Technical Difficulties? 5 Ways To Cope

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I woke up bright and early this morning to write a post on, wait for it… Technical Difficulties. Last week wasn’t a great one for Wordpress and me. Things were tense. We were fighting a bit. (A bit? I was about to cut the sleeves off all of Wordpress’ shirts and make it sleep on its friend’s sectional.) If you don’t have a blog yet, you don’t know the madness and confusion that comes when Wordpress decides that you’re being completely unreasonable by asking it to upload your pictures. Or add a new category. Or preview your post.

Anyway, things got sorted out between Wordpress and me. We kissed and made up. I was prepared for things to be a little awkward between us this morning, but good relationships always have their trials.

Then my internet went down. Not just my internet, either. My internet, my cable, and my phone. It was awesome, let me tell you. As if ripping out the sewers in front of my house for four months straight wasn’t enough, now they have to take away the lifeblood of my home business?

Here’s what you can take away from my little foray into Luddite-ism.

1. Remain calm.

My husband is amazing at this. I am keening in the corner, terrified about not being able to submit all of the proposals I promised by the end of the day. Jamie, on the other hand, is smiling and chatting with the tech support guy, all “Hi there, how are YOU doing today? This is James Dunford calling from Itty Bitty Marketing. I think we might be experiencing a problem…” If he was honest, he would have said, “I know we’re having a problem. My wife’s about to have a seizure.”

Hissing and yelling at the guy on the phone gets you nowhere when it comes to tech support. It might get you a lower rate on your credit card, but with tech support, you really do have to be nice. In the conversation you’re having, there is only one person capable of fixing your problem and that person is not you. Be nice.

2. Figure out what you can do to keep your commitments.

The scariest thing for a small business owner when something like this happens is not being able to keep your commitments. If you have a proposal due or a deadline approaching, find a way to get in touch with your contacts to let them know what’s going on. People have computer problems all the time, so your clients will understand. Call them or e-mail them from somewhere else and calmly explain the situation and what you plan to do to resolve it.

3. Have a backup plan.

When my internet exploded, my first thought was to head down to an internet café and get today’s post online. Then, genius that I am, I thought it would be smarter, faster, and cheaper for me to finish editing it here, send it to my friend, and have her upload it for me. I’m not sure how I planned to e-mail her a Word document without internet access, but that’s another story.

Take some time when you haven’t lost power or been shown the blue screen of death and think about what you’ll do in case of emergency. Keep paper copies of contact information. Be prepared to make use of that dusty old relic, the Yellow Pages, to get in touch with people you need. Have a phone number handy for someone who lives very far away from you so that if there’s a problem affecting your whole area, you’re still covered.

4. Do something else.

There’s a point at which you must accept that there is absolutely nothing you can do. This will lead to one of two emotions. One, you might feel sorry for yourself. This is when you should go read a trashy novel or play some basketball with your kids and generally engage in some kind of guilty pleasures. Two, you might feel anxious and need to be doing something productive. This is a good time to clear out your garage, go through your paper inbox, or clean the shelves in your fridge.

5. Keep in mind, you’re not that important.

In all likelihood, nobody will notice that you’re out of contact. Think about it - when was the last time you were livid because someone didn’t respond to your blog comment in four hours? (If you’ve felt like that recently, seek help.) People have their own lives, their own jobs, their own businesses, their own bad dates - the odds are pretty good they’re not sitting at their computer thinking about you.

The most important thing to remember:

This will end. Everything will be fine, probably a lot sooner than you think, so calm down. When everything’s back to normal, you’re going to feel like a major idiot for freaking out so much about this. Not that I would know anything about that.

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By Naomi Dunford