How to Handle Tech Problems in Your Online Business

Tech problems in an online business can look like a lot of things—your webinar audio cuts out, a form that won't submit no matter what you do, or an entire website going dark in the middle of a launch (shout out!).

Welcome to running an online business.

The question isn't whether your tech will break. It will. The question is what you do next.

So what do you do when the very systems you’ve spent weeks building start breaking in real time?

While it sucks in the moment (because of course it happens when you’re finally feeling on top of things!), how you handle those tech fails in your online business is what separates the pros from the panic-googlers.

Here's what actually works: pause before you spiral, communicate with anyone affected, fix the immediate problem, and document what happened so it doesn't bite you again (I go deeper on each of these below.)

But first, because I think real stories are more useful than theory, let me share a few of my favorite tech disasters (both mine and those I've witnessed).

Because if you're reading this after something just went sideways, I want you to know: you're not the only one.

The “Why Won’t This Damn Form Work?” Saga

When I was setting up the Automagic Summit, every speaker got their own page. On that page, I added a simple feedback form so attendees could share what they loved about each session. Easy, right?

Except one page refused to cooperate.

I rebuilt it. I cloned it. I even created a brand-new form from scratch. Nothing.

After wasting way too much time, I finally gave up and just added a button that linked to the form instead. Not ideal, but functional.

The moral? Sometimes “done and working” beats “perfect but broken.” There’s a real point in troubleshooting where you're just burning time.

Recognize that moment, fix it enough to move forward if you can, and get back to the work that actually matters.

The PayPal Tagging Nightmare (Or: Why Automations Don't Mean Autopilot)

When I launched the VIP Pass for the summit, everything tested perfectly. Credit-card checkouts? Smooth. Tags applied? Automations fired? Flawless.

Then someone paid with PayPal.

Turns out, that specific payment path didn't trigger the automation correctly—so no welcome email, no “thanks for buying” message; the buyer basically fell in a black hole. (And yeah, that’s the kind of experience that keeps me awake at night.)

Luckily, only one buyer slipped through before I caught it. But it was a great reminder: automations don’t mean autopilot.

Even when your systems are solid, you still need to check in once in a while. Run a test payment through every payment method you accept. Verify your tags are still firing. Make sure nothing’s quietly breaking in the background.

I now have a recurring reminder to spot-check my automations on a regular schedule, and I'd recommend doing the same.

The Website Meltdown That Changed Everything

My biggest tech disaster? Oh, that would be when my entire website went down—in the middle of my first big launch.

We’re talking total blackout. No login access. No workaround. Just me on the phone with support for 13 hours over multiple days while the clock ticked down on my masterclass registration window.

The launch tanked, obviously.

And when the dust settled, I realized I’d wasted months learning how to custom-code that site instead of focusing on, you know, actually running my business.

I was deep in the woods of trying to find the perfect handwritten font when I should have been working on strategy, offers, and the backend processes that keep everything moving.

That was my turning point. I rebuilt everything from scratch—this time on a platform that wouldn’t implode every time I blinked. I ended up going with Wix, which I highly recommend. My little control-freak heart loves that I can move things 1 pixel if I need to so that I can get things EXACTLY the way I want them. Plus, there's no more danger of a plugin or host update sending my entire website into a dumpster fire.

I also stopped treating website design like it was the business itself (which, okay, it kind of evolved into, but that's a different story).

That experience is exactly why The Shortcut exists today: so other business owners don’t lose months of progress trying to fix something that shouldn’t be their problem in the first place.

You’re Not the Only One

Even the best of us get hit. One of the Automagic speakers, Shelby Dennis, had her entire domain host go down the day after sending me her summit materials. She had to rebuild and resend everything with new links, right before a weekend when tech support was of course MIA.

But she handled it like a pro: updated her links, reached out fast, and stayed calm. (Okay, maybe slightly panicked—but she pulled it off.)

Her story and mine both prove the same thing: tech problems aren't a sign you're doing it wrong. They're a sign you're running a real business.

What separates the people who recover from the people who spiral is speed... and whether you protect your relationships in the process.

How to Handle Tech Problems in Your Online Business: A Step-by-Step Game Plan

When (again, not if) tech breaks, here’s what to do:

• Pause before panicking. Give yourself 60 seconds to swear, scream, or stomp (or all 3!). Then shift into troubleshooting mode. Panicking doesn't fix the problem—it just makes you forget the obvious stuff (like checking whether the page is actually published).

• Communicate fast. If a client, buyer, or audience member might be affected, tell them right away. A quick "Hey, we're aware of the issue and fixing it" goes further than you think. Transparency builds trust; silence builds resentment.

• Have a backup plan ready. Keep extra payment methods, test accounts, and templates handy so you can pivot quickly. If your checkout page dies, can you send people a direct invoice? If your webinar platform crashes, do you have a Zoom link ready? Think through your failure points before they fail.

• Know how your tech works. You don't have to do all the tech yourself. But you should understand your workflows well enough to troubleshoot the basics (rather than relying on a third party who may or may not be around to assist you when things go sideways).

• Fix it, then document it. Every problem you solve should become a note, a checklist, or a quick SOP. For example, documenting that PayPal payments require a separate automation is worth its weight in gold six months from now when you've forgotten the details. Documentation turns one-time fixes into permanent processes.

How to Prevent Tech Problems Before They Happen

You can't prevent every tech failure, but you can make them a lot less painful. Here are a few things I do regularly (and recommend to every client):

• Test your workflows end to end before every launch. Don't just test the most obvious or easiest path. Test edge cases different payment methods, different devices, different email clients.

• Set a monthly automation check-in. Put it on your calendar. Go through your active automations, click every link, submit every form. It takes 30 minutes and can save you from a catastrophe (this is also a great task to outsource to a VA!)

• Keep a "break glass" document. This is a one-page doc with your most critical login credentials, backup links, support contact info, and quick-fix instructions. When something breaks at 10pm on a Friday, you want this ready.

• Build relationships with support teams. Know where to go for help with your specific tools before you need them. Having a bookmark folder of support portals and community forums saves real time in a crisis.

Final Thoughts

At some point, some piece of tech will fail in your business. That’s not pessimism—it's the cost of doing business online.

But here's what I've learned after years of tech disasters: every time something breaks, you get a little faster at fixing it. You document a little more. You test a little harder. And you stop treating tech problems like personal failures and start treating them like what they are—operational speed bumps that every business owner hits.

Running a successful online business isn't about avoiding problems. It's about having the processes in place to handle them when they show up—and then getting back to the work that actually matters.

When you don't understand how your tools connect—what triggers what, where the data goes, why that email fires when it does—every glitch feels like an emergency. But when you do? It's a five-minute fix and you move on with your day.

That's what my clients walk away from The Shortcut with. Not just a backend that's built and running, but the training and documentation to actually manage it themselves. So the next time something breaks (because, again, it will), you're not panicking; you're handling it.