The Importance of Using Protection
For new and experienced online business owners, one of the biggest things to consider while running your business is how to protect it for the long term. This is especially true since most online businesses are "information-based" rather than having huge inventories of products and other "stuff" to keep safe. Because of that unique aspect of an online business, it’s more critical than ever that you keep that information safe and this should be a major focus as you operate your business. Here are some commonly made mistakes that you should avoid when it comes to protecting your online business.
1. Not Having Backups of Websites/Databases
This may seem obvious, but it’s one that a lot of online business owners overlook (or allow others to be responsible for). You’re taking a huge risk if you’re running an online business and aren’t keeping backups of your websites.
Of course, you may be thinking that’s the web hosting company’s job or something like that, right? Well, while it’s true that they usually do provide backup services, and in most cases, can restore files with no problem, it’s still the ultimate responsibility of the business owner. What if something happens on the web host’s end where they can’t restore your files – who’s to blame? Is the web hosting company accountable for that? Or even better, do you really even want to have to worry about that, or would you rather have this not be an issue because you have your own backups?
If your online business is making even the smallest amount of money, it’s just good sense to go the route of the "responsible business owner" and make sure you’re doing your own website backups. Be sure you also include backups of your databases too, since these are a key component to keep many types of sites running on today’s websites (for instance, blogs, forums, ecommerce software, and so forth).
You can either do these backups manually using your control panel or do a search for specialized software that will automate website backups for you. Then, just temporarily download the backup files to your hard drive until you burn them to a disc or store them in a more appropriate, and safer, final location. Your hard drive doesn’t count as a "safe location" since hard drives eventually fail, computers crash and so on.
2. Not Having Backups of Critical Files on Your Computer
This is right in line with the first item. Not having backups of critical files that are on your computer is another huge mistake that some online business owners make. If you’re like most online business owners, you have important business-related files on your home/office computer in addition to what’s on your web server. Losing those files could become a major setback, so of course they should also be backed up to a safe location. It’s relatively easy and inexpensive these days to store a large number of files on a writeable CD or DVD. There are also online backup services (like Data Deposit Box, which I use) that will backup and store your data to a secure server for a minimal cost. That way your data is off-site in case something happens to your home/office.
3. Not Having Redundant Web Hosts, Domain Registrars, and Other Key Services
We all know that you should never have all of your eggs in one basket and this even applies to your online business. If you’re currently using a single company for your web hosting, a single domain registrar, or other services that are a critical piece of your business infrastructure, you might want to reconsider. It may be unlikely that one of these services will go out of business or otherwise "completely blow it", but do you really want to take the chance? What would you do if your registrar dropped the ball and forgot to renew your domains…ALL of your domains (this actually happened)? You need to consider what would happen "if" something catastrophic occurred with that one service, how it could be avoided, and how cost effective that option is for your business.
4. Entrusting Too Much Info To a One Outsourced Worker
(Or Multiple Outsourced Workers That Can Combine What They Know)
If you outsource some of your tasks, one of the worst things you can do is give too much info about how your business works to one person. Ideally you want to avoid having just one outsourced worker if possible. If that’s just not possible right now, then at least compartmentalize the portion of your business that this person is a part of.
The same applies for groups of outsourced workers, which can be just as bad, even though you’re relying on more than one person in this case. You want to avoid creating a situation where either a single person is inadvertently trained on exactly how your entire business works, or multiple people are able to piece things together based on what each of them knows about your business.
(James Brausch gives another great reason why you don’t want to rely on just one outsourcing service in this post about ELance.)
5. Not Having Everything Documented & Accessible in Case Something Happens to You
As uncomfortable as it is to think about, you should definitely create a plan for how your business will run if something unfortunate happens to you, especially if your business is you family’s primary source of income.
- Does your spouse know how your business works?
- Could it continue to run without your input?
- For how long?
Every aspect of your business should be documented so someone else can pick up the ball and run with it in your absence. This is an ongoing process and can be a bit time consuming in the beginning, but is certainly worth it as a worst case planning scenario or in case you decide to sell your business sometime down the road. I recommend something like the Freedom Business System to show you how to do this (it’s actually good info for offline AND online businesses).
4 Responses to “The Importance of Using Protection”
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Really great tips. Thanks you.
Kenton,
Great post. I just made one about the same topic, but yours goes into more detail. If you don’t have redundancy, then your awesome site may be history- Archive.org history. Thanks again,
Sam