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What would happen to your business?

by Fredbou
12 replies
Something has been on my mind for a while now and I'm wondering if others think about what would happen to their business, clients, customers, web sites, domain names etc. if they had a bad accident, died, was killed.

Has anyone made provision for this? I have to seriously consider what would happen to my business because nobody else I know could do it if I wasn't around.

I'd like to hear ideas from others if they've covered their situation should something happen to them.

Just a thought!
#business #happen
  • Profile picture of the author GMD
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Fredbou View Post

    Something has been on my mind for a while now and I'm wondering if others think about what would happen to their business, clients, customers, web sites, domain names etc. if they had a bad accident, died, was killed.

    Has anyone made provision for this? I have to seriously consider what would happen to my business because nobody else I know could do it if I wasn't around.

    I'd like to hear ideas from others if they've covered their situation should something happen to them.

    Just a thought!
    Without being callous, you'd be dead. Who cares.

    However, if this topic is a concern to you and you feel you'd really care about this while on your death bed consider:

    1. A partner to train

    2. Expand your IM activities into a business where everybody "learns" the ropes.

    3. Have an attorney / solicitor be instructed to pull down your sites and other online activities upon your death

    4. Structure your online business so that you make money automatically without any work (adsense for example) and leave instructions as to how to maintain your sites and so fourth.

    These are just examples. Obviously you get the point and maybe you'll have an idea as to what to do!
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  • Profile picture of the author Dan Grossman
    I've left instructions on how to wind down the business -- how to disable all order forms, who to call to close accounts, etc -- in a safe in my house. That's enough to stop billing anyone for services they won't get now that I'm dead.

    I'm sure someone would open the safe sooner than later to get to the gold and silver bars. My dad manages enough programmers at his business that I'm sure he could get help with any of the technical aspects.
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  • Profile picture of the author jaghananet
    Well, I've never thought about this but why would it matter? If you got in a bad accident and died, then that's it. Nothing else would matter to you.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan Grossman
      Originally Posted by jaghananet View Post

      Well, I've never thought about this but why would it matter? If you got in a bad accident and died, then that's it. Nothing else would matter to you.
      Because we care about the people we leave behind. If everyone just thought "who cares what happens after I die", we'd never have children, build schools, reycle, conserve resources...

      When you die, your family has to wrap up your affairs. If you want them to inherit your belongings instead of inheriting years of lawsuits against the estate by customers and creditors of the defunct business whose claims come before the family's, you will think about how they can wind things down when you're gone.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fredbou
      Originally Posted by jaghananet View Post

      Well, I've never thought about this but why would it matter? If you got in a bad accident and died, then that's it. Nothing else would matter to you.
      I have about 150 Web site clients and manage their domains, too, and it hit me that their businesses would be pretty badly affected, they would lose their domain names, etc. So, yeah, it does matter to me when I think about it! Thinking responsibly, I owe it to them, they've been feeding me for a long time!

      I also have a heap of good domain names and web sites of my own worth a lot of money and they should be left to someone.
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  • Profile picture of the author Audrey Harvey
    That's a good point. My webhosting and autoresponder service could charge me monthly for years after I'm gone, because my hubby doesn't have much interest in IM and doesn't know anything about my accounts. I might have to remedy that and write down instructions as you have done, Dan.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    I've thought about this before, but never really thought about it hard enough to make arrangements just in case something happened to me. Will have to definitely consider this.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
    Banned
    I have plans and directions in place to make sure all of my assets liquidated. A sizeable portion of that is to go to my sister to cover funeral costs, and then to use as she sees fit for the family.

    The rest of the money? I have an elaborate "scavenger hunt" kind of deal set up, and a thread would be posted here from beyond the grave. Woooooooooh.
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  • Profile picture of the author funkynassau
    If one of us died the other would take it over. The remaining person would need some help at first to learn what the other did, inside out. Ideally all owners of a biz should know how to do all of the associated jobs. Or it could just be shut down, tho neither of us would want that to happen, so we need to learn to do each other's job.
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  • Profile picture of the author KitchenTableWarrior
    Fred- one thing to also consider is if you have a disaster plan in place. Have you ever been through a disaster, flood, tornado, earthquake, extended power outage?

    Although some don't see it, most businesses have or should have a disaster recovery program in place. This would include measures to cover your absence even for a short while.

    Essentially, do you have a backup of yourself...someone that can run your biz in your absence?
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  • Profile picture of the author Yadira Barbosa
    Actually I already think about it and take some precautions:
    My oldest daughter it's really Internet savvy, a good writer and I showing her all about blogging, and how to maintain my websites and sales pages.
    I got a little Blackbook with all the Domains, usernames and passwords with all my websites, bank and paypal accounts, the book is under lock and I got the key but my husband know about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author CurtisSWN
    Hmmm, is this just another pointless distraction from making money. Is planning for every possible contigency just a rationalization for not going out there and making things happen. This kind of thinking would prevent one from getting out of bed each morning because if they went outside a bolt of lightning MIGHT strike them. The problem there is that people HAVE been struck by lighthing and they still lived to tell about it. Get get out there and start serving people.
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