Is your business prepared for a disaster?

Office Depot conducted a recent survey that showed that 40% of small businesses across the country were unprepared for a disaster.  And a disaster could be anything: weather-related like a hurricane or earthquake or even business-related like a computer virus or a burglary. 

“What’s most alarming about these new survey findings is that small businesses still have strong misperceptions about what they can do to help prepare for a disaster so they will be ready to handle any potential business interruption,” says Office Depot Director of Global Business Continuity Tom Serio.  “A $1 piece of media, like a CD-R, to store data such as contact information and important presentations, could make a big difference in being able to keep your business running. And it only takes minutes to back up your data on a regular basis,” Serio pointed out.

Chris Crum, a staff writer for SmallBusinessNewz, offers a great checklist to help you get started. 

1. Develop a continuity plan that addresses post-disaster recovery procedures.  What happens when you need to be running your business?  Make sure you know where all your important data is stored.  It might be worth backing everything up into two copies.  One to keep at the office and another stored in a fire-proof safe deposit box for safekeeping. 

2. Consider alternative locations.  Can you set up shop at home?  At an employee’s home?  If a lot of what you do is online, this could be easier than you think.  If it works to run your business out of a local coffee shop for a few days, go for it.

3. Keep everyone in the know.  Make sure that you discuss with your employees the plan for what’s going to happen.  Your operation will run a lot smoother this way.  Make sure you have contact information for everyone you work with including telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and mailing addresses.  This is extremely important in being able to communicate effectively with everyone.

4. Gather current contact information for your vendors and customers.  This is another important thing to have backed up.  You can also store this information on an Internet server so it can be accessed from any computer.  This way if you’re unable to get it from your computer or office, you can get it even if you’re somewhere else around the globe.  Then, let your customers know what they can expect from the business.  You might want to send out a quick e-mail letting them know that shipping will be take an additional week but you’ll make up for it by offering everyone 20% off their next purchase, for example.  Explain the situation.  Here, honesty is the best policy.  It will make you appear more credible in the long run.

5. Prepare for emergency cash management to handle cash flow.  Hopefully you’re able to have a little bit of savings in your business account to handle an emergency.  This is why planning ahead is so important.  You never know what life is going to throw at you. 

We hope that you’ll be able to avoid any kind of disaster.  But if not, at least you’ll be prepared ahead of time.  Visit us online at http://www.completeresourceschicago.com

Beware of new computer virus

A new computer virus has just been released which is already affecting over 9 million users.    Here’s some information to keep your computer safe.

The worm is called Downandup, Downadup, Kido!, or Conficker and it’s hacking into computer systems via your USB port.  I’m attaching a screenshot of what might appear when you plug in a drive to your computer.  The top entry, under “Install or Run Programs” is the one that will install the virus.  It would probably be the default version that would pop up when you plug in the drive. 

In order to avoid this from happening to you, turn off your AutoPlay or AutoRun feature on your computer.  If this pop-up box does appear, just go ahead and remove the drive.  You’ll want to browse the drive manually for the files you need, which should prevent you from becoming infected. 

If you have Windows XP, TweakUI can help you turn off your AutoPlay feature. 

If you’ve already been infected, use your anti-virus software to fix it.  If that doesn’t work, try F-Secure’s removal tool.

More information on this harmful virus can be found on Yahoo!’s Tech page here.