What Happens If...

I know as accountants, bookkeepers, and tax professionals we tell our clients that they need to have a plan in place in case something happens to them. In general, this type of planning is for when they are ready to retire or start other exit planning. And we usually don't think about this for ourselves and our own practices.

What happens if there is a life event that is completely unplanned and we could not possibly prepare ourselves for it?

Many of you, like me, have experienced sickness yourself over the last couple of years that took weeks or months of recovery - meaning you were unable to work or extremely limited in what you could do. And maybe your family or friends were sick and you were needed to help them.

What happened to your business during that time? Did the work still get done or were you forced to try to work sick? Were you trying to balance taking care of loved ones while trying to put out fires in your business? Were you answering client phone calls from your own bed or from your loved ones' bedsides?

When I worked for my mother’s firm, she did have a life event happen that took her out of her business for several months. It was a huge problem in her firm. Until I started working for her, she worked by herself. All clients were used to working with her and talked directly to her. When she had a serious health issue, she did not want her clients to know with the fear that they would go somewhere else.

I get that but you must have a plan in place for if something like this happens. She had just had a small stroke and was not thinking very clearly. She was literally trying to run a payroll no one else could run from the hospital bed. TRUE STORY!! She was trying to tell me how to do certain things, but her brain was very cloudy and hard to follow. From a team member's perspective, it was very stressful trying to figure out what to do - even as her daughter. What happens if it had been a team member who did not know her as well as I do?

I know many of us do not want to think about any of this. I definitely didn't want to think about it, but as I took over my mom’s firm it was always in my brain that I didn't want my firm facing this risk. I want my clients taken care of even if I am not there. I want them to have someone to call no matter what. I want the firm to run with or without me. This goes the same for my team members. If I have a team member leave suddenly, I want the clients to feel no difference.

While this has taken a long time to develop, it has been well worth the effort, time, and cost.

Recently, my mom had another health event that was extremely scary, and I had to be out of my firm for three weeks during January. Can you imagine having to be completely out of your firm in January for three weeks? What happens if this happened to you - what would happen?

I was back and forth between doctors’ appointments. In and out of the hospital for days at a time. I could not work, I could not think because of sheer exhaustion, brain fog and fear. They had thought my mom had another stroke. She could not think or communicate very well for herself. I was with her the entire time. It was an incredibly stressful time. They finally ruled out a stroke, but it was a long two weeks of back and forth. She is doing better now but it was very stressful.

Then, as soon as we got out of the hospital, two days later I got sick for another week. I was out for three entire weeks without really being able to work.

My mom still has her own small bookkeeping and tax business that she does at home after she parted from our firm. While she was in the hospital, I took care of her clients and processed her 1099’s from her hospital room. We were fortunate that we are in the same industry, and I was able to step in, but it was a struggle! I had to figure out what she did and did not do for each one. I had to figure out exactly where she was with the services she provided for them. I even had to figure out who her clients were.

What happens if you are a solo practitioner? What happens to your clients if you do not have anyone like me able to step in? What does your family do? What do your clients do? Could your practice survive this if it happened to you in January and you were unavailable for three weeks?

In my own business, my team was able to step in and take care of everything for our clients. They took all advisory meetings, payroll reports, 1099’s, and anything else that needed to be done. They were able to review each other's work since I had a review system in place. They also knew they had permission to make decisions without involving me.

These three weeks were a huge test of what we had built over the last couple of years. Since I had processes documented for year-end tax returns, they were able to start those without any involvement from me. They were able to test my processes and ask any questions if they did not understand anything in the process.

While this was a scary experience, it was also an eye-opening experience.

I saw first-hand why documenting processes, training and empowering your team and preparing for emergencies was so important. It is not always about being able to take an unplugged vacation. It is about just being unavailable at a moment's notice when you simply don't have control.

I don't mean this article to be all doom and gloom.  I am just trying to get the point across that our clients depend on us. What happens if you have something going on that you were not prepared for and just need the unplugged time to take care of something in your personal life. Is your firm prepared for that? If something happens to you, who takes care of your business? Who takes care of your clients?

I ask you these questions because a few years ago I was not prepared if I needed to be out of the office unexpectedly for three weeks, and it would have been detrimental to my firm. I would have been trying to work during this difficult time and would have made so many mistakes.

I challenge you to start making a “What happens if” plan so you can start working on it. Some ways to do that are simple. Create a document that lists all your clients with their names, what you do for them and when you do it. Where are your passwords kept? Where are your client's documents kept? What software do you use for what?

I cannot tell you enough how important this is for yourself, your business, and your clients. Your clients depend on you to always be able to take care of them, so you need to make sure that you have a plan in place, so they never feel the impact.