Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › Unusual Question, but, What If I Die?
- This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 4 months ago by tejones.
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August 18, 2014 at 6:11 pm #119633PaulMember
This is an unusual question I am sure, but one that my wife would really like me to settle.
I do my little web design and hosting business by myself. My wife knows nothing about the business except that it is there. Her computer involvement is pretty much turning a computer on and off - and being a top-notch spread sheet wizard.
I've had some health issues in the past, and while I have no plans to be departing anytime soon, this is the one big question - What happens if I die?
Has anyone else here faced this question? How have you set things up? Ideally, I'd really like to find someone that my wife could email and emergency packet to, who would then take over transitioning my clients either to their own business or to help them find a suitable home. In a perfect world this person would also be a Christian and most of my clients are churches, ministries, and Christian-owned small businesses.
So how about it, any advice on this unusual question?
Grace and Peace,
PaulAugust 18, 2014 at 9:05 pm #119677AnitaKeymasterHi Paul,
I thoroughly understand your question. About three years ago, a guy contacted me to do some edits to his website. I needed access to his hosting account to set up an FTP access. He said, "Well, my hosting is with Mr. X and he does this and that for me." So I asked him to inquire with Mr. X. About a week went by and he finally emailed me back. Mr. X responded... said he had been diagnosed with cancer and was on his sailboat sailing around the world and wouldn't be available. About another week went by and my client's site went offline. Mr. X didn't pay his reseller account. We later found out that he had hosted over 200 websites via his reseller account and all 200+ websites were offline. Well, after numerous attempts to reach Mr. X he finally responded back, paid his account and everyone came back online. I advised my client to look for hosting elsewhere - to a bigger company so that he could have an account all to himself - his own account and to put everything in his a name.
I have never been a fan of reseller accounts for that very reason - because ultimately the uptime/downtime/issues on their sites rested on my shoulders and I didn't want that. Not to mention that I might be sued and I didn't want to be sued.
I think in this day... the way things are, you should lighten your load. Develop a succession plan so that if, God forbid, something does happen or you become incapacitated at some point, your wife and/or your clients can take the bull by the horns and keep things going.
One of my other clients had everything scattered around with different web people, even his domain names weren't in his name. That was one of my tasks was to roundup all the domain names and stick them into one master account. Then we moved on to hosting.
If you have a reseller account of some sort, I would suggest contacting the company you partnered with and ask them if there is a way to migrate your clients into the mainstream of their account should that need arise. If not, you might want to consider starting to migrate your clients into their own accounts. One by one. They don't even have to know you are doing it.
Once you are migrated, then train them. I have always recommended to my clients that even though I maintain the websites for them, there should still be one person in the organization that can jump in there and get work done. They should not rely solely on me.
For your own personal websites and accounts, I'd write everything down - URLs to the sites, user ids, password, hosting account information, PIN numbers, etc., and place that information in a safety deposit box. This way, your family will have access to all that information.
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
December 10, 2014 at 5:26 pm #134229tejonesMemberThis might be kind of late, but Carrie Dils wrote a blog post about doing business and talked about her "Hit By a bus" document. You can find it at the bottom the post here: http://www.carriedils.com/potential-client-hire/.
Good idea I believe.
Also, I like the idea of a succession plan.
Todd E Jones
http://www.grafixcatmedia.com -
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