Sarah Kendrick with RHEA Services shares why you need to prepare for emergencies in advance and make sure you have a plan for your business!
Here is the transcript from the presentation:
Ryan: Now it’s on to the speaker part of our meeting today. So, I would like to introduce everyone to Sarah Kendrick, who is the founder and owner of RHEA Services, this author of two published books now, so she just released her second book, I believe it was earlier, no late last year, correct?
Sarah: Just in January.
Ryan: Out in January, so just this year. So, her expertise is making sure that if something happens to you, your family or your business partners or your next of kin are able to carry on the activities that you had, so, everyone, let’s give Sarah Kendrick a hand, and she’s going to talk to us about how to Prepare for Peace of Mind.
Sarah: Thank you, Ryan. I’m so happy to be here with you all today and I appreciate the opportunity to share. As Ryan said, this is something that I’ve been doing with families for the past couple of years, is helping them gather all of their essential information, to gather things, like all of those passwords that you tend to forget, or the login information for your different accounts and even how to care for your pet if you’re not there. So, really getting into the nitty gritty details of what do you manage every day and if you’re not there, who can take over and, kind of, helping people sort through that.
Sarah: As I was helping a lot of small business owners last year do this work, I realized that, Oh yeah, we’ve talked all about their life and we have talked not at all about their businesses. And so, there’s a whole host of information that as a business owner, you really have to consider. Things happen, you know, unexpected things happen all the time. We are, we can never, we can never prepare for everything. But we can certainly do some things to get a little bit better prepared. And so, that’s what I want to share with you today.
Sarah: So, I’m actually going to take you with me back, just a few months, to last September, my husband and I and our two pups had actually taken a trip out of town to Nashville, TN to visit my brother and sister-in-law and my newest nephew for my birthday. We were actually just getting settled into their home, really excited about our weekend to spend with them and I started feeling sick. Now, I had experienced this before, so I assumed that it would be the same sort of thing. I would feel sick for a couple of hours and then I would feel better and I would be able to move about Tennessee at will.
Sarah: So, I went back to the hotel and lay down just to rest and, kind of, wait to start to feel better. Well, unfortunately this experience was not the same as all the previous experiences had been. Instead of feeling better as the hours went by, I got sicker and sicker. To the point where I told my husband that I needed to go to the hospital, to go to the ER. I’ve never said those words before, and I wouldn’t be sad if I never have to say them again, but, I was just not OK. And I knew that I needed more help than just resting.
Sarah: So, we found our way to an ER in Nashville, TN and by the time I got there, there was, I can’t even explain how much pain I was in. It was in more pain than I’ve ever experienced in my life. And so, as they were asking me questions and things, I didn’t have answers because I wasn’t even aware who was asking the questions. So, all I knew at that point was that it hurt and whatever they were doing, it wasn’t enough because I was still just in so much pain. My husband had to scramble to find some of our information to fill out the hospital forms.
Sarah: I did eventually get checked into the hospital. I had emergency surgery and spent the next four days recovering. So much for a fun birthday trip. I would not recommend it, but, so glad that I’m here today to share the story with you, because we learned a whole lot of things that weekend that we weren’t really prepared for.
Sarah: So, why am I sharing it with you? Well, because unexpected things happen all the time as I can so clearly testify to. And there was no way for me to be fully prepared for that situation, because I, you know, that’s life, right? We can do a lot, but we can’t anticipate everything.
Sarah: You know, the people down in Whiteland, there’s just things that you can’t anticipate. But there are things that we can do now to make things a little bit smoother, when things, unexpected things do happen, because as we all know, unexpected things are going to happen. Maybe you’ve actually been the one who is caring for someone else, but odds are that something’s going to happen and somebody else is going to need to step into our businesses.
Sarah: So, the question we need to answer is, will they have the information that they need?
Sarah: So, today I’m going to share with you some essential steps that you can take so you feel more confident that someone would be able to manage things in your absence. So, if you only take away one point, here’s the question I want you to ask yourself, as you think about all the things we’re going to talk about today is, what would someone else need to know? Because, you know, in all likelihood, we are the ones who manage everything.
Sarah: Now, I don’t know. Are we all solo entrepreneurs? I know that, Ryan, you and Carly work together. Are you, you got people with you or solo entrepreneurs?
Bill: I’m solo.
Sarah: OK. That’s OK, that’s OK. Yeah. That’s all right, either, yeah, either way, there are some things, there are obviously things that we manage because we are the ones who know, right? That’s just how that goes. So, we have to really consider what things would look like for someone else to have to step in and figure out the things that we already know. So, if we can make it easier for them, that’s our plan.
Sarah: So, what would someone else need to know? So, first of all, let’s talk about caring for our clients, because that is a big part of why we do what we do, right? It’s because we want to help people in the ways that we help them. And so, how can we care for them if we are not able to be there?
Sarah: There are still things that we can do. So, for starters, let’s talk about your schedule. Share your calendar with someone if you don’t already. Make sure that somebody else, other than you, would have access to your calendar. It’s fairly easy if you’ve got an electronic calendar to be able to share those with somebody. Me, I have got a color-coded 7 different category Google Calendar that I’ve shared with my husband, that I’ve shared with one other person, so that if something happened to me, they would know what’s going on with my schedule because I’m the only one who manages things for my clients, I’m the only one who knows when those sessions are and how to get a hold of someone if I weren’t able to be there and do that work.
Sarah: And so, just starting sharing your calendar can be so important now. You already do that. That’s great. Take it one step further and go ahead and include address and contact information for all of your appointments. So, for example, to put yourself in the shoes of my poor husband when I was hospitalized and ended up spending, you know, additional days in the hospital. After surgery, I had appointments, I had meetings, I had sessions that were scheduled for the next week that he had to try and figure out how to cancel on my behalf, because I couldn’t do it, I was in the hospital. Now, nobody was going to feel bad about that, except for mostly me. Everybody was fine with it, but he still had to figure out how to get a hold of them. And it was a scramble because we were only supposed to be out of town for a couple of days.
Sarah: I didn’t have all of my, you know, my spreadsheet of contact information and all of those things that I keep on my computer because we were on vacation. And so, we had to figure out how to get a hold of all of those things and cancel them. So, if I had included contact information for all of my meetings, how much easier would that have been, because we already had access to the calendar, so if you can just include a little bit of extra information, you kind of take out that middle step of, OK, well, we know that they were going to meet with Sam. Who is Sam? Where are they going to meet with them? How do we get ahold of Sam to let them know that they can’t be there?
Sarah: It just makes things a little bit easier, because in an emergency situation, our brains don’t think as they normally would, so we are in panic mode as opposed to just regular business mode. And so, let’s make things a little bit easier on whoever it is who’s going to have to step into that space. And then also consider who could help. So, in the case of me, it had to be my husband because he was the one who was there. And because, well, I’m a solo entrepreneur.
Sarah: So, if you work alone, who would be appointed to contact your clients? So, an important thing to consider, too, is if you work in confidentiality. It needs to be someone specific, right? It can’t just be anyone, so you do need to consider who would be appointed to contact your clients. I would recommend not doing what I’ve done, which was leaving it up to my husband, poor guy, like, I was in the hospital and our dogs were at the hotel and he was in a car accident that weekend. Like, there were just so many things that he was trying to manage. His brother actually had to drive a new car down to us in Nashville, so that my husband could get back home. The car was not drivable, it was just incredibly, incredibly overwhelming. And, you know, I was sick in the hospital. He was running around like crazy. I don’t know that he got hardly any sleep at all and just all the things he was having to manage and then on top of that, he was having to manage things for my business. So, don’t do that.
Sarah: Don’t leave it up to a spouse or a loved one to manage things in your absence. I would consider, I would ask you to consider appointing what I what I call a business executor. So, just like you have an executor for your will. It doesn’t have to be that you’ve died, it could just be that you’re not available, but appoint someone outside who could just step in and take over your business.
Sarah: At this point, I have now been working with my favorite estate attorney, because she is someone that I trust. And she’s someone that I know would be very careful with confidential information. Obviously, that’s very, very much a part of what they do. And honestly, I just like her. I know that she will be very, if something happens to me, I know that she will be very kind and caring for the clients that I have. And there’s a lot of pieces that would be need to be managed, too.
Sarah: So, again, if something happens to me later on, I don’t want my husband to have to go through the same thing that he already went through. It was too many pieces and it was too much for him to have to consider, so, just consider appointing somebody else, it could be someone in a similar field or if you’ve got employees, maybe you can, you know, nominate one employee who would be the kind of emergency response person, but just don’t leave it up to your spouse or family members to do. They’re going to be concerned enough with caring for you that they don’t need additional things to think about.
Sarah: So then next, let’s talk about money matters. So again, what does somebody else, what does someone else need to know? Well, for starters, they need to know how to do anything. So, who handles the finances for your business? If it’s just you and you’re not available, does anybody else know where to find anything? How to take over? So, who would know what to pay and when and how you pay it? Do they have access to your accounts now? You don’t want everybody to have access to those accounts, obviously, that’s the point of having that specific executor type person who you would trust to step into the space and so. But, again, let’s make it as easy for them as possible. Let’s not make them chase down the bills and call the utility companies and do all of that work.
Sarah: Start to keep a list. Start to keep a list of your bills, a list of when you pay them. Start to keep a list of login information and passwords and account information. I was working with a family in late 2020 and the husband of the couple was really sick. And they were pretty sure that he was going to have to go into the hospital and at that point, you know, we didn’t know what that meant. Was he going to be able to come home again? They knew that she wouldn’t be able to be with him because nobody was, they, nobody was allowed to go into the hospitals at that point and so they were trying to avoid that as long as possible. But he was just really sick, and they were pretty sure that that was going to need to be the next step.
Sarah: Well, in the middle of the night, she kept hearing him get up and go write things down, and she finally asked him what in the world are you doing? You’re so sick. You need to be resting. Well, what he was doing is writing down those account numbers and passwords and the login information because he was the one who handled all of the finances for their family, and so put yourself, you know, in either one of their shoes of, my goodness, you know, he’s still trying to care for his family while he’s so very sick. He needs to go to the hospital and then also she doesn’t know any of that information. So, if he’s not able to talk to her, if they’re not able to speak, how is she going to know what to do and where to look for things?
Sarah: That’s what we want to avoid, that feeling. So, let’s get some of that information gathered up ahead of time for our businesses and then honestly for our families as well. So that if someone else has to step into that space, they’ve got, they’ve got what they need.
Sarah: One special note on your bills and how they get paid is auto pay accounts, now, they are great. Until they are not great, I’m not a big fan of subscription services and auto pay accounts for this very reason. They are built with the idea that you will forget to cancel them if you don’t want them anymore. Because they will continue to bill you for those services as long as your accounts are open or as long as your credit card is active.
Sarah: I was working with another family, so another part of the work that I do is actually helping families to finalize things after losing a loved one, helping them close down accounts and shut things down if there’s a lot to manage, and so I’m able to come alongside them and help them do some of that work, and one of the families that I was working with the father had owned a business, and had had a lot of things set up on Autopay for his marketing and for his subscriptions and for his ads and all of that.
Sarah: And when he passed away, it took them about six months to get an executor named with the probate process because he didn’t quite have things set up as they should have been. And they lost so much money because of those auto pay accounts because even though he was gone, his business was no longer active, because those cards were still open, because that probate process can take a while, they kept billing and they lost all of that money. Just because they didn’t know how to get things shut down otherwise.
Sarah: So yes, auto pay accounts, you can have them. Just make note of them, so that someone could get to those quickly and shut them down if needed.
Sarah: And then, as far as your business goes, consider, what are some things that you are the only person that manages. Now, for me, that’s everything, right? For those of us who operate alone, well, that’s what, we’re pretty much it. And so, that’s a lot of things to manage, but what are the actual, essential things that we manage? Because, frankly, if we’re in the hospital, if we’re out of commission for whatever reason, not everything is gonna have to get done, right? There are things like posting on socials or responding to emails that are just not gonna be essential, because we’re not there to do it.
Sarah: So, instead of trying to sit down and think of all of the things that you’re the only person who does them, just start to keep a list, just every day write down what you did and then you can go through at the end of the month and have a really good picture of what a month looks like for you. And then you can decide what’s actually essential from that month, that somebody else would need to take over, because again, not everything is going to have to be managed if we’re not there.
Sarah: And then, after you’ve got a really good picture of your month, go on out to three months, six months, a year, because there are certain things that we only do annually. But at the end of that year, you could have a, like I said, a really robust picture of what it is that you’re doing and what somebody would need to take over if you weren’t able to continue on doing your work.
Sarah: And then of course, create an emergency plan once you realize what those essential pieces are to keep going, contact the clients, paying the bills. You know, that sort of thing. Create an emergency plan that you could give to that business executor and say, OK, if things happen, I can’t come back for whatever period of time, for whatever reason, here are the things that have to, absolutely have to be managed.
Sarah: You know, if you’ve got employees, they need to get paid. So even if you’re not there, you need to make sure that they’re taken care of and your clients too, right? So, if somebody else can do the work that you do with your clients, that’s something that that could be taken over, but if not, then all of those sessions or all of those things that you had, those appointments that you had, those need to get cancelled as quickly as possible.
Sarah: So yes, create that emergency plan and then make sure that your business executor would have access to it.
Sarah: And then third, let’s talk a little bit about our important information. So again, what would somebody else need to know?
Sarah: Well, they need to know where to find it, but we also need to consider that we need to keep our information, what we’re talking about is a lot of really personal information when it comes to, you know, bank accounts and passwords and bills and all of those login things. We got to make sure that it’s both safe and accessible. So, what does that look like for you?
Sarah: When I work with clients, I actually, as Ryan said, I’ve got a couple of books. I’ve got a family version and then I’ve got a small business version, and the work that I do is a guided process where we meet virtually and I take people through that book. They bring the information to me to their sessions and then I type it in. So, this is as streamlined as, and as easy as, possible.
Sarah: And then, when I finish that process with them, I put their book, their password protected book, of course, onto a password protected flash drive with an encrypted drive so that they’re able to keep that safe. And then I encourage them to keep scanned copies of their important documents on that. So, you may want to consider a password protected flash drive or something similar, something that’s not just saved on your computer, because computers that are connected to the Internet are very susceptible to all kinds of things, so that’s why I think a flash drive can be really helpful, it’s not kept on your computer, it’s kept somewhere else. I keep them in a lock box, because I just, I don’t want them attached to the Internet. I just think that it’s best processed to keep things like that further away.
Sarah: But yes, then you could scan copies of your credit cards, your licenses, your certifications or education documents. If you need things to operate your business like that continuing ed stuff, what happens if you lose your physical copies? Do you have backups? It’s not as good as having the originals, but having something is better than having nothing, so, you could scan copies of all that important documents, your insurance information, an inventory of your office, if you have an office, because if you need to file an insurance claim and you can’t remember what’s in there, that makes it difficult. But yeah, you could keep all of those things on a password protected flash drive or something similar.
Sarah: There was somebody else that I was working with who had actually had a wildfire come through and had melted all of their credit cards in their desk drawer and destroyed their certifications that they needed to practice their document, er, to practice their work. And so, they had to scramble to, they had to figure out what credit cards they had and how to cancel them. And let me tell you, if you’ve never tried to cancel a credit card without the credit card, it’s very difficult because those big companies are huge and they’ve got, I mean, you can go look for a Chase phone number. You can have two Chase credit cards and they have completely different phone numbers because they’re different departments. So yes, keep a scanned copy of those things. You just never know what’s going to happen, and it’s just always better to have the backup plan. But yes, those phone numbers, especially on the back of the credit cards, are very important.
Sarah: And then of course, if you haven’t already, share your phone code with someone. If something happens and you are not able to be the one in charge of your phone, I can tell you right now, given all the precedent that we’ve seen, no phone company is going to give anybody else access to your phone without your ability to give them access to it, they it doesn’t matter if they’re the executor of your account. It doesn’t matter if it’s in your will that they can have access to anything they want, it just, it doesn’t matter. So, if you give them that passcode, obviously they can get access to what they need.
Sarah: However, some companies are starting to realize that our digital estate needs to be considered part of our actual estate, and so that is information that you can start to put in place. Now, there are several companies who are letting you set up what they what most of them call a legacy contact, so that if, you know, your account went dormant for a certain amount of time, or if they were notified by somebody that you had passed away then, this legacy person would be able to get contact. Or, yeah, we would get access to some of your information. Now, it’s not gonna be all of your information, because that’s just not how they work. But they would give them access to some things.
Sarah: So, most notably, Facebook lets you do this so that you could close down, so that your account could be closed down, which is actually really important. Also lets you set up a legacy contact. I don’t know if they call it a legacy contact, but that’s the basic gist of it.
Sarah: And then Apple was the was a big one last year. You can actually set up a legacy contact on your iPhone so that if something happened to you and this person notified Apple that you were no longer with us, they could get access to some of your information.
Sarah: So, it’s just again an easy way to put some of those pieces in place ahead of time so that people could get the things that they need.
Sarah: So now, as I told you at the beginning, when I went to the hospital, there was a lot of information that we didn’t have shortly after I was in the hospital. My husband’s mom. So, my mother-in-law actually was also hospitalized. And once again, he was scrambling, trying to figure out all of her information because she wasn’t able to communicate on her own behalf and nobody else knew. And so, he came home and said to me, you need to make a document that people can keep on their phones that is really easy, really simple, but includes the information that somebody would need to fill out those forms when you’re in a hospital, cuz again in an emergency, your brain is not operating in its full function.
Sarah: And so I did. I created what I call the ‘in case of emergency’ form. It is a password-protected, fillable PDF document that you’re able to keep on a digital device if you’d like, or in an e-mail or something so that you’ve got the information that you need if someone had to check you into a hospital and you couldn’t communicate. And so, that’s something that I do have available if anybody’s interested in that.
Sarah: As a thank you for being a part of this presentation, I’d love to give you that at about half price. It’s $25 instead of 49 or yeah, 49. And, if anybody wants information on that, I’m happy to send that out. But, I just think that it’s so important that we have that information available because again, it’s, I didn’t know. I didn’t think about any of this until it happened to me and I do this for a living.
Sarah: It’s helping families think about these. What could happen and how can we be prepared for things. And there were still things that I didn’t know and that I hadn’t thought about. And that’s gonna be, that’s gonna continue to be true, because again, we can prepare a whole lot. We cannot prepare for everything. That’s just not how life works. But there are things that we can do to make things either better or we can make things worse by not doing a whole lot.
Sarah: So then finally, of course, have a will, healthcare and financial power of attorney in your living well. It’s just so, so important to make sure that those legal documents are in place and written well also. So, you know, make sure you’re working with someone who’s a good estate attorney. Because your business information as well with that, or there can be specific things that you have to put in place. You know, a franchisee owner is going to have different things in place than somebody who’s just kind of created their own business, but there are just, there are a lot of things that we can do now, you know, just to be a little bit better prepared and I know that it can seem overwhelming to think about all of those pieces of information that you need to gather.
Sarah: And I know that I’ve thrown a lot at you today, but the good news is you don’t have to do it all on your own.
Sarah: As I talked a little bit earlier, I’ve actually created a book for this process and I help families through it. And help business owners go through it so that they aren’t trying to do this work that can be pretty overwhelming.
Sarah: So, for the business version, over the course of two virtual events or virtual sessions, cover everything from your daily operations to your finances, the legal piece. So, if you do work with an attorney on anything, we’ve got, we know how to get to them, and then your legacy plan. So, what should happen if you’re not able to continue running your business?
Sarah: The beauty of that is, it doesn’t have to be that you have passed away or anything like that. It could be, hey, if somebody wants to walk up to you and offer you $1,000,000 for your business, do you know what you could give them? How lovely would it be to just have this flash drive already for them and say Yep, here you go. Let’s have that check and we’ll just move along. It’s not quite as big as playing the lottery, but maybe more of a sure thing.
Sarah: So yeah, so, if anybody is interested in getting more information on that, I’m happy to share. I always do complimentary consultations. I just think that it’s so important to really consider what would happen to our businesses if we couldn’t run them.
Sarah: And so, I know that that’s it’s hard to consider not being available to manage those things, but we can help to make sure that things don’t completely fall apart by taking a few extra steps ahead of time.
Sarah: So, I hope that all of that was very helpful. I’d welcome any questions that you all might have.
Ryan: Sarah, comment on what you had said about going through your day by day and kind of documenting it, like, it’s a good approach and would have never thought about. But yeah, it’s like the Doctor who loves fast food after work after telling people they should eat healthy, that even in. with your expertise, it’s scary how much you realize you do from day-to-day.
Sarah: Right, right. And honestly, to try and sit down and think about it, that’s a good way to just feel overwhelmed and do nothing. So yeah, just keeping that super simple note, it’s just a much easier way, a much more accessible way, and it’s, the thing is, I like to say done is better than perfect, right? Because, well, frankly, this work is never going to be done, and it’s definitely never going to be perfect, because as long as we are alive and well, things are going to continue to change. And so, it’s an ongoing work, but yes, small steps like that can make it just so much more accessible.
Ryan: So then how often would you recommend someone come back and review what they have for changes?
Sarah: That’s a great question, Ryan. Thank you.
Sarah: So at least annually, I would recommend that someone updates things at least annually. A lot can change in a year, so it’s better to do it even more frequently, or just as things happen. So, you just had a new baby. So, for your information, obviously things have gotten a lot more complicated recently, so just any time you have a big life change or something like that for your business or for your personal information, it’s a good thing to go ahead, and OK, this has changed. If I’ve moved, that’s changed. If your business has moved, if you’ve got a location, or if you add in or take away employees, those are all things to consider.
Sarah: Any of those changes. if you can do them either annually or as they happen, you know, to make sure you don’t forget or you know, as things change, maybe just keep a document on your on your desktop because that’s a little bit more accessible, right?
Sarah: So, we’re talking about keeping something locked away. You’re not always going to want to go to your book and unlock the box and get to the flash drive and do all of that, but if you keep a note of what’s changed, then at the end of the year, super easy to just look back and say, Oh yeah, OK, I need to update all of this. You can do it once and then kind of move on about your day.
Ryan: Kristen, Bill, do either of you have questions for Sarah?
Ryan: OK. So, Sarah, one last question I want to ask if someone goes to sit down and they just feel so overwhelmed with it and they’re not making any progress, you’re available to help them do it right?
Sarah: That’s right. Yes. So that is part of the process that I offer, is the guided one-on-one service. So, me with one family or one business owner. And I give a checklist of information before each of those sessions so that people know exactly what information to gather together and what we’re going to look at, and then they can also bring questions that that I can answer during that session.
Sarah: And then when we’re together, I provide all of the streamlining of the process and the accountability of making sure that it actually gets done because we do have those scheduled sessions. And then I put the information into the book for the person that I’m working with one-on-one, just to make it as easy as possible because some people do get really overwhelmed with the process.
Sarah: Now, some people actually prefer to have a little bit more autonomy in doing that work, and so I’m so excited to say that Ryan and I are actually going to be partnering to host a workshop this summer. I think in July, it sounds like.
Ryan: Yes, July 12th and 26th.
Sarah: OK. Yes. So, that is something that instead of doing the one-on-one process, we will meet with a small group of people and we’re actually going to be meeting in person for this one. And so, as a group, I will share all of the information that I’ve gathered. I will give all the perspective that I share with my one-on-one clients, but then the person, the individual business owner is able to type in their own information into their book, and so it’s kind of a nice little hybrid of, you get that accountability, you get the group support, you get to ask questions and your perspectives, but it’s a little bit more in your own hands as to what you what you do with that information and how quickly you got that together.
Sarah: So, it’s really going to be exciting to partner with you on that and I’m really looking forward to it.
Ryan: Oh, and Sarah, because we’re recording that someone might watch later. Can you read out how someone can contact you?
Sarah: That is a very good point, yes. I’m happy to. So again, my name is Sarah Kendrick. My business is Rhea Services, and that’s Rhea services. You can find me at rheaservices.com. You can find me on Facebook or Instagram at Rhea services. Or you could e-mail me at sarah@rheaservices.com and Sarah does have that h on the end. So yeah, feel free to reach out. I’m happy to answer questions at any point.
Sarah: Obviously, I feel like this is really important, both because of my own lived experiences and seeing other people and peoples’ experiences and what they’ve gone through. There’s just a lot of- the world can go sideways really quickly. And, yeah, we can either be a little bit better prepared or not.
Ryan: Well, guys, let’s give Sarah a hand for her presentation today.
Sarah: Thank you.
