Not the greatest of weekends. On Sunday our switch provider torpedoed on our card base. In other words the cards were not working in real time. So we expected that the backup off-line mode would kick in but it didn’t. (we hear today they need to fix the timing — sure) So the pre-season Christmas shoppers were up the creek without a paddle to put it bluntly. And then the November storm hit late Sunday night and early Monday morning knocking out the power everywhere. Even if the switch worked the power outage killed most of everything it needed to connect to.
Besides that when the staff went in last night the backup battery systems were deficient so we had to manage that situation in a an tried and true fashion, security guards. Today we worked to get everything balanced and in order but it just showed again no matter how prepared you are for any eventuality your reliance on 3rd party suppliers is probably going to be the weakest link that may break. Our business is so reliant on a number of others that our members never see. And if there are failures we are the ones that have to answer to the constituents who pay the bills. Rarely do we answer to those we pay the bills to.
You can’t do everything yourself and you need to rely on other businesses to get you to where you want to go. It is a constant ‘weeding’ to make sure those businesses are partners and willing to step up to the plate when needed. The biggest attribute of a good business partner is honesty – willing to accept their mistakes with the focus to fix them. The suppliers you don’t want are the ones that blame everyone but themselves. There just seems to be too many of these types.
On another note Facebook is now allowing commercial setups. Let the games begin!
Tinfoiling 