Continual operation during a disaster.
Your disaster does not have to be a flood or earthquake. It could be your computer (with all your client files) becoming inoperable for a while. I moved all my files to DropBox this year. I will pay $100 per year for the service and am happy to consider that as insurance for any computer disaster. I might lose a day’s work if I am using large files that day and do not wait for the online upload to complete before I shut off my computer but I can work around that.
Several years ago (before I had my own business) I had my computer AND my back-up hard drive fail at the same time and the data could not be retrieved from either. I lost all of my files forever. Last year a friend’s computer crashed with all her client files and it took more than a month (and a lot of money) to get them retrieved. Could your business withstand that type of disaster?
You may be a financial planner on vacation when markets crash. Can you access the information you need to contact and reassure your clients? Even if you do have a brick-and-mortar store such as an auto shop or beauty salon, can you contact your scheduled clients to let them know your shop burned down and you can not honor their appointment at this time?
I chose DropBox because I do not have to use the web interface to access my files. I have a folder on my desktop that looks (and works) like any other folder and there is a program running in the background that sends the updates to the DropBox servers. This means if DropBox gets hacked and is inoperable for a few days I can still access my files from my desktop.
There are many online backup hosts so shop around for the one that fits your needs best.
I have more reasons up my sleeve coming in future posts.
Until next time…
Have a great day,
Susanne
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