Data Backup

Having spent mote than a dozen years consulting with small businesses it still astounds me how many small businesses do not have a backup plan that will enable them to recover data in the event of a critical data loss.

I have heard comments ranging from "I don't have that much data to worry about" to "hardware is so good these days that I do not have anything to worry about".

Well let me tell you if you are in business you do have data to worry about regardless of the amount. I have seen one person shops that do a very small amount of weekly transactions who have lost all data due to a hard drive failure and it took them a week of working nights to recover their accounting data just so they knew who owed them money!

Hardware is very good these days but the adage of 'when' not 'if' when discussing drive failure is still number one. Hard drives in particular probably fail more than they did in the early years. Drives are built with closer tolerances, they spin faster, generate more heat and cram more data in their platters than ever before. In my experience drive failure is the number one cause of data loss.

Failure from single laptop drives to 5 disk server drive arrays have all failed with the same results...no access to data!

Nothing ruins a business owners day more than when they can not access their accounting data.

So what should you do to protect that data. Well below are a few recommendations that will suit all budgets and levels of required redundancy.

Since backing up your data for a small business can range from relatively inexpensive ($50.00 per year) to expensive ($50,000.00 plus) it is important to know how much data loss you could suffer before you would begin to experience serious business interruptions. Now the obvious answer may be none but that is not always the case. For example a business that has a small number of daily transactions that have a paper trail for every transaction may be able to lose a weeks worth of data before it would have serious implication. The reason is that they could recreate the electronic transactions manually from their paper files. Now switch to a business that has many daily transactions and one weeks worth of data could be very difficult to recreate manually while still trying to run your business. Remember that all those invoices to customers who owe you money reside in that data.

It's not very nice to have to call your customers and ask them how much they owe you!

1. You should have at least one copy of all electronic data that resides on all computers in your office (servers and desktops). Preferably each office should have a central data repository where each workstation stores all critical data. One of the biggest mistakes that I see is an office that has a server running configured with an automated backup system but much of their the critical data is sitting out on individual desktop or laptop computers that do not have a backup system. Data should be backed up daily - some argue that you could get by with an less fequent back up such as weekly, or every second day, etc. but given the low cost of storage these days as compared to several years ago I recommend daily backups.

2. This backup should be readily accessible on a daily basis so that data can be accessed quickly to recover single files if necessary. Most daily recovery requirements result from single files that have been lost or overwritten and not from complete data failure.

3. A second copy of this data should be kept off site. Why you may ask. Well what happens if your building burns to the ground...ya your data burns as well. Now many business owners scoff at this and figure they will play the odds that this won't happen and no doubt that it is not a daily occurrence but I have seen it happen. I always use the analogy that your vehicle could stop with only one brake on one wheel but it that one brake fails then the results could be catastrophic. With regards to data loss regardless of how it happens if you are not able to recover it the results could be catastrophic. Keeping a copy of your data off site does not cost much but does require some diligence. I have also known of one company that had a break-in and their server with the backup system was stolen...bye bye data!

4. Back up system testing should be performed on a regular basis. 60% of backup systems fail. Tape drives don't run, software becomes corrupt, and other failures can occur that do not get reported by the system. The worst example I have withnessed was a company that experienced a hard drive failure on a server that was backed up by a tape system but the tape system never ran each night and the software was indicating that the backup was performed correctly each night. That company had to go back six months before they found a tape that had any data...Ouch!!

So periodically you should test your system to ensure that it is backing up properly and can recover data. A simple test is to delete a test file that has been backed up and then attempt to recover that file.

There are many backup systems available but that topic isn't going to be covered here today. My intention was to stress the importance of placing a data backup/recovery system in your business.

Starting An Online Business

The theory of starting an online business sounds simple but like starting any business there are best practices to follow, pitfalls to avoid and most importantly you need to have an attention to detail. As I stated before getting things about 80% right is just enough to fail in this business.

So where does one start to get your business online. Well if you are the hands on type then you could start by reading through the plethora of books on this subject (take a look at recommended reading section of this blog to see a list of books I have read and recommend), begin subscribing to email lists of many top Internet Marketers, sign up for monthly subscriptions to services such as StomperNet and Immediate Edge.

I have done all of the above and more but the best resource I have come across yet has been "The 7 Figure Code". The 7 Figure Code is the recording of a weekend long marketing event hosted by Mike Filsaime and Tom Beal. Mike is one of the best Internet Marketers in the world and has taken his business from $0.00 to $4.5 million in about 4 years. In this seminar Mike and Tom open up their business and explain exactly how they started, their best practices, which resources they use, what they did wrong and how to avoid doing the same. This event wasn't just about Mike's business but he had other top marketers do presentations on essential information. These included Brad Fallon, Stephen Pierce, Ken McArthur, Rich Schefren, and many others. The course is a series of 16 DVDs and a transcript of the speakers.

For anyone serious about starting an online business this is an excellent resource to go through that will save you time and money!

Now what if you are not the hands on type but you want to take your business online well then align yourself with someone who is willing to sit down and learn about your business and then make solid recommendations that will work for you. It is important for your consultant to take the time to understand your business and know your target. Understanding your target (increasing leads, e-commerce, education) is critical because this will determine the best solution for your business.

Internet Marketing...Selling Via the Web

As an Internet Consultant I help business owners understand the technology tools that are available to help them achieve their targets (I like targets better than goals because we aim for targets but goals are rarely achievable), whether that is educating customers about the products and services they offer, getting more leads, building a qualified email list to market to, or selling real products through their website.

Selling products through the web is one of my favorites and has been the focus of my attention of late because I believe that much can be learned by business owners who understand this process.

In particular I am interested in helping businesses that currently do not sell anything via the web. The web can take your business to the next level and all busnesses have a next level. This can be an excellent way to boost sales or even mutliply your current sales as you open your business to a whole new audience.

Many business owners say that they do not have anything they could sell over the web but if you look more closely at what you have to offer you may be surprised.

Selling successfully on the Internet is achieved through niche marketing. While your business may sell many products or services locally niche marketing is about picking a particular product and becoming the dominant player in that market. Niche marketing may not work as well when you are selling to a local market but open your business to the eWorld and you have a market of a vastly different scale.

I highly recommend reading "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson. Chris does an excellent job of explaining how we can profit by focusing on niche markets or as he has coined the phrase "the long tail".

There is much to be discussed about niche marketing and way too much to dicsuss here today but I would like you to look closely at your business and see if you have a product that you could develop into a niche market or more correctly service a niche market with. The next step is performing smart market research to determine whether or not there is enough people who would be interested in buying this product.

What A Summer!

If you are reading this post then you must be wondering what happened to me since May. Well in short...alot!

Once I joined StomperNet Simple I leaped into a world of intense Internet Marketing training that opened the floodgates of knowledge. Wow these people really know their stuff!

At the end of the 30 day trial I couldn't leave so I decided to stay on as a member so that I could continue to reap the rewards of knowledge from some of the most well known Internet Marketers in the world. The information here at Stomper is some of the best and most up to date info you will find anywhere.

Ed Dale, who lead the Simple progam for the Stomper crew, also runs his own training program called the 30 Day Challenge so I also signed up for his training system this summer. Hey it only cost a buck.

While the initial StomperNet Simple 30 day program was geared around affiliate marketing the 30DC was focused on Web 2.0 technology. Web 2.0 uses social networking as a method to get more eyeballs to your blog, website,etc. This training involved learning about Facebook, Technorati, DiggIt, Firefox and other applications as they would be applied to letting the world know about your offering of information. The goal of the program was to have participants earn their first $10 in 30 days without spending a single dollar. Some people managed to earn over $10K!

The training was specifically focused on improving your search engine rankings as they related to your particular topic of conversation and wow did these work. People were getting first page ranking on Google in the organic listing (that is free) within 20 minutes of having thier site go live. This was even a surprise to Ed Dale and Dan Raines, who were providing the training.

Having received a taste of Web 2.0 I decided I needed more so I signed up to Ed and Dan's Immediate Edge Newsletter which is an ongoing education into the world of Internet Marketing with a focus on getting free traffic.

Well it doesn't stop here but I am going to leave the rest for another day and head off to get a little shuteye.