Have you ever lost your phone? It’s the worse feeling in the world! It happened to me a few months ago; I was literally in a glass case of emotion for two weeks. I lost everything: Numbers, photos, all of my apps, and important notes. I never once used iTunes or iCloud to backup my data because I thought I would never lose my phone. Imagine the pictures from your Bachelor party or the video of your son’s or daughter’s first steps that would be lost if you didn’t backup and save that night.

Backing up your software is just as important! Best of all, daily backups can be done automatically – without reminders or tedious tasks. Backups are vital to your business. We all have heard of websites that shout, “CONGRATS – you are the 1,000,000 customer! Click here to win a new iPad 3!” BARA BING BARA BOOM – VIRUS! An innocent click and now your hard drive is gone along with all of your data. For under $20 per month, you can have automatic daily backups with Deal Pack – so you never have to worry about a gullible employee or lightning storm. You can also search online for daily backup services to review other viable options. Don’t be left restoring an old database and trying to reconstruct what all happened since then. Who made payments last week? What were our bank deposits? Who purchased that 1977 Ford Pinto with the 20” rims? What was that customer’s name, address and SSN? Now you have to call that customer and say, “Um… Can you please come back? Our server crashed and we have no record of you.” That’s not embarrassing and a tad unprofessional.

Imagine you just had a great week. It’s Friday, you sold 10 cars, you purchased 10 more at the auction, you collected over $10,000 in payments, and now you’re ready to go have some drinks at your neighborhood AppleBees. The thought of backing up isn’t on your mind because it’s closing time! You come in Monday, go to your computer, and turn it on. The computer won’t start. You call Dave the Detailer (Dave took a computer class in high school). Dave comes in and says your hard drive is gone, and he smirks when he says, “Hope you have a backup!” Situations like that happen everyday. It’s happened to me – but unlike my phone, I had a backup! I have personally dealt with countless customers in similar situations – one called today (their last backup was from April 2011) – which prompted me to write this post. If there is no backup, there is little your DMS provider can do to help. However, those that have backups simply buy a new hard drive or computer, restore the data, and business continues without breaking stride!

Instead of gambling with your business, there are easy ways to back up your data.

1. Sign up with our Deal Pack Online Backup, which is automatic everyday so you don’t even have to worry about it. It costs just $19.95 per month… That’s just .66 cents a day. (I know what you’re thinking, “That’s a Wrigleys 5 pack of gum!”)
2. Purchase a portable drive to store your data in addition to your computer’s hard drive. For Deal Pack purposes, the only file(s) you must save is Server_Dealpack.mde or Server_Finance.mde. Just make sure you set your alarm everyday to remind you to back up.
3. Search online for “online backup services”. Some examples are mozy.com, carbonite.com and crashplan+.

Please understand the importance of backing up your files. Failing to backup – and losing valuable data – is guaranteed to be an agonizing experience. Thankfully, it can be prevented.