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Your unwanted online demise plan - tips, tricks, etc.
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Your unwanted online demise plan - tips, tricks, etc.

(sorry if it's a bit of a wall of text)

So, imagine that something happens to you and you can't do anything (vegetable state, long absence, death, whatever) - got this feeling forever but accentuated after COVID-19.

Imagine you're an online one or two man show (all your work is online).
For example, imagine that you have a business that works almost unattended, a SaaS, a hosting company with outsourced support, a marketplace/classified ads platform, an automated service site (print shirts on demand through partners), whatever.
You (and your business partner if exists) are no longer able to take care of it for any reason - you just can't.
You have relatives or persons of trust, yet, those persons aren't tech savvy nor understand anything about the business.

What's your plan? Do you have any?
Imagine that I want everything to go smoothly as possible for at least 1 year and 10 years would be a beautiful achievement.

Planning on:

  • renewing domains for max years possible
  • leave some money in the prepaid balance of any reputable domain/hosting company
  • set all things possible to auto-renew
  • configure servers to auto-restart everything (monit)
  • leave a "open when dead" document/letter with all the passwords and necessary data for one of trust to know what's going on

Does anyone have any tip, trick or idea in addition to these?

What are, in your opinion, the most solid companies for this scenario, regarding domains, hosting/servers, payment gateways, etc.?

What do you think your relatives/persons of trust do in this case? Sell? Continue? If they decide to continue your work, how (you're a one man show)?

Is there anything I'm forgetting?

Comments

  • @DrCornFlakes said:
    Is there anything I'm forgetting?

    There might be, come on, think a bit harder!

  • simlevsimlev Member

    This post really got me thinking. Not that I have any such business.

  • BloomVPSBloomVPS Member, Patron Provider

    As somebody who recently started a hosting business, this is a really interesting topic and one that truthfully I never thought of. Both myself and my business partner are young, but if something happened to both of us then a contingency plan would be nice.

    As for the last question, I would probably hand everything over to my brother. He is smart, techy (engineer at Apple) and could certainly handle running things without me.

    Thanked by 2MichaelCee TheKiller
  • jackbjackb Member, Host Rep

    The bus factor, or less morbidly lottery factor.

    Thanked by 1TimboJones
  • It all slowly comes to a crashing halt and burn.

  • Since he's late, End is nigh for everything. Some things are nigher than others.

  • oneilonlineoneilonline Member, Host Rep

    Well, our company has an official HBBS (Hit By Bus Scenario) in the employee handbook. Specifically states "...that if you were to be hit by a bus, another employee or person is able to step in and understand and/or take over your position..." This means everything is documented, outlined, has instructions, etc, for every position. Makes for new employee training a synch! And likely one of the reasons this company has been around since 1994. Or ripe for alien invasion ;) Serious, but everyone gets a chuckle out of it when it's brought up.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    This is a situation I've thought a lot about for MXroute. As of right now I have two people who could step in and take over. The key is documentation. You can't leave your backup without any key piece of knowledge, they'll inevitably drop the ball. Document like you're planning to leave a job and you have the desire to see them continue to function as though you were still there.

    Where are domains registered? What bills are due when, which accounts do they come out of? What steps are required to expand the service when it reaches growth cap? Where can passwords or keys be obtained? Every time you think of a new question, document the answer.

  • No one is asking the important question: who will find/destroy your porn collection before your family discovers it?

    Thanked by 1niceboy
  • @TimboJones said:
    No one is asking the important question: who will find/destroy your porn collection before your family discovers it?

    Store it in trash and restore/re-delete it every 30 days if that's your permanent removal period.

  • vyas11vyas11 Member
    edited June 2020

    @TimboJones said:
    No one is asking the important question: who will find/destroy your porn collection before your family discovers it?

    bequeath it to your neighbour ... one you hate the most.

    “And the final item in this will...” said the executor,

    “Dear Sam,
    All these years I carefully nurtured your special video collection. Now that I am gone, it should be returned to you....”

  • stefemanstefeman Member
    edited June 2020

    @vyas11 said:

    @TimboJones said:
    No one is asking the important question: who will find/destroy your porn collection before your family discovers it?

    bequeath it to your neighbour ... one you hate the most.

    “And the final item in this will...” said the executor,

    “Dear Sam,
    All these years I carefully nurtured your special video collection. Now that I am gone, it should be returned to you....”

    Bad idea.. If you are into more exotic stuff.. and you toss that to your neighbour as if its something you saved all the years for him, he might just ruin your memory by tossing it back to your loved ones.. especially if he hates you.. At least I would in that situation lol.

  • I had a successful one-man software business and many clients used my software for mission-critical business. I handled their concerns regarding me hit by a bus, by two scenarios.
    1. I had a reciprocal agreement with my biggest competitor.
    2. I supplied encrypted source to clients who wanted it and advised them of #1.

    So, make a deal with your competitor(s).
    I ended up retiring and sold my business to one of my customers before the bus arrived.

  • jhjh Member

    You need to have some sort of plan and it should include a will and LPoA

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