I never wanted to be a cautionary tale, but here it is. I haven’t been blogging much in the past few weeks because I have been struggling with technology issues. Specifically, my laptop died. An entrepreneur’s nightmare.
Now just to vent a bit…this isn’t the first time this has happened to me. In truth, it is probably the 8th time this has occurred in the last 18 months, enough to make ANYONE nuts. My mother board went out, which means my display is a mess of mangled characters, not even close to resembling the most bizarre written languages. The cost to repair: $500. To understand why this is so unreasonable to me, you have to understand that this is the 4th mother board that has gone in this same computer in a little over a year. To make it worse, this was a machine that Toshiba sent me to replace the OTHER lemon I had, which required 4 new hard drives within a three month time frame.

Thankfully, I am a bit of a geek so I was able to get all of my data off making my decision to never use a Toshiba laptop again easier. However, the lesson for you, especially the not-so-geeky ones out there - when is the LAST TIME you backed up the data off your computer? Do you even know how to make a copy of your mail file so you don’t lose all your contacts with your recent e-mail? Although my husband SWEARS I emit some magnetic field that tends to fry electronic hardware, I believe the threat is not reserved for me. If you use technology extensively in your business like most entrepreneurs, you need to follow these guidelines for protecting yourself:

1. Create a backup of all critical files and when possible, keep a copy of them offsite. This can be in the form of a memory stick (they’re so inexpensive now!), a CD, or even another machine. Files should be backed up on a frequency that works with how often you update them. Weekly would be a minimum for average entrepreneurial activity.

2. Backup your e-mail. This is where the non-geeks may need some help. I use Outlook, which stores all my mail in a file with a PST extension. By default, however, the folder this is in stays hidden from you unless you change it. If you’re really need to do this, let me know and I’ll post detailed instructions. If you use something that is internet-based such as Yahoo or Hotmail, they should be taking care of the backups (you hope!).

3. Make sure your anti-virus software is up to date. Even if you never suffer a hardware failure (because you never bought a Toshiba ) the chances of your machine becoming infected with a virus are good unless you have protection and, here’s the kicker, keep it updated! Deviant minds are at work all over the world trying to bring you (yes, YOU!) down. The anti-virus folks are working equally hard to break their codes and eradicate their bugs. Choose the good side of this battle between good and evil. Pay to keep your anti-virus software updated.
I know the above sounds like a pain, but with technology as pervasive in our work and in our lives, you can NOT afford to spend hours recreating stuff you’ve already done. It is bad enough that I have had to reinstall software 6 times over the last 18 months…please don’t get caught with your guard down!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 11:00 am and is filed under Business Growth, Entrepreneurship, business success secrets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.