So, you’ve worked hard. You’ve put in the time and effort and now your online business is running smoothly, orders are steady and sales are up. But you are tired. You’ve been burning candles at both ends for two years straight without a break. The 80 hour weeks have finally caught up with you and you’ve got a chance to take a 7-night Caribbean cruise. You know you need this break, but what are you going to do with your online store in the meantime?
Planning the Great Escape
It’s happened to all of us at some point in our online careers and we have all survived a week away from home base. But first, you have to get to the point where you believe you can survive leaving your business with “others.” Before you escape, do some business planning so that you’ll be comfortable with someone else minding the store while you’re embedded in the conga line on the Lido deck.
Haste Makes Waste
Shutting down your online store while you’re away isn’t an option, so now your priority has to be to find someone who can keep the orders coming in and going out. You have two basic choices and each comes with positives and negatives. A plan may seem obvious; this is the moment when many small business owners will decide to hire their first employee. Not so fast! You don’t want the tail wagging the dog here. Hiring staff changes your business forever. This is an important change and for many businesses an inevitable one, but it is not a change you make in a rush or because you’re forced to make it. Any new hire is going to need training and you have to learn to trust that person. After all, your business will be in their hands while you’re away. If you’re not ready to become an “employer” just yet, you’re left with Plan B, also known as “friends and family.”
I am not a big fan of hiring friends or family members, but in a crunch they may be your best resource. Just make sure that whomever you select is capable of the basics—taking some phone calls, answering e-mail and getting orders out the door. Other business functions should be able to wait for your return.
Keep It Simple
Here is a checklist of tasks your temporary assistant should be able to handle:
• Pulling orders off your website and entering them into your order management system
• Answering the phone during your normal business hours
• Providing customers with product information
• Entering phone orders and processing credit cards
• Picking, packing and shipping product from your warehouse
• Answering customer e-mail
• Handling returns and exchanges
Now here’s a checklist of things you should do to make your assistant’s job easier:
• Show them how to use your voice mail and telephone system
• Write explicit instructions on how to do things (pull orders, charge cards, ship a package, etc.)
• Write a FAQ—a list of frequently asked questions that customers may ask during a call or e-mail
• Leave a list of usernames and passwords for your website and order management system
• List emergency contact numbers in case they have to reach you
We all need a break every now and then; it refreshes us and inspires us to think up the next big venture that will allow (dare we dream?)—2 weeks vacation next year! And after all, isn’t that the real point of working? To live? E-commerce never stops and neither should your business. By choosing the right person to run things while you’re away, you can relax and enjoy the fruits of your labors knowing your “baby” is in capable hands.
