When was the last time you backed up your website? Your mailing list? Your financial files?
If you don't have an IT person or department doing this for you....it's probably been a while.
We've encountered a lot of people this past year who answered either "Never" (ack!) or "a little while ago" ("sometime since the last time we had a data problem").
Backing up files is a task too many people put on the "oh, yeah, I should do that" list and keep putting it off, because:
a) it's boring
b) there no time or
c) it's not an immediate problem.
Until it is.
It's the end of the year, so as you're wrapping up projects for the break, this is a fantastic time to back up all your files and documents - both at work and at home.
If you have sensitive financial and client data in your systems, you'll need to ensure that data is properly encrypted and secured according to data retention laws and regulations. This article is intended to cover "every day" files and programs that don't (necessarily) require this kind of system protection.
We'd like you to think about this more than once a year, though, and we've got some suggestions for you.
Make A Backup List
🎵 "...and checkin' it twice, gonna find out what's on this device...." 🎵
What devices do you have? How about your team? Your kids? Your partner?
What services and programs do you use regularly? QuickBooks? MailChimp? Your website? Your personal photos? Recipes? Lists of books you mean to read when you have time? Your Wooble patterns? (Maybe that's too specific.....)
For each person, identify what they have that needs to be backed up.
(This could be a great project for an intern or summer student!)
Make a Backup Schedule
🎵 "...on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a backup calendar just for me...." 🎵
Back everything up today. Yes, today.
Right now. Get a backup started on something, then come back to this blog.
We'll wait.....
Now build a calendar. Literally.
Create notes on your work calendar or add tasks to your project management program. Figure out what functions you can set up on "auto backup" to make it easier.
Here's the frequency we suggest to our clients:
6 months
Email list - most of the big e-mail list programs (MailChimp, Constant Contact etc.) have options to backup not only your names and addresses, but also your templates and data from previous email blasts.
Photos and Videos - so many people only back up their photos when they need room on their devices. Every 6 months, make sure everything is synced to iCloud or Google Photo.
Client files - where are these files? Are you using a central filing system or do files live in multiple places? Have the team put everything in a main file and back it up. Then move to a central filing system...but that's another blog....
YOUR files - do they just live on your computer? You're one spilled Starbucks pineapple lemonade refresher (ahem...) away from disaster.
Your cloud files - yes, we KNOW they're in the cloud. But what happens if the cloud goes down for a day? Or longer? What if you and Microsoft decide to break up? You really need a backup here, too.
Password Keepers - imagine the chaos if your password keeper company suddenly went out of business. (We'll wait while you go do that, too.....)
Each month
Financial documents - yes, you can get these online from your bank anytime....except when you can't. You don't necessarily need paper copies, but make sure your statements are filed on your computer. Which, of course, you've backed up. Right?
Social media stats - your agency/social media manager should be doing this anyway, but check. Make sure you have this info stored in your main files. Don't rely on the data being accessible anytime inside LinkedIn or Meta.
Social ads stats - check with your agency/social media manager.
Website stats - your webmaster should have this. (No webmaster? Do YOU have this?) Google Analytics is great, but annoying to have to look back for things.
Website - if your site isn't updated regularly, you can get away with a monthly backup - but this is the bare minimum. Install a plug-in or check with your hosting company to see how to access previous backups. Then, make sure you are ALSO saving a copy outside your website. Many of our clients have backups saved automatically to Dropbox or OneDrive.
Phones/tablets - you might stretch this to every couple of months but it's important that you have a backup of your various devices, too.
Weekly
Website - if you've got this set up automatically through a plug-in or your provider, this is a no-brainer. You never know when WordPress will change something or a plug-in will get an upgrade and there will be conflicts on your website. Being able to restore to a previous version, BEFORE the changes will make trouble-shooting a lot easier.
Ad campaigns - if you're running a short-term ad campaign, weekly stats are important. You want a copy of these somewhere safe.
CRM - if you track a lot of info in your CRM this should be a minimum schedule. Daily might overdo it, but weekly is important. Nobody wants to spend time on forensic CRM analysis to track down and re-enter data.
Bonus: There are online services that print actual books from Google Photos or your Facebook account, complete with comments and reactions. (Yes, just Facebook. Instagram doesn't play nicely here anymore....)
Find a safe place for your backups
🎵 "...there must have been some magic in the new hard drive they found...." 🎵
or
🎵 "...These hard drives, from Amazon are. Saving files both near and afar...." 🎵
So now you have the files, spreadsheets, folders etc. Where should you keep them?
Many people like to apply a 3 - 2 - 1 formula to saving backups:
3 copies - 2 copies, plus the original
2 media types - not just relying on one system (we use Cloud services and actual hard drives)
1 copy kept offsite
Online services like OneDrive, Google Drive etc. are great. They have continual backups and redundancies for their clients. But, as we said above, you should ALSO back that up. It can degenerate quickly into a backup spiral!
You can also look at smaller, local providers with server backups. Or you can go DIY and backup to a portable hard drive.
Cathy stores her photos in Google Photos, on two portable hard drives and when she upgrades her laptop, she turns the most recently "retired" one into a photo storage machine.
Our Blue Elephant files, based in Google Drive, are backed up to a portable hard drive as well - one for each year.
Find a system that works for you.
But I don't know how!
A lot of small business owners have inherited websites from designers or aren't sure where/how to back up their files.
We also know people who would rather have a root canal than poke around the back end of Analytics.
Check with your team. Ask a friend for help. Or reach out! If you need a free 20-min coaching session to start your backup process, connect with us. We'll show you how.
Then, you'll be ready to start collecting new info for 2025.
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