Ask anyone who has lost their records and they will tell you the same thing: it happened fast, and it happened on an ordinary day. A dropped phone, a stolen laptop, a hard drive that simply stopped. The work is recoverable. The panic is optional. It comes down to whether you set this up before or after the bad day.
The rule that survives disasters
Keep three copies of anything you cannot afford to lose:
- The working copy you use every day.
- A second copy somewhere else, on another device or drive.
- A third copy off-site, so one flood or theft cannot take everything.
Client details, invoices, contracts, tax records, and photos of finished work all count. If losing it would hurt, it needs three homes.
Automate it, because you will forget
A backup you have to remember is a backup you will skip. Turn on automatic sync or a scheduled backup, then test it once by opening a file from the copy, not the original. A backup you have never restored from is only a hope.
The best time to set up a backup was the day you started. The second best time is right now.
Spend fifteen minutes today turning on one automatic backup. It is the cheapest insurance your business will ever buy.