As a small-business owner, you most likely do not have a full-time information technology employee if you have one at all. And as a result, your website, electronic communications and data storage may be vulnerable to any number of technological snafus. Your systems are even more vulnerable during and after the holiday season when hackers seem to increase their activity.
According to CNNMoney.com, there are a few technological disasters in particular that smaller companies are poorly equipped to face.
One problem is website security. When Morristown, N.J.-based Internet marketing company Optimum7.com's site was hacked and unreachable through search engines for 10 days, the company saw its web traffic go from 600 per day to zero and estimates it lost 30 leads and 20 percent of its revenue because of the downed site. Optimum7.com spent $8,000 for tighter security and now is notified if its site goes down for more than 60 seconds.
A scarier issue is a server crashing, causing data to be irretrievable or lost. This happened to gourmet food shop Greene Grape, Brooklyn, N.Y. As a result of a downed server, the store was unable to look up the prices of its products, complete a sale or manage inventory. The company says it lost $4,000 in sales in a few hours. To safeguard itself from future breakdowns, Greene Grape created an app that allows point-of-sale purchases on an iPad® so sales can continue if the server fails again.
A server crashing or a hard drive failing can be even more painful if your company's recordkeeping is maintained through customized software. When Dallas-based Kittrell/Riffkind Art Glass' hard drive froze, the company lost all its artists' sales and inventory data. The developer who created the customized program did not make or provide a copy of the software, so the company had to send the hard drive to a specialist to rebuild the program. It took the company an entire summer to reload the data.
These are just a few examples of how technology can wreak havoc on a small business. But as the companies mentioned have learned, some precautionary measures can help ensure your electronic files and website are safe. At a minimum, a backup system, including a clone of your operating system, is one way to protect your data.
Ambika Puniani Bailey is editor of Professional Roofing and NRCA's senior director of communications.
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