Why Small Outages Cause Big Business Headaches

Why Small Outages Cause Big Business Headaches

Most local businesses don’t get taken out by a “big disaster.” They get knocked wonky by a quiet outage at the wrong time; when phones go down, internet drops, or a system freezes mid-afternoon and the rest of the day never recovers.

One Number:
120 minutes. Two hours of disruption at the wrong time can create a full day of schedule friction, stalled sales, and recovery work.

Why it matters (lost time / revenue / trust):
You lose time because staff starts improvising and repeating work instead of executing a simple fallback. You lose revenue because transactions stall, appointments slip, or jobs get delayed, and that leakage adds up faster than most owners expect. You lose trust because customers don’t care why the system is down—they care that communication gets vague, timelines shift, and follow-through feels uncertain.

One action (doable this week):
Print one page and keep it where everyone can grab it: your “Outage Contact + Workaround List” (who to call first, what to do if phones/internet fail, how you keep taking payments, and how you confirm appointments manually).

I help local businesses stabilize everyday disruptions so a small outage doesn’t turn into a lost day. 

If you want, message me “OUTAGE” (Below) and I’ll share a simple one-page printed list template you can adapt in 10 minutes.

..........I’d love to get your feedback on how you think this would affect your business…. Please take two minutes and let us know (Link Below)......... 

                                   Even if you don’t want to “take” the survey - take a moment and                                                                         see what your answers are so you’ll know where you stand…. 

Survey Question:
If your internet dropped at 2 p.m. today, how long could you keep serving customers without the day turning messy?

Answer choices:

A) 0–10 minutes (We stall almost immediately.)

B) 11–30 minutes (We can limp, but it degrades fast.)

C) 31–60 minutes (We have workarounds that mostly hold.)

D) Over 60 minutes (We can operate with minimal disruption.)

Optional follow-up: What breaks first for you when systems drop? 

1. Payments 

2. Scheduling 

3. Phones 

4. Records-Files 

5. Dispatch 

6. Other

LINKS

• Link to Survey 
• Schedule Your Stability Review
• Take the 2-minute mini-assessment  
• Lost Week Calculator
• Contact us 
• Homepage  

Next up:
Next month is about the "first hour" after a disruption - because what you do first determines how expensive the rest becomes.

Thank you,

Warren