What if You Are Forced to Press Pause?
In a time when we rely so heavily on technology, what would you do if one day you woke up to not having access to all the familiar "tools" to run your business, even simple things such as your computer? In a nutshell, you’d be forced to press the "pause button" - just as I am today! It appears my system was overtaken by something bigger than what my skills could eliminate, so off to the "computer whiz" shop it went. I am borrowing my husband’s "clunker" this morning until he needs it.
While I won’t be able to run my business today and possibly tomorrow "as usual", it will give me an opportunity to catch up on other types of business activities that I tend to put off such as filing, and possibly reading the last couple of issues of Success magazine! (Yes, I am that far behind). Meanwhile, here are some items for you to think about doing, so an event like this doesn’t turn catastrophic.
1. Perform Regular System Backups - I cannot stress this enough. It will make a system "hiccup" or hard drive failure much less stressful when you know all of your files can be retrieved. Either back them up on a disc, a thumb drive, or as I do, on an external hard drive. This is the easiest because you can set it to automatically backup once or numerous times per day. To be most effective the backup should be stored offsite in case of an "emergency". At a minimum though….. back up your information somewhere!
2. Use as Many Web-Based Programs as Possible - If you make a practice of incorporating web-based programs to your business protocol, as long as you have access to a computer you can still "function", even if not fully productive - those "Must Do’s can be tended to. Fortunately, the majority of my business is run on web based programs, although I am still a big fan of Microsoft Outlook. So many of my contacts are stored specifically on my computer only, as are my emails - so they won’t get the attention deserved until my "lifeline" is returned! Emails are a very small part of my income generation though! (I do use Gmail also, just not as extensively - so this has reminded me to transfer my contacts to that program as well!)
3. Practice Safe Computing - Just as we are educated about safe sex, it’s important to protect your system and information from viruses and the potential of passing harmful "worms" to others. Install the best software you can find and keep it updated. I am obsessed with this…. maybe because my kids never used to be and it has cost a lot of money to fix after they downloaded music, etc. to their computers. It’s sort of like insurance - you hate to pay for it, but glad you have it in an emergency. (I am very curious what is going on with my system, because I am so diligent about this step)
What advice can you provide if you ever need to "press pause" during your business day? 
Until next time, J.
"Take control of your destiny or someone else will"
Tags: business, business activities, business protocol, business today, businesses, catastrophic, clunker, computer whiz, couples, destiny, education, email, external hard drive, generation, generations, gmail, hard drive failure, hiccup, income, incomes, insurance, insurances, longing, microsoft, money, nutshell, offsite, opportunity, outlook, pause button, possibilities, quot, reminder, reminders, sexes, specifics, stress, stresses, success magazine, successes, system backups, thumb drive
December 04 2008 01:36 pm | Home Business Ideas, Misc Ranting, Time Management, Wealth Strategies
