Is Your Business Really Backed Up? A Backup Plan for Your Data and Your People

When my son was little, he gave me a title: his "backup buddy." He was right. Everybody needs somebody who has their back and steps in when they can't. It turns out the same is true in business, and it comes in two kinds. Team tech is the backup of your stuff: your files, your email list, your systems. Team humans is the backup of your people, including you.

Here is why I care about this so much. In January of 2019, I was unexpectedly out of the business for a week. My tech, Kajabi in particular, kept running exactly as it should, so I never had to call on my human backup buddies. But I had them. If that week had stretched on, or something had needed me, the business would have been covered. That is the quiet knowledge I want for you: if you disappear for a week, the business doesn't.

The trouble is that most of us only find out whether we have a backup at the worst possible moment, when someone says, "Don't worry, it's probably backed up somewhere." That one sentence has caused more business migraines than most hackers. A backup you have never tested is a hope, not a plan.

The quick version

• The alarm: someone deletes the wrong file, a migration corrupts data, a hard drive fails (and the backup was on it), or something important only ever lived in one place.
• Reacting: assuming there's a backup, never testing a restore, and relying on the one person who knows where everything is.
• Responding: a tested backup routine, a simple inventory, and a human who knows where things are and can step in.
• The Fire Extinguisher: the 3-2-1 rule (three copies, two kinds of storage, one stored somewhere else), a regular test restore, an inventory, never relying on one device or platform, and a named human backup buddy.
• Already burning: stop changing the affected system, check every recovery path (version history, cached copies, old exports, email attachments), and document what was lost before assuming the worst.

Your free homework

Pick the one thing your business couldn't survive losing, usually your email list or your signed contracts. Find every copy that exists. Then name the one person who could step in if you vanished for a week. This isn't about taking time off. It's about what happens when life doesn't ask first.

Not sure what's only living in one place in your business? Run the Smoke Detector: 11 questions, about three minutes, and it shows you which fires your business is most likely to have. Go use the Smoke Detector.

Keep Exploring

• Software Shutting Down? How to Protect Your Business Before a Platform Disappears
• Contractor Still Have Your Passwords? How to Offboard a Team Member Safely
• All the Business Fire Drills

Listen on your favorite podcast app: Business Fire Drills podcast (also on Apple Podcasts and Spotify).

Business moments are predictable. Panic is optional. This is general educational information, not legal advice for your situation.