No Single Point of Failure

With the past few weeks of hurricanes and wildfires, I hope where ever you are that you made it through with minor to no damage and inconvenience.

These recent events remind me of my days as a Call Center Manager and having to have a plan in place so that there were no single points of failure.  Major disasters, like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and large-scale power outages, are rare. Smaller disasters, such as server failure, burst pipes and fires however happen every day. Companies often prepare for the worst but forget the everyday challenges, which can be just as crippling.   

As a small business owner, and perhaps the sole proprietor, are you prepared for everyday emergencies?   

For example:

- Do you have your computer backed up?  What about all the data, programs, client information you have on your system?  Is it backed up?  There are services like IDrive which can be set up to run a back up of your system and save your information and data so all of it can be restored once you're back up and running.  

- What about all those passwords?  Do you have them written down?  What if you lose your list?  There are password manager applications like LastPass, Dashlane, KeePass, etc. that store your passwords so that you don't have to worry about losing your list.

- What about your website?  Is it backed up?  WordPress has plugins like, Updraft, that will automatically back up your website and send a copy to your Dropbox or Google Docs account.

- Is your phone backed up?  Backing up your smart phone to the cloud  occasionally will save you countless hours if you lose your phone.

These are just a few things that can cause major headaches because  we depend on technology so much. To really think through and plan for a major disaster, here is a website to help with the planning process - www.preparemybusiness.org/planning 

 Your comments and feedback and welcomed and appreciated. You can provide feedback here or on our Facebook page.

Hope you never need to use a Disaster Plan.

Happy Planning,

Annette

Painted Lady Enterprises

'Helping You and Your Business Look Good'