None of us want to think about going through a natural or man-made disaster, much less spend ample time planning for any kind of worst-case scenario. But, when it comes to something that can literally wipe out our businesses, there is no better time to prepare than right now.
According to BackBox, around 50% of all business have been hit with some kind of disaster outage, where they were down 18.5 hours on average. Not only is that costly – $8,000 on average per hour for a small business and $700,000-800,000 for a large business – but the toll it takes on the company’s future can be irrecoverable. On top of that, the same study found that three out of four companies with disaster recovery plans did not feel their plans were adequate.
That brings us to the reality that disaster recovery plans are not only essential, but also must be current and maintained in order to make sure a business survives. If your QuickBooks goes down and you can’t recover your data, you won’t be able to maintain your bookkeeping and accounting. Here are some of our disaster recovery planning tips; hopefully, these will resonate to combat and survive an attack.
Have a Plan
Whether it’s a natural threat, such as a fire or hurricane, or man-made, such as theft, it’s often hard to see a disaster coming and prepare for it. However, what you can control is to plan what to do if you are impacted by a disaster.
Remember that there is no one-size-fits-all plan. Each plan will vary based on your specific needs, such as timing, location, capacity, availability and other factors. Sound Business Services (SBS) will work with you to make sure your plan matches up to your specific business requirements to best plan for, and recover from, a disaster.
Communication and Training
Having a plan is important, but a great plan is only as good as its execution. If everyone on your team is not on the same page, it will literally be a “disaster.”
The plan must be communicated to your team, who needs to make sure they understand what to do. Too much or too little detail can cause your team to make poor decisions, and ultimately, the plan will fail or your business will take longer to recover.
Train your team on a regular basis by acting out the steps to take in the event of a disaster. Just like in school, the teacher (or trainer) is only as important as the student (or team member), and vice versa – both must be present and ready to reach their goal.
Back Up Your Information in the Cloud
Many companies don’t have redundant backups because business owners and managers may feel the plans are either too expensive or on-site/off-site backups are painful to maintain. That’s simply not the case with the cloud. Not only is it a low-cost method; it’s also extremely powerful and always available, even if your local area is hit with a tornado or hurricane.
With the cloud, you have a large capacity, easy scalability and backup, all day, every day, in real time, allowing for immediate data recovery. There are a lot of cloud backup solutions available; for example, I have clients who use Carbonite.
We are Here to Help
There is so much more to hash out for disaster recovery planning, but this is a start. Just know that the reality of a disaster is very real – and you must have a great plan and system in place as soon as possible to be ready.
Of course, we know that this is something that shouldn’t be done alone, and you shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time away from running your business to find a solution. So, we will work with you to make sure you are set up with a plan, so that your QuickBooks, data and business can recover quickly from a disaster. Contact us today to get started.