My Bike Accident – the Cloud to the Rescue!

The Cloud to the RescueI’ve spent the better part of the past three weeks recovering from a pretty bad spill I had while out riding my bicycle.

Nothing was broken (a fun evening in the ER verified that), but I was pretty scratched-up and I have a very big, very swollen bruise on my right leg which hurts like heck every time I get up and walk around.

During the first week, I handled the pain with some handy prescription drugs. Yes, it was better living through chemistry, but there was a problem:

I am an solopreneur – if I am not at my desk working, there is no one to pick-up the slack.

Luckily, I am also a big believer in using cloud-based solutions to manage my business so while I lay there in a sleepy daze:

  • The social media messages I had scheduled the morning before my accident (last week’s messages) continued to go out all week (thanks HootSuite!);
  • I continued to get sign-ups for my newsletter, each of which was automatically confirmed, welcomed and sent my free e-book after being added to my list (thanks AWeber!); and
  • I was paid by one of my clients online after they simply clicked on the handy link within my e-mailed invoice to pay via PayPal (thanks FreshBooks!).

Isn’t technology grand?

What About You?

Has the cloud and software-as-a-service (SAAS) ever saved your day?

Please share your experience in the comments below.

Comments

  1. Now, if the cloud were really powerful, it would have prevented your fall to begin with!

    • LOL! Yeah, that would have been nice (a nice cushioned landing pad comes to mind) but it DID help with the medical stuff in ways I did not foresee.

      For example, the doctor I went to see a few days after the accident to look at my leg already had the x-rays and scans made in the ER thanks to the wonders of digital photography and online portals for secure sharing.

      -Matt

  2. I’m a big fan of Hootsuite but lately I’ve been using Timely.is. Instead of scheduling tweets you simply add them to the “queue” and they get sent out at the most effective time (based on your followers). And it’s free.

    • Steve,

      Haven’t tried Timely.is. Is the tweet queue similar to the one on SocialOomph? Sounds a little different with that cool scheduling component – will have to play with it. 🙂

      -Matt

Trackbacks

  1. BizSugar.com says:

    My Bike Accident – the Cloud to the Rescue!…

    When a bike accident left me out of commission, these examples of how to use the cloud really saved the day!…

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