Your kids are revved up because school is closed, but you’re not so thrilled. Snow has you confined to your home office, but you can’t work because your power is out, your cell phone has sketchy reception indoors, and your cable internet connection stopped working sometime around midnight last night. What’s a frantic freelancer to do? Be prepared in advance.

Get a land-line number and an old-fashioned cord phone.

Sure, it’s the age of the mobile, so you might have ditched your AT&T connection to save $50 per month on a phone you no longer use. But in bad weather, reception might fail on your cell. And if you only have a wireless phone attached to your land-line, you’ll be out of luck when the power goes out.

Have a dial-up internet connection as a back-up.

When the cable is out, dialing up may be necessary. You can get a cheap dial-up service for $10 or less per month. It’s better to have it and not use it than be stuck in an emergency.

Have print-outs of your clients and contacts.

If your connection is down and your power is out, you won’t be able to access your online contact information. Keep a print-out of all important numbers, and keep the list updated. If you need to contact a client in an emergency to let him know you won’t be able to deliver, at least you’ll have the number handy.

How do you prepare yourself for such emergencies?