Backup Disaster
Are you ready! What would you do if you wake up one morning to find that most of the things you use daily on your computer were down and out? No Skype, email or internet connection is available. How will you contact your business associates?
What Can Go Wrong
– Voice:
Let's start with Skype. Okay, I agree, it's certainly a convenient way to communicate with business acquaintances. But what did we do before Skype was even a household name? Just recently, Skype actually went down and the word from the company was that it would be 12 to 24 hours before they would be online. So what did I do? I went back to the things that worked long before Skype, such as email and the telephone. Hey, remember the telephone? It still works.
– Email:
What about when your email provider doesn't work and you know that you have overnight receipts for purchases that came in and you have products that have to go out? Well, you should always have a backup email. If you know the sales came in from a list mailing, simply email that list from another account and explain that your other email is down and you'll be processing their orders when its comes back up.
– Computer Backup:
What about when your computer goes down? Well, that used to be a problem for me as well. It's not anymore. I now have a network and everything is backed up onto a second PC. So if my main PC goes down, I will always have my backup and life will go on. I don't even worry about these things now. The key is to make sure you do daily backups and have them transferred to the second PC. Or use backup software with an external hard disk. Also don't forget to backup your websites and blog databases.
– Power Outage:
Okay, what if the power in your house goes out? Well, believe it or not, there are backup power generators. At the very least, there are UPS units available that can give you power for up to 2 hours at a time. This will give you more than enough time to get any emergencies taken care of if you should have any.
– Solutions:
Believe it or not, regardless of what goes wrong, there is always a solution to the problem. The key is being prepared for the emergency when it happens. If you're prepared, you can deal with it as well as possible. It may not be the optimum solution or even a good one, but it will be a much better one than no solution at all.
These are not things that you will know intuitively right away, unfortunately. I am speaking from experience. In my early years, I was not prepared for anything. Today, I have all the bases covered, even to the point of having important papers in a safety deposit box in case my house burns down. It's not something you want to think about, but it happens.
My suggestion is to sit down and make a list of all the things that you feel you can't do without and then think about ways to deal with their temporary or even permanent loss.
You'll find your business runs a lot smoother.