At least one in five businesses of any size encounter some sort of disruption to their customers each year, costing millions of dollars in lost time and therefore money. As a result, thousands of home-based business opportunity, franchise and other small business owners in particular are actively looking for ways to minimize the impact of such events, which can include everything from natural disasters to theft to simply losing a laptop or smartphone.
If you’re among them, recent research suggests that one of the most important steps you can take to ensure your work-from-home small business’ survival and hasten recovery from these kinds of occurrences is to look to the cloud. The benefits of doing so are becoming pretty clear.
Symantec, a global security, storage and systems management solutions leader, found that a full 71% of small- to- medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that were early adopters of technologies like server virtualization reported their disaster preparedness improved as a result. “Technologies such as virtualization, cloud computing and mobility, combined with a sound plan and comprehensive security and data protection solutions, enable SMBs to better prepare and quickly recover from (any number of threatening events),” said Steve Cullen, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing for SMB and Cloud.
The reason is simple…
While most home-based businesses today recognize the importance of maintaining a backup copy of, at the very least, their financial transactions, far too many of them are still housing that capability entirely in-house. In fact, their back-up drive is oftentimes located mere inches or feet from their computer or server. In the case of fire, flood or some other natural disaster in particular, this approach leaves the work-at-home small business owner far too vulnerable, from not only a recovery but an overall survival standpoint.
If you’re a home-based business opportunity, franchise, distributorship, licensee opportunity or other small business owner who can readily see or even get into a room with your first, final and every source for accessing your most critical business-related data and information, you’re risking everything. So, make a plan, implement even the most basic and affordable technologies to get that precious information protected somewhere offsite, take reasonable steps to secure it, and then reexamine and reassess your plan at least once every quarter.
If and when disaster or some other unforeseen circumstance strikes, you’ll be so grateful you did.