DO YOU HAVE A PERSONAL BACKUP SYSTEM?

A few years ago we had a massive problem with the computer system in our publishing offices and for several days we were unable to send any emails.

Some employees were unable to do any work at all during those few days.  Everything they needed – every contact number, every address, every piece of data they were working on - was inside their machines and completely inaccessible.

Other employees were able to carry on as usual.  They were the ones who had personal handwritten address books and had printed out their current most important working papers.

Just yesterday I heard of a teenage schoolboy who had not made backup files of his exam course-work.  An unexpected power-cut in his home has destroyed much of what he has laboured over for weeks.

We Live in an Increasingly Fragile World

We live in a world where the use of technology has impacted on every area of our lives.  In many cases it has happened gradually so we haven’t given enough thought as to how reliant we have become on technology and machines, both at home and at work.

Younger people especially – particularly those who can only ever remember communicating via computer and mobile phone – find it hard to imagine a world where things might just break down when you need them most.

The volcanic ash this week has been a timely reminder of how fragile our twentyfirst century existence really is.

It has been a reminder that none of us want to be in a position whereby we don’t have some kind of personal backup.

Along with the technology we are so reliant upon, we do need to bear in mind that other structures of our 21^st century lives, that we often don’t given much thought to, are also fragile.

There was a week, 18 months ago, when our whole banking system teetered on the brink of disaster.  Luckily, good decisions were made at that time and no one in the UK lost their savings.  But in other countries in the world, banks do go under from time to time and savers are not reimbursed.

We Do Not Need to Live in Fear

I don’t believe that any of us should live in fear and anxiety of any disasters happening.  Life has ups and downs, crises and catastrophes.  We all have our share of them.  It is part of the human existence.

But what I do think is that it is always worthwhile to have a backup plan.

At Piatkus Books, we spent time thinking about disasters that might befall the company – floods, fire, hooliganism on May Day in London’s W1, unexpected illness of key people.  We put certain measures in place – more backup computer files kept at home, increased insurance payments, all original printed author contracts scanned and copied and the data kept outside the office.

We took on an extra part-time person to cover one particular area of the workplace and made sure that other members of staff could duplicate each other’s tasks.

My co-directors and I had some earnest conversations over a few weeks and put plans in place so that if there were a crisis, we would have done everything we could to prepare for it beforehand.

There never was a crisis of that kind.  But because we had prepared for the eventuality, we knew there was no point worrying about one as we had done all that was possible.

Put Your Own Personal and Family Backup System in Place

Every individual needs to take a careful look at how they live and consider what problems might arise.  It isn’t fun.  But it isn’t that difficult to do this work when you are not experiencing any of the problems you are discussing.  Everything is merely hypothetical and you can focus on the practical.

Think about everyday backup systems – extra housekeys cut and kept with neighbours, additional signatories to bank accounts, more money saved for a rainy day, who might need to know your computer password in case of emergency? Have you made a will?  Share your thoughts with family and friends so that everyone can contribute good ideas.

The Feel-Good Factor

Once you have your systems in place, it feels good.  You have dealt with your fears and overcome them by talking about them.  You have put your personal systems in place.  You have everything in order and have done the best that you can to plan for the unforeseeable.

That is all any of us can do.  But it is the best way to ensure that we can sleep soundly at night, knowing that we have done our best.

Judy

www.judypiatkus.com

Follow Judy on twitter  http://twitter.com/judypiatkus

I have now launched a blog and I blog regularly on small business, entrepreneurship, new trends, publishing and books.

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