet services keeping your happy ass online.  You call us and scream how you are losing all this money, yet it’s you who should have thought of this possibly happening.  Internet can and does go down.  As much as all the Facebook happy teenagers and lonely parents would love it to never go down, it can and does go down from time to time.  And trust me, every single internet provider has it in their TOS (Terms of Service), we aren’t responsible for any lost revenue.  It’s your responsibility to keep yourself connected and protected for your Business.

Now that I’ve divulged this valuable information, I feel since I’ve given most businesses more information than their worthless and overpaid consultants, that I should be paid for it.  Feel free to contribute payment to the icon below.