Are You Backed Up?

"Creamsicle"
36" x 36"
​Available.

What's the two most important physical items in your art business? Mine are my paintings and my computer data. My paintings are pretty safe and located in many different locations. My computer data is also very secure. Is yours?

Stop for a second and ask yourself what would happen if your computer disappeared tomorrow. Do you have everything backed up? And what if your computer was stolen or what if there was a fire in your house? Both scenarios require different backup plans.

Let's talk about your photos first. Do you have multiple copies of your photos? Are they on the cloud as well as safely stored on a hard drive that is kept away from your office or studio? 

And what about your website? Is it online or on the cloud, meaning if you lost your computer could you still make updates to your site? Or is your entire website sitting on your computer?

How about your art business files? Documents, workshop data and all of the years of files you have created and reference every day? Are they backed up?

And finally, are all of your backed up files up to date?

I doubt any of you can come clean on all of the above questions. So what should you do?

You need multiple back up systems to protect your business. Carbonite is an inexpensive service that backs up your computer remotely. It's cheap and it does it automatically so you don't need to remember anything. The backup is also located off site which is good protection against a fire or catastrophic loss.

Your photos can easily be backed up on the cloud. But making a back up file every month on an external hard drive is also a good idea.

I also have a Time Machine hard drive back up that backs up my computer every day. I guess you could say I am conservative. Cautious. And paranoid.

Don't wait t​o back up your data. Do it now. I mean it.