As an entrepreneur, you are the driving force behind your business. When you’re sick, there’s no-one else to make decisions for you and certainly no employer to provide sick pay. This can make sick days a lot more dangerous for entrepreneurs – your business could suffer and your income could be cut off.

Fortunately however, there are solutions to handling sick days as an entrepreneur. Below are just a few examples.

Take out income protection insurance

If you become incapacitated by illness and cannot work, income protection insurance could help to financially cover you. This insurance scheme is designed to pay you your regular wage until you recover. This can help you to cover expenses that you may not otherwise be able to pay. Many of these insurance schemes will come with conditions, so it is important to shop around and so that you can find the best policy. Make sure to apply for income protection insurance while you are in good health in order to access good rates. 

Set up other income streams

You may be able to set up other income streams to provide some financial support if you are unable to work your regular job and earn money. These should ideally be passive income streams that require an initial investment of time and then continue to pay dividends in the future without you having to keep actively working. Examples include collecting ad revenue from blogs/vlogs, selling e-books, selling online courses, renting out property to tenants or peer-to-peer lending. 

Look into emergency funding

There may be ways to quickly receive funding if you need it including grants and online loans. Grants are a better alternative to loans because you don’t have to pay them back, but can take longer to get approval for. When it comes to loans, there are many options out there that can help you receive money in a matter of days. These are good solutions if you have bills to pay and cannot afford to wait. 

Train up an assistant management to take over

This is something you need to do while you are well and healthy. If you have employees working for you, consider training up one of these employees to act as a stand-in manager for when you are ill. This assistant manager could also take over if you decide to go on vacation or need to take time off for family matters. This should ideally be someone who is trusted and capable. Be prepared to increase their paycheck to make up for the promotion and take the time to train them thoroughly so that they are able to confidently take over. 

Help clients find alternative solutions

Can’t continue to serve clients due to illness? Having to cancel work last minute could lead to angry clients who may have counted on you to meet deadlines. While telling them that you are ill could help create some sympathy, you may have to take other measures to protect your reputation. Providing you are not too ill to do it, consider helping your clients to find another company to use instead of your own. You could even contact another company and pay them to take over your client’s work. You will be handing over your client to a competitor, but you’ll also be helping the client at the same time, which could prevent any negative reviews.