You are a small outfit. What happens when you are on holiday?

It was put to me bluntly: you said you're a one-man band, so what happens when you're on holiday and we need support?

I gave a reassuring answer. It was not a good one, because reassurance is not a plan. Here is the real answer.

What actually protects you

Your infrastructure is in your accounts. Hosting, domains, database, AI keys — all in your name, billed to you. If I vanished, you would lose a supplier, not your systems.

The code is in your repository. Any competent developer can pick it up. There is no proprietary layer that only I understand.

It is documented for a stranger. Not documented for me. The test is whether a developer who has never met you could run it from the written material alone.

There is more than one person. I work with a small bench of developers rather than alone, and for anything critical someone other than me knows how it works.

What I will not claim

I am not a 24/7 operation with a rota, and if you need one hour response at three in the morning, I am the wrong supplier and I will say so.

What I will commit to is a defined response time in working hours, in writing, and telling you honestly when I am away.

Ask this of everyone, including the big firms

Another client asked a supplier: no one's telling them if something goes wrong, which it will — what type of support are you going to get?

Note the phrasing. Which it will. That client had been through it before. Ask any supplier what happens at 4pm on a Friday when it breaks, and see whether they answer with a process or an adjective.