![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/make-your-biz-unbreakable.jpg\" "\\"The")
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Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong> At Backblaze, the entrepreneurial spirit is in our DNA: Our founders started out in a cramped Palo Alto apartment, worked two years without pay, and bootstrapped their way to the stable, thriving startup we are today. We\u2019ve even written a series<\/a> about some of the lessons we learned along the way.<\/p>\n But Backblaze is a sample size of one, so we periodically reach out to other experts to expand our startup test cases and offer more insights for you. In that regard, we\u2019re happy to invite Lars Lofgren to the blog.<\/p>\n As the CEO of Quick Sprout\u2014a business focused on helping founders launch and optimize their businesses\u2014Lars is a wellspring of case studies on how businesses both do and do not succeed. We asked Lars for advice on one subject near and dear to our hearts: Business Backup<\/a>. He\u2019s boiled down his learnings into a quick guide for backing up your business today. We hope you find Lars\u2019 guidance and stories useful\u2014if you have any tips or experience with business backup<\/a> please share them in the comments below.<\/p>\n Launching a new business is thrilling. As someone who has been in on the ground floor of several startups, there\u2019s nothing else like it: You\u2019re eager to get started and growth seemingly can\u2019t come soon enough.<\/p>\n But in the midst of all of this excitement, there\u2019s a to-do list that\u2019s one-thousand tasks deep. You\u2019ve already gone through the tedious process of registering your business, applying for an EIN, opening new bank accounts, and launching your website. So many entrepreneurs want to dive right into generating revenue, but there\u2019s still a ton to do.<\/p>\n Backing anything up is usually the last thing anyone wants to think about. But backups need to be a priority for every new business owner, because losing precious data or records could be beyond detrimental to your success. A computer accident, office fire, flood, ransomware attack, or some other unforeseen calamity could set you back months, years, or in many cases, end your business entirely. Earlier this week, I watched a fire in my neighborhood completely engulf a building. Three businesses went up in smoke and the fire department declared a total loss for all three. I hope they had backups.<\/p>\n Spending a little time on backups in the early stages of your launch won\u2019t just save your company from disaster, it will make your business unbreakable.<\/p>\n Even if your company has been in business for a while, there\u2019s still time for you to implement a data backup plan before it\u2019s too late. And knowing what to back up will save you time, money, and countless headaches. Here are six simple steps to guide you:<\/p>\n Hard drives are like lightbulbs. It\u2019s not a matter of if they will go out, it\u2019s a matter of when.<\/p>\n As more time passes, there becomes a greater chance that your hard drives will fail. For those of you who are interested in learning more about hard drive failures, Andy Klein<\/a>, Backblaze’s Director of Compliance, recently published the most recent hard drive statistics<\/a> here.<\/p>\n Take a moment to think about all of the crucial information that\u2019s been compiled on your hard drive over the last few months. Now, imagine that information getting wiped clean. One morning you wake up and it\u2019s just gone without a trace. In the blink of an eye, you\u2019re starting from nothing. It\u2019s a scary thought and I\u2019ve seen it happen to too many people. Losing files at the wrong moment could cause you to miss out on a critical deal or delay major projects indefinitely. Timing is everything.<\/p>\n So when it comes to your hard drives, you need to set up some type of daily backups as soon as possible. Whatever backup tool you decide to go with, just make sure you\u2019re fully covered and prepared for the worst. The goal is to be able to fully recover a hard drive at a moment\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve covered that first step, consider adding a cloud backup solution<\/a>. Cloud storage <\/a>is much more reliable than a series of physical backup drives.<\/p>\n I would be lost without email.<\/p>\n For me, this might actually be the most important part of my business to back up. My email includes all of my contacts, my entire work history, and the logins for all of my accounts. Everything I do on a day-to-day basis stems from my email. You might not rely on it as heavily as I do, but I\u2019m sure that email still plays a crucial role in your business.<\/p>\n Today, most of us are already using cloud services, like G Suite, so we rarely think about backing up our email. And it\u2019s true that your email won\u2019t be lost if your computer gets damaged or your hard drive fails. But if you lost access to your login or your email account was corrupted, it would be devastating.<\/p>\n And it does happen. I\u2019ve come across a few folks who were locked out of their email accounts by Google with no explanation. I\u2019m sure there are bad actors out there abusing Google\u2019s tools, but it\u2019s also very possible for accounts to be accidentally shut down, too.<\/p>\n Even normal business operations result in lost email and documents. If your business has employees, put this at the top of your priority list. Any turnover usually results in losing that employee\u2019s email history. For the most part, their emails will be deleted when the user is removed from your system, but there\u2019s a good chance that you\u2019re going to need access to those emails. Just because that employee is gone, it doesn\u2019t mean that their responsibilities disappear.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s possible to export your G Suite data, you\u2019d then be on the hook for doing this regularly and storing your exports securely. In my opinion, this requires too much manual work and leaves room for error.<\/p>\n I\u2019d recommend going through the G Suite Marketplace<\/a> to find an app that can handle all of your backups automatically in the cloud. (Editor\u2019s note:<\/b> For the easiest, most reliable solution, we recommend Google Vault.) Once you set this up, you\u2019ll never have to worry about your G Suite data again. Even if it somehow gets corrupted, you\u2019ll always be able to restore it quickly.<\/p>\n What about Office 365 and Outlook? It\u2019s easy to backup Outlook manually by exporting your entire inbox. There are also ways to back up your company\u2019s email with Exchange Online<\/a>. The best method will depend on your exact implementation of Outlook at your company.<\/p>\n For those of you managing email on your own network who don\u2019t plan to move to a cloud-based email service, just ensure your existing backups cover your email or find a way to ensure they do as soon as possible.<\/p>\n If your website goes down, or, even worse, you become a victim of malware, you\u2019ll lose the lifeblood of your business: new customers.<\/p>\n People hack websites all the time in order to spread viruses and malware. Small businesses and startups are an easy target for cybercriminals because their sites often aren\u2019t protected as well as those of larger companies. If something horrible like this happens, you\u2019ll need to reset your entire site to protect your business, customers, and website visitors.<\/p>\n This process is a whole lot easier when you have website backups. So, when you create your website<\/a>, make daily backups a priority from the outset. Start with your web host. Contact them to see what kind of backups they offer. Their answer could ultimately sway you to use one web host over another. For those of you who are using WordPress, there are lots of different plugins that offer regular backups. I\u2019ve reviewed the best options and covered this topic more extensively here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Generally speaking, website backups will not be free. But paying for a high-quality backup solution is well worth the cost, and far less expensive than the price of recovering from a total loss without backups.<\/p>\n This will also protect you and your employees from the fallout of launching a bug that accidentally brings the whole website down. Unfortunately, this happens more often than any of us would like to admit. Backups make this an embarrassing error, rather than a fatal one.<\/p>\n Being 100% paper-free isn\u2019t always an option. Even though the vast majority of documentation has transitioned to digital, there are still some forms that stubbornly remain in paper. No matter how hard I try, I still get stuck with paper documents for physical receipts, some tax filings, and some government paperwork.<\/p>\n When you launch your business, you will generate a batch of paper records that will slowly grow over time. Keeping these papers neatly organized in a filing cabinet is important, but this only helps with storage. Paper documents are still vulnerable to theft, flooding, fire, and other physical damage. So why not just digitize them quickly and be done with it? Not only will this free up extra space around the office, but it will also give you peace of mind about losing your files in a catastrophe.<\/p>\n The easiest way to back up your paperwork is to get a scanner, scan your documents, and then upload them to the cloud with the rest of your files. You can forget about them until they\u2019re necessary.<\/p>\n It\u2019s in your best interest to do this with your existing paper files immediately. Then make it part of your process whenever you get physical paperwork. If you wait too long, not only are you susceptible to losing important files, but the task will only grow more tedious and time-consuming.<\/p>\n Not many companies think about it, but not backing up processes has easily caused me the most grief out of any other item in this post. In a perfect world, all of your staff will give you plenty of notice before they leave. This will give you time to fill the position and have that employee train the next person in their remaining weeks. But you and I both know that the world isn\u2019t perfect.<\/p>\n Things happen. Employees leave on the spot or do something egregious that results in an immediate firing. Not everyone leaving your business will end on good terms, so you can\u2019t bank on them being helpful during a transitional period. And when people leave your company, their knowledge is lost forever.<\/p>\n If those processes aren\u2019t written down, training someone else can be extremely difficult, and nearly impossible if a top-tier employee leaves. The only way to prevent this is by turning all processes into standard operating procedures, better known as SOPs. Then you just need to store these SOPs somewhere that is also backed up, whether that is your hard drive<\/a> (as mentioned above) or in a project management tool like Confluence<\/a>, Notion<\/a>, or even a folder in your Google Drive. As long as you have your SOPs saved on some sort of cloud backup solution, they\u2019ll always be there when you need to access them.<\/p>\n If you run a software business or use software for any internal tools, you need to get backups set up for all of your databases. Similar to your hard drives, sooner or later one of them will go down.<\/p>\n When I was at KISSmetrics, we had an engineer shut down our core database for the entire product by accident. When someone makes a mistake like that they don\u2019t always act rationally. Instead of notifying management immediately, this engineer walked away and went to bed. The database was down overnight until the following morning. While we had some backups, we still lost about twelve hours worth of customer data. Without those backups, it would have been even worse.<\/p>\n The more critical the database, the more robust the backup solution needs to be. As I said before, you need to plan for the worst. Sometimes a daily backup<\/a> might not be good enough if the database is super critical. If you can\u2019t afford to lose 24 hours worth of information, then you\u2019ll need a solution that backs up at the frequency your business requires.<\/p>\n Work with your engineering team to make sure all core functionality is completely redundant. Customers can tolerate their login page being down for a short period, but they won\u2019t tolerate permanent data loss.<\/p>\n I know, your list of things to do when you start a new business just got longer! But backing up your data, files, and other important information is crucial for every business across all industries. You can\u2019t operate under the assumption that you\u2019re immune from these pitfalls. Sooner or later, they happen to all of us. Whether it be physical damage to a hard drive, theft to a computer, human error, or a malicious attack against your website, you must limit your exposure.<\/p>\n But good news: Once your backups are in place, your business will be unbreakable.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong> If you\u2019ve read this far, you\u2019re likely very serious about backing up your business\u2014or maybe you\u2019re just passionate about the process? Either way, Lars has outlined a lot of the \u201cwhys\u201d and plenty of good \u201chows\u201d for you here, but we\u2019d love to help you tick a few things off of your list. Here are a few notes for how you can implement Lars\u2019 advice using Backblaze:<\/p>\n Backing up your…<\/p>\n …Hard Drives:<\/b><\/p>\n This is an easy one: backup is the core of what we do, and backing up your computers, and your hard drives<\/a> are the easiest first step you\u2019ll take. And now, if you opt for Forever Version History,<\/a> you only need to hook up your older drives once.<\/p>\n …Email… and Paperwork, Process, and Database:<\/b><\/p>\n If your email is already with a cloud service, you\u2019ve got one backup, but if you are using Outlook, Apple Mail, or other applications storing email locally on your computer, Backblaze will automatically back those up<\/a>.<\/p>\n …Website:<\/b><\/p>\n As Lars mentioned, a lot of hosting services offer backup options<\/a>. But especially if you\u2019re looking for WordPress backups, we have you covered<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Proof](\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/p05b_2007_08_30_backblaze_cubicles-1024x266.jpg\")
\nHow to Make Your Business Unbreakable<\/h2>\n
by Lars Lofgren<\/b>, CEO, Quick Sprout<\/h3>\n
Backing Up Hard Drives<\/h3>\n
![\"Drives](\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/blog-drivestats-3-lifecycles.jpg\" "\\"Hard")
<\/p>\nBacking Up Email<\/h3>\n
Backing Up Your Website<\/h3>\n
Backing Up Paperwork<\/h3>\n
Backing Up Processes<\/h3>\n
Backing Up Software Databases<\/h3>\n
Final Thoughts on Business Backup<\/h2>\n
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