Reprinted with permission from Prepare for the Worst, Plan for the Best: Disaster Preparedness and Recovery for Small Businesses, 2nd edition, by Donna R. Childs (©2008). All rights reserved.The most valuable information I can share with you is to improve your business processes from lessons learned by our peers in the small business community. I have set up a Web site for that purpose, www.preparedsmallbusiness.com. Another important lesson is that you must test your disaster preparedness plan. There are some risks that you cannot reasonably anticipate without performing a drill.
Let me share two stories with you to reinforce this point. When speaking at an event of the National Association of Women Business Owners, I met a business owner who told me how she had backed up all of her business critical data online and off-site. Brilliant--she had her tax records, customer information, and all critical data secured. Then she made a secondary backup in the event that the first one would fail. Also brilliant--in my case, I have backups stored at locations removed from one another by more than 500 miles such that in the event one has a problem, I have redundancy.Content Continues Below
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