Data Backup Digest

5 Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs Data Backup
Business receipts, credit card statements, loan documents, inventory lists, vendor invoices, payroll information, employee records and documentation, marketing ideas, permits, product information, and customer receipts; these are all pieces of information that are required for a business to run effectively. As a small business owner, what do you do to keep this information safe?
There are millions of small businesses throughout the US, and many of these have already learned the lesson you’re about to learn regarding the absolute necessity of backing up your important business information.
Recovery after Disaster
Where fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, or super-storm can occur there is a small business grieving and wondering how they will get their business back on track now that all of their records are gone. Just because they make cheesy movies about them on the SyFy channel doesn’t mean that they won’t happen. When it comes to keeping your business information safe from destruction by “acts of God”, data backup via the cloud or an external hard drive is just like taking out insurance for your business documentation.
When disaster occurs, you will be left with a long list of dos a mile long that will need to be completed before you can get back to business. One thing you can easily strike from that to do list is recovering and organizing business files. With all of the documentation and business software your business needs to function stored securely off-site (if you’ve chosen the cloud option), that is one less thing to worry about.
If you need more convincing consider this; insurance will pay for loss and replacement of the computer, filing cabinets, or POS’s where the information was stored, but they cannot replace or repair the charred, drowned, or erased data they contained.
Recovery after Criminal Victimization
There are over 2 million burglaries in the US every year (these numbers are climbing), and 29.7% of those are committed against businesses. With over $300 million in damages and lost property, the cost of recovering after a break in can be staggering. When someone breaks into your business, they are looking to steal everything of value that isn’t welded to a three-headed feral wolf made of titanium. That means that your computer and everything on it is now quick cash for criminals. If you haven’t backed up the information you stored on that computer, you are out of luck. You will never get that information back. Even if the authorities can recover your hardware, in most cases, the information on the computer has been wiped. Rather than undergoing somewhat expensive data recovery, you could have just backed up the information in the first place and saved yourself the heartache, anxiety, and frustration.
If you’ve taken the time and effort to back up your business files, you can rest assured that even though the thieves walked away with you the originals stored on the hard drive, you can still operate your business using the information stored on your back up drive.
By the way, we recommend that you do not store your back up hard drive or other device where you store your computer. Keep them separate to prevent losing both to disaster or criminals – or you can just back up your business information on a cloud server.
Recovery after System Failure
This is the most common reason for data backup. Despite advances in computer technology, failures will occur. When hard drives fail, whether by their fault or yours, you are left with a hunk of metal and durable plastic that used to hold all of your important business files. If you backup your business information on an external hard drive, a secondary internal drive, or in the cloud, you can quickly access the backup information that’s been stored and get back to business – make sure to replace your dead hard drive as well.
It Saves Money & Space
While overflowing filing cabinets were the standard business tool for record keeping (back when Thomas Edison was putting the finishing touches on the filament light bulb), advances in information/data storage provides small business owners with a better way to keep their documents safe, organized, and right at their fingertips.
You can either keep copies of every single scrap of business documentation in your office in filing cabinets, or you can just back up your business data. When you electronically store your back up data, you can get rid of the filing cabinets and save yourself a fortune in paper costs. Not only do you save money and space, you can also help save the environment. Electronic data storage (rather than paper copies) cuts back on the waste of thousands of pounds of paper per year.
It’s Smart Small Business Sense
The 5th reason every small business should backup their business information/data/files is because it just makes sense. As was mentioned before, you purchase insurance to cover your business in case of damage or loss, why don’t you do the same thing for your business documents? Data backup is a form of small business insurance that is MUCH cheaper, easier to understand, and doesn’t require annual renewal (unless you are using a cloud storage service like Carbonite).
Methods for Data Backup
There are several ways you can back up your business data:

External hard drive
Secondary internal hard drive
DVD
Cloud
Flash Drive (memory sticks)
Each of these methods has their expensive and inexpensive brands and specifications. For small business data storage it is recommended that any physical data storage device have a 750 GB or higher storage capacity. This allows you to hold every single bit of data (documents, files, images, programs, etc…) in one place. If you prefer to back up your files online, you can purchase a subscription to data backup sites depending on the storage size needed.
If you consider yourself a smart, sensible business owner, you have probably already gone through the data backup process. If you haven’t you need to do so immediately. There are any number of things that can happen to your business data that will put a halt to your business’ productivity. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Small business owner, this is a plea; backup your business’ information today!