Further to my last post, I thought we had seen the last of the snow and last night 100 cars were stuck on Haldon Hill in Exeter spending the night away from family. The thought of getting stuck on the roads in snow in 2009 would not have been at the forefront of my mind had I gone out last night, or been travelling with my daughter. In fact my parents bought her home over Haldon Hill slightly earlier than when this happened.

I read and hear all the time “Make sure your spare tyre is legal, you have a blanket, water etc in your car…” Have I ever really taken that much notice? Being honest no I have not and with a child I should have done, although thinking about it she always have everything she needs in the car! So my task tonight is to ensure our car has everything in there for the possibility of being stuck somewhere, sometime – blankets, water, biscuits, phone charger.

I was talking to colleagues this morning, and one guy even has a portable stove in his car….a bit far maybe, but if I ever get stuck I would want to be near his car!

So my question is this – what would you now ensure you have in your car when going out on a journey?

The snow hit Exeter in Devon on Monday morning, and as I was at home that day with my daughter, it was a day of playing and building snowmen with neighbours in the close – how idyllic! And periodically talking with friends on Facebook and Twitter keeping up with how thick our individual snow was! Mine was the least….

But as an employee it made me think about those that this weather really affected, I am sure many people enjoyed days off with family and for the bigger businesses maybe the financial losses can be reaped back reasonably quickly, but what about the small businesses? According to CEBRR this weather could have put 3000 at risk. In an already struggling economy this snow could have been an unwelcome sight to many small business owners on opening the curtains Monday morning.

I have read varying stories across the news and Twitter and they are a mix of joy about being snowed in and turmoil from those businesses that are losing money due to this flurry of snow. The FSB are saying it could cost the economy £3.5billion – wow for some snow….!! So for those enjoying it, what a change to be happy about cold weather and getting outside to take part in various activities; but what about those businesses who have been affected by people having no transport to either get into work or get in to spend money in establishments, or those who maybe could have got in but had to stay home with their children whose schools were shut. The London Trains alone could have cost £48 million in lost productivity, according to the BBC.

I work for a large company and so am very lucky in the fact that the day I was due in work, but snowed in I was able to carry out my work day as normal. Meetings were still held with colleagues over OCS, albeit we were all in varying locations rather than a handful of offices and we could email as usual, dial into our work accounts to access and work on documents. It is times like this I am so thankful for a digitally advanced company who have taken the time and effort to invest in these sorts of technologies. I utilise these technologies every day at work, but it is only on these rare occasions where the UK comes to a halt from the weather that being able to do business-as-usual really does make them invaluable.

So luckily for me, my world does not get turned upside down in events like this, but after reading the stories across the UK I worry for those companies whose days would have been very different and maybe completely non-existent. Do not get me wrong, a few days snowed in with my family brings nothing but smiles, but when it comes to keeping a business going, doing my bit to keep the money rolling in I really do have to thank technology for keeping me online and in-touch.

Is it time to think about investing in making your business more ‘online technical’ now?