Latest Articles
- Information – an Office’s Gold
As America moves to service based industries the raw materials needed to bring a service or product to market is information. This is the “gold” in an office. With today’s technology we are able to collect, measure and quantify our leads and customers. The question then becomes what do we do with that information?
- BPs Lack of Seeing the Big Picture
No matter what side of the political fence you fall, BP failed to take the proper quality control measures. As the weeks pass more information is coming to light how the organization cut corners with safety to keep costs down. Safety is not the place to take short cuts. In the long run this can cost you thousands of dollars and possibly your business. In BP’s case it is running in the billions not to mention what it is doing for their stock value. The ramification of poor quality control is costly. So how could a corporation
- Make Your Bottom Line Grow
No matter what size your organization doing things as efficiently as possible is not only ideal it is necessary in the new world economy. One area that can be significantly improved is the office. In fact, 60 to 80% of costs associated with providing a service or product to market is administrative. If you were able to reduce these by one third how much could you increase your cash flow?
- Proper Planning Can Ensure Success
Planning is the backbone of success. Not doing it can cost thousands of dollars, man hours and resources. Proper planning can save you money, increase your cash flow and help fulfill your mission. Here is a simple tool to aid in ensuring your success.
- Working Between Departments Means Faster Cash Flow
When you look at a traditional organizational chart it has silos which contain various departments and the people overseeing and working in those departments. In today’s business climate where information is your company’s gold this can be troublesome. Why, because the right hand may not know what the left hand is doing. We have all [...]
Back Up Your Computer Files!
How many of you have spent hours and money trying to retrieve lost information on your computer? It is very frustrating and expensive to get that data back - if you can.
I recently retooled how and what I backup. Understanding that I needed the help of an IT professional I hired Edward Shanker of Meeting Tree Computer Corp. Ed was able to restore data files that were deleted by a remote device. Had I not backed up my files I would have lost irreproducible data. How can you make a potential disaster turn into a minor inconvenience?
1. Back up your data such as bookkeeping files, contracts, contact information, appointment notes, etc. It is not necessary to back up the program files. Those should be reinstalled if something happens to your programs or hard drive. If you back up the programs too, any problems you had with those programs would be installed on the fixed or new computer. If you downloaded some of your software keep a list of the program names and serial codes. That way you can reinstall the software if a problem or failure occurs.
2. Create a backup schedule. If you are using your computer daily then do daily back ups. It is a good idea to set up an automated nightly backup rather than trying to remember to do it. Also do multiple back ups. My system is set up to keep several days. That way if something happens I can pick which day I go back to. This was helpful with retrieving my lost data. I did not discover the problem immediately and had the older backup to retrieve the data from.
3. You have a few choices to pick where you want to store the data. When deciding on how to store your data reliability, accessibility and longevity should be considered. I started with CD’s, a flash drive then external hard drive. I ultimately went with the online offsite backup. If you keep the data onsite then you have to put it in a fire and waterproof box. Offsite storage would be in a safety deposit box. I like the online backup because no matter where I am or what happens to my equipment the data is safe. I also do not physically backup my system. The online service does it for me.
4. Talk to an IT professional to determine what system would work best for your business and data usage. Ed was a very valuable resource for determining what I needed to do to help protect my records.
The more digital you go the more vital backing up becomes. No matter what system or method you use make sure you backup your files before it costs you thousands of dollars in time, money, equipment and opportunities.