Going to hell in a handcart

At some point in your business life, you will realise the restrictions of your particular business model. Whether it is down to your IT system not handling enough emails or not having enough back up staff, it will feel painful. Some business owners are great at planning ahead and are able to track, plot and manage for all eventualities, others like to live life by the seat of their pants. We think that when you are starting and running your own business, its not possible to plan for every eventuality. The fear of getting things going wrong would mean you would never get out of bed in the morning.

Even if you are a 'fly by the seat of your pants' kind of entrepreneur, it is possible to put aside a bit of planning time to think... 'where are my back up files kept'....'how quickly could I access my documents if it all went to hell in a handcart?'. These are quite dark musings for a Tuesday morning but Tailored Time has had our fair share of these and that is why we know that back ups.. human or technological are v.v. important if you are going to sleep well at night.

These are our top tips to help you sleep well at night:

1. Use a remote back up as well as /instead of your extra hard disk that you just keep forgetting to back up each week. Check out companies like www.carbonite.com or www.datasafehaven.co.uk - there are millions of companies out there and we think the most important things to consider are a) where are there servers located b) how quickly can you download the data c) how slow will your computer run when it is backing up d)cost

2. Have a remote call handling company to cover your phones if everyone is out of the office. There is nothing worse than an answer machine and call handling is so affordable and efficient there are no excuses

3. Use a bit of cloud computing technology that is currently reaching dizzying heights of functionality and accessability. This means that if you office disappears tomorrow (or you just want to work from home) your key documents are there, ready to use. We are liking www.officelive.com at the moment because it just looks so much nicer to use than googledocs.com (sorry google!)

4. Ensure all passwords are kept in a secure document somewhere - I can only imagine how much time I waste forgetting what password was used where despite best intentions and then I have to try and explain how to find them to a new hire

5. Ensure that all your procedural documents are up to date - this can be time consuming but if you have different people working on different accounts and projects and they have the most knowledge you need to make time to get that knowledge out of their heads on a regular basis

What are your most important contingency plans - we would love to hear from you!