Working from home has many advantages, but I heard an interview this morning that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
A pretty successful SEO guy who works with offline businesses works like many of us “digital entrepreneurs”, from his modest office at the back of his house.
On this particular morning he was getting through his early morning tasks like checking his emails, and sending out invoices to clients, when he heard the front door burst open.
Before he had time to get out his office chair to see who was making such a dramatic entrance, his 7-year-old son flew through the office door. Turns out the local school heating had broken down, and being winter all children had been sent home for the day.
Whilst this normally wouldn’t have been a problem to our SEO man, on this wintry morning, his little boy was so excited to be off school for the day, and so eager to tell his Dad the good news that he paid no attention to the full mug of coffee sitting on his father’s desk.
Thus, whilst jumping up and down in glee he knocked the mug all over the desk where the contents spilled onto his father’s keyboard, and sloshed down onto the PC base unit!
After the initial post-spillage shock, it turned out the computer wasn’t mortally damaged and the father’s work could continue.
However, (and this is what really freaked me out!) is that this guy had EVERYTHING to do with his SEO business on his PC, and like too many others, never really bothered to regularly back things up.
Had his computer ceased to work, he would have lost everything. Year’s worth of client information, invoice details, hundreds of articles and editorials, and at least a dozen vital programs he uses everyday to run his business!
It really made me think about how often I back things up.
I like to think of myself as pretty organized, and I routinely back up the contents of my MAC at least once a week. Know what? After hearing this story I’m thinking I may start backing things up once a day!
I also keep printed records of my client details, any contracts or documents I use regularly, and I have a disk full of any software I use on a daily basis.
How Do You Back Things Up?
If you work from home here’s how to ensure you’re always protected if your computer has an off-day, or even worse, a fatal accident involving coffee!
1. Make a complete copy of your hard drive. To be safe I would do this on a disk, and a USB. Ensure you have a recovery disk made for your PC in case something does go seriously wrong.
2. Separate software, invoices, scripts, accounts, sign-in details etc. into different folders and back them up individually. That way if you ever need to recover something in particular you won’t have to sift through dozens of files to find what you need.
3. Make printed copies of any important documents. This way you don’t have to rely on your PC should something go wrong.
4. There are certain websites that allow you to store information out in your own little corner of Cyberland. That way if you lose anything you simply log into your account, and download whatever it is you need.
This way you can also access your information wherever in the world you are, even if you’re not on your home PC. There’s normally a charge to use a service like this, but it’s a small price to pay to protect your business.
The main thing is to make sure you have some sort of back-up system in place! If the thought of your computer going up in smoke makes your heart skip a beat, you aren’t backing your stuff up often enough!
Now where’s that coffee?
About Monika Mundell
