8 Ways To Prevent A Home Based Business Catastrophe
Is your work at home business doing good right now? Do youdepend on it, monthly? Does it generate a considerable amount ofincome for you? What if I said you could lose it in a blink ofan eye? Far too many work at home business owners don't realizethat their work at home business is only as "stable" as thecomputer that they use for it. Think about it. Many people buildtheir entire work at home business around their computer. Thecomputer is their link to all of their websites t...
...hat make themmoney. It is also the place where they store their businesssoftware, e-books, products, customer information etc. Take thatcomputer away and how will YOU go on? Many people take their computers for granted. They think it's anabsolute which will always be there for them. Many people don'trealize that all it takes for that "life line" to be cut couldbe a small power surge or a hard drive failure. Poof! Just likethat, your work at home business can be gone! Or imagineyourself the victim of a natural disaster, like a hurricane.Could your come back and pick up from where you left off? Orwill you lose everything and have to start over from scratch?What can a work at home business owner who makes a living on theinternet and relies on their computer, do to make sure he or shecan recover from a catastrophe? Here are a few suggestions. 1) Separate your business from your personal work..Ideally it would be nice to have two computers, one for yourpersonal use and one for your business use. Perhaps you can'tafford to have two computers, If so, then organize your businessdata separately in different folders on your computer. It can beas simple as creating a folder called "Business" and storing allrelevant data and information in that folder. This will make iteasy for you to locate and back up your data when needed. 2) Backup your websites.This only applies if you have your own websites. It's always agood idea to backup your entire website and download the "dump"onto your computer at regular intervals. Backing up your websiteis a time consuming process and should only be done when everafter you make a significant change to it. Obviously you need tohave your own web hosting account in order to backup your site.Affiliates who promote other people's websites cannot back upthe site for obvious reasons. But even they can write downimportant information such as usernames and passwords along withimportant website addresses. Having a "hard copy" of importantinformation is always a good idea. 3) Get your computer a surge protectorYour home business computer can easily be wiped out by a simplepower surge. Protecting your computer from such a power surge ispretty easy these days. It's also cheap. You can get yourself asurge protector from a local Radio Shack for under $30. Thelatest ones also have a built in surge protector for your phoneline that stops a surge before it reaches your modem. Those ofyou who have dial up modems should get this upgrade. 4) Print your important documents and file themYou might have important documents such as customer details orexpensive e-books on your computer. Print them out and file themneatly. Store the files in a safe place like a bank's safetydeposit box. You never know when a "hard copy" might come inhandy. 5) Backup your computer on external drivesBuy two external USB Hard drives. Right now, you can get a pairof 80GB USB hard drives for under $150. Consider the cost as aninvestment and ask yourself which costs more - your business or$150? Once you get the two external drives back up your businessdata onto one of the drives regularly. If you have organizedyour data into a "business" folder, simply copy it onto the newdrive. Make a backup of the first external hard drive onto thesecond one at least once a week. This ensures that you have TWOidentical eternal hard drives at all times. 6) Don't keep the backups in the same placeI'd advice you to keep the second backup hard drive in alocation other than your home. For example at your bank's safetydeposit box. This ensures that, God forbid, something happens toyour home, you always have another backup else where. 7) Make sure that your computer is protected from Viruses andSpyware/AdwareHaving a backup is a good start but you must try to keep yourcomputer in good working condition so that you won't NEED torestore from a backup. Make sure your computer has a virus guardinstalled and that you scan for malicious adware and spywareprograms. Preventing a break down is as important as having acontingency plan. 8) Use common senseAnd finally, there's no substitute for common sense. If thatlittle voice at the back of your head tells you that the monitoris not a coffee cup holder, then listen to it. Try to preventdisasters before they happen by using common sense. It mightsave you a lot in the long run! There you have it. A backup planfor your online work at home business. I hope that you take heedand actually DO something about it before you end up losing yourlivelihood. Remember that prevention is better than "cure" andwhen it comes to your work at home business, I'm sure you'llagree with me on this.
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