Reprinted with Permission Courtesy of New Business Minnesota ©2015 – www.newbizminn.com

January 2015 The Monthly Resource Guide For Startup Businesses

Need Help Filing Business Tax Returns? Startup-Friendly Accountants Are on Page 16.

Protecting Your Business

You’ve Worked Hard to Launch Your Business. Have You Taken Steps to Armor Up Protect What You’ve Built? These Experts Offer Their Solutions: Micheal McKeen, Twin Cities Backup; Dawn Bijou Janes-Bartley, Minnesota Insurance Group; James Cook, Exact Business Services LLC, and collaborator Deb Vosejpka, Market Communications of MN; and Steve Emmer, ADT Security Systems; Page 4.

Special Report

Protecting Your Business

From the Publisher: Most new businesses take care of the obvious when they launch. They’ve got a banker, web designer, CPA etc. But they often forget to take steps to protect their business from the unexpected dangers lurking around the corner. Knowledge is the suit of armor that will protect your business.

To examine this topic for our readers, New Business Minnesota approached this team of experts to write about the latest trends and strategies: Micheal McKeen, Twin Cities Backup; Dawn Bijou Janes-Bartley, Minnesota Insurance Group; James Cook II, Exact Business Services LLC, and collaborator Deb Vosejpka, Market Communications of MN; and Steve Emmer, ADT Security Systems. They will share more information in a free interactive workshop in February.

New Business Minnesota will hold its monthly Startup Meetup networking event immediately following the workshop. For more information and to register and RSVP go to: www.newstartupmeetup.com.

By Steve EmmerADT Security Systems

The only thing worse than no security for your business, it’s having a false sense of security. That false sense will

numb you to the real risks you face. It will allow you to justify doing nothing or doing half measures on the cheap.

The end result is that your property and financial records and critical customer and employee information remain exposed to theft. All because business owners think they had the risk covered or dismissed the risk entirely.

Here are some common examples – ex-cuses – I’ve heard over the years from busi-ness owners who don’t fully appreciate their security risks:

• “Hey, I’m on the 6th floor.” – They lock their door when then leave each day and think that they are secure. What they forget is that there are cleaning crews there after hours, along with appointment-only businesses that are open at all hours, and construction crews and contractors build-ing space out for new tenants or remodeling

other parts of the building. ADT has plenty of videos of thefts by

low-paid cleaning crews. Without that video evidence you’d never know who the perpe-trators were. They expect suspicious looking thieves, not the normal looking people who clean their office every night.

• “I have nothing of value a thief would want.” – What they forget is thieves don’t want to pawn the five-year-old computers. They want the customer information with credit card numbers that are on those com-puters. They aren’t motivated by petty cash in a desk drawer. They want your business check book and company credit card state-ments.

If you have a copier in the office, they can make a copy of the bank or credit card state-ment and leave the original behind so you’ll never know. Or they may just take the hard drive from your copier (Yes, many copiers store digital copies of everything) and see if they can strike data gold.

• “I don’t have to worry. I have insur-ance.” – Many insurance companies require that you have a security system in place. They might not pay a claim if you didn’t

meet the requirement. Unfortunately, the real damage is not

the lost equipment or cash. The damage comes when you have to notify customers their information had been stolen. Look at the nightmare Target Corp. has been deal-ing with. I’ll bet think they would have pre-ferred losing millions in cash to having to tell customers that the credit card data was hacked.

The more protections you put up the bet-ter. If something goes wrong, your custom-ers will judge you by the precautions you took to protect them. Negligence is harder to forgive.

• “We’re in a safe area. Nothing has ever happened here before.” Denial never rests. Criminals come from all over and in all shapes and sizes. And – surprise! – they have cars. Finding new territory is not hard. If you don’t have a security system, there is little to discourage them from looking around. Most business owners who think the area is safe are going by gut feeling, not police reports or insurance statistics.

Don’t Let a False Sense of Security Keep You from an Honest Risk Assessment a nd Finding Affordable, Effective Solutions.

A Good Security System Should Protect Business, Employees and Customers

ADT Continued on Next Page

Front Row: Jerry Ferguson, Dennis Kenny, Ron Hansen, Steve Kreyer. Back Row: Brad Welton, Bob Anderson, Deb Weingarth, Steve Emmer.

• “The building owner provides securi-ty.” – You can’t outsource your security. Your landlord may only be interested in keeping the front door monitored. If you have losses from theft, will the owner pay you? No way. When the only thing between your office and the next is a sheetrock wall, you need to take responsibility for your own security.

Know Your Risk and Manage ItWe ask all of our clients to first do their

own risk assessment. If you walked in to your office or shop after a break in, what’s the first thing you would check? What are you most concerned about losing? How would you replace it? How long would it take you to be up and running again? How would this impact your business, employees or customers?

That assessment will help us put together a plan that fits your needs, starting with pe-rimeter security: alarms, card and door ac-cess, controlled access point, intercoms, mo-tion, intrusion and glass detectors, etc.

While the alarm is still important, the newer options involving internet and mo-bile technology have created a whole new dimension of business security. It now in-cludes monitoring the heat and air condi-tioning, tracking employee performance and productivity, ensuring employee safety, control of what equipment is on or off, real time notification of who is coming and go-ing, and monitoring locked doors and win-dows and more.

And just about everything mentioned above you can monitor and interact with from you smart phone.

Security systems like we have at ADT are increasingly becoming tools for managing the business. As a new business owner who may be thinking about security issues, keep

in mind that eight of 10 small businesses will have security systems of some sort that go beyond mere locks on the door. You’re not alone in wanting protection.

Work With ProsWith so many options, it is critical that

you work with a professional security com-pany that truly understands burglars, rob-bers and employees who steal.

Business owners who try and set up a video surveillance system themselves don’t know the best place for cameras. They’ll buy a package of 12 cameras at a discount store and place them so they all have the same field of view, or capture strong shadows in-stead of faces.

I know of an owner who had $10,000 in cash stolen. All his DIY security system did was record a great video of a guy walk-ing around robbing him blind. Often times the DIY owner puts in an obvious place the DVR that records the security video feed. Smart crooks take the DVR along with haul.

For less than $299, he could have deterred the guy from getting in the front window, and at the very least, detected when he en-tered. After that he came to ADT and we designed a new system for him that secured all his points of entry. All three of his shops now have the same system.

Trends and changesFor ADT, the biggest change in the last

few years has been our Pulse system, an in-ternet-based overlay of your intrusion sys-tem…on steroids. Using a smart phone, tab-let or any device with internet access, Pulse can remotely arm and disarm your security system.

Pulse can also remotely control other things, such as turn on the heat or the coffee before you get to the office. That means that from home you can see if the coffee machine was left on.

Security used to be something you didn’t really interact with much beyond arming and disarming it. Now you can use it every day to check in or perform actions. One ADT client lives in New Orleans and has a store in Eden Prairie. He used to have to fly in and check things out on occasion. Now, with Pulse, the client uses a phone to see the cleanliness of the stock room, who is open-

ing and closing and if the alarm is armed or not.

ConclusionWhen you are considering a security sys-

tem, look at all the risks and select the so-lutions with the best ROI for you. ADT has been doing this for 139 years. It’s all we do. Look for warrantees and guarantees. Ask about the average number of years custom-ers have been with them. ADT’s average is eight years. The industry average is less than three years. That matters.

Find out how many monitoring stations are looking out for your location. More is better. We always have a live ADT person involved in monitoring. Some companies outsource monitoring to another company. The dealer does the install and isn’t involved anymore. Look for a company that will build a relationship with you, check in with you, and most importantly, keep your business secure.

NBM

Steve Emmer is in small business sales for ADT Security, which provides se-curity solutions from alarms, intrusion protection, camera systems and remote systems for small and medium size busi-nesses. He can be reached at (651) 600-0764 or semmer@adt.com www.adt.com

Reprinted with Permission Courtesy of New Business Minnesota ©2015 – www.newbizminn.com

Call To ActionCall or E-mail Steve for a Free Business Risk Evaluation and Pulse Demonstration. All New Business Minnesota readers who sign up with an ADT Pulse Solution will receive a $100 instant savings off of the ADT List Price. semmer@adt.com or (651) 600-0764.

By Deb Vosejpka and James CookMarket Communications of MN /

Exact Business Services

Identify theft, hacking and cyber security invasions are on the rise and we are see-ing evidence of our vulnerability every-

where. If it isn’t a government agency, it’s a large corporation. The number of business compromised is actually greater than what is reported.

As a new or small business owner, does any of this really affect you? Well, here are five reasons you should care about identity theft, cyber attacks, insider threats and data breaches.

Preparation: A new small business today has an opportunity to leverage their compa-ny by incorporating policies and procedures to help plan, protect and prevent informa-tion breach incidents from happening in the first place.

Often times, seasoned businesses become lax in their management, technology, opera-tional and privacy controls because they’re concentrating on other business matters.

Awareness: If you’re a new small busi-ness with plans to hire employees, awareness training in information security is critical to your business. All cyber-attacks, insider threats and data breaches have a human ele-

ment attached to them. You have an opportunity and responsibil-

ity to educate your employees about internet security, identity and privacy laws and a wide range of foundational safeguards to help protect your business. In doing so, you’ll be able to demonstrate that you’ve performed due care and due diligence, and that will be critical should you suffer a breach.

Controls: Regardless of the size of your business, every business owner needs to rec-ognize the importance of communicating “Appropriate Use” of business information, technology and equipment.

Let’s face it, employees entering the work-force for the first time don’t come into your business knowing the boundaries or opera-tional risks. Innocent behavior is costly, es-pecially when it comes to privacy.

Accountability: Demonstrating that your company has put into place critical process-es, policies and procedures for protecting not only your assets, but also those of your customers and stakeholders can create a sig-nificant business advantage.

There are many benefits for putting these methods of operation into place. To name a few: improved employee accountability, increased efficiencies, reduced operational costs, reduced downtime for myriad of rea-sons.

Cohesion: Understanding professional responsibility is imperative for business owners. One click or a single negligent event can be devastating to a small company.

According to a survey by the National Cyber Security Alliance (“America’s Small Businesses Must Take Online Security More Seriously.” October 2012) 60 percent of all small businesses that suffer a data breach go out of business in six months.

Why we care about you and your new business. The coming of new regulations af-fecting all businesses will soon be upon us.

We’ve been watching the information se-curity initiatives in government and the pri-vate sector for over five years.

We support the changes that have resulted in the need for all businesses to have a “Writ-ten Information Security Program” (WISP) in place to help protect their business and ultimately our national infrastructure.

For some small businesses, the WISP may be a simple set of policies and procedures that correspond with the size of the com-pany. Other businesses, depending on the industry and complexity of their organiza-tions, will require more focused attention on a wide range of business controls.

To Protect Business, Consumer Relationships Requires a Written Information Security Plan (WISP)

Are You Ready for Challenges of New Cyber Security Regulations?

Cyber Security Continued on Next Page

James Cook of Exact Business Services and Deb Vosejpka of Market Communications of MN

Market Communications of MN, Inc., and Exact Business Services, LLC provide small business with the education, tools and guiding principles for developing the proto-cols in the WISP.

Documented proof of a WISP will dem-onstrate to your customers, stakeholders and employees that you are serious about com-pliance, best practices and the protection of their business. When you think about it, wouldn’t you rather do business with a part-ner that is compliant and demonstrates that they care about your information?

Where to start?Business owners can prepare by educating

themselves in the following areas:Rules and Regulations. The changing

rules and regulations will happen in parts until one day they will all be in effect. As the regulations roll out, businesses must decide at what point they will take action to be com-pliant.

Will waiting to the end to see them all in place be the best course of action? Will start-ing now and adjusting over time provide the greatest opportunity for further contracts at the expense of the businesses that waited?

Information Security Responsibility. In-formation is everywhere within businesses and this information includes employee re-cords, the intellectual property (IP) of cus-tomers, credit card information of consum-ers and private communications.

We are all in charge of the protection of each other’s Sensitive Information. There are emerging standards and accountabilities that affect a business’s responsibility.

Do you know your business’s responsibili-ties?

Sensitive Information Flow. Information of all types flow in and out of a business and some of it is Sensitive Information. Sensitive Information includes Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of individuals such as their first and last name, birthdate, social security number, address and credit information.

Every employee record is sensitive infor-mation under the regulations. And it doesn’t matter whether it is on your computer net-work or in file cabinets within a business.

How should your business manage the custody and flow of sensitive information?

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). The typical office job is being replaced with flex hours, telecommuting, remote access and smartphones. Technology has allowed huge productivity improvements and increased the speed of business. It has also increased the incidents of data breaches.

Data breaches due to hackers and due to portable devices (BYOD) are roughly equal. The star outside salesperson can also be your greatest threat.

Does your company have special policies,

practices and procedures regarding remote access? What kind of Sensitive Information may be held inside that smartphone just left in the coffee shop?

Threats and Vulnerabilities. Threats are everywhere and faced by everyone, but the business’s vulnerability to these threats is unique to the business.

Proper Risk Assessment will identify the vulnerabilities against threats to guide policies, practices and procedures. What’s a threat? Are all threats external? Are all threats on purpose? Can vulnerabilities be eliminated?

Fundamentals of a compliant program. A compliant program addresses critical poli-cies, practices and procedures in all areas of the business. Every functional area of a busi-ness handles sensitive information and will require specific policies, practices and pro-cedures.

A business will require an individual to become a Business Watchdog™, aka, Infor-mation Security Officer (ISO) and many will mistakenly think of this as solely an IT re-sponsibility. Do you have anyone trained and capable in this critical role?

Insurance. A business can buy insurance to often cover the unexpected despite the best preparation and care. At the core of in-surance is insurability, as determined by the issuing company. Business insurance policies are beginning to exclude coverage for costs associated with data loss thereby requiring businesses to seek special insurance cover-age specifically for costs associated with data loss or breach.

Do you know what is required to comply with the Terms and Conditions of this spe-cial type of coverage? Do you think a claim will be paid if the business was non-compli-ant?

WISP implementation. A WISP imple-mentation project can take three to nine months and requires complete involvement from all areas of the business. The process will resemble ISO standards implementa-tion.

Business owners must provide support and remain involved in the process from beginning to end. After all, failure to imple-ment correctly could make your business fa-mous in ways you never intended.

Can your business wait to implement a WISP? What if your business receives a con-tract today with WISP Terms and Condi-tions (T&C)?

Supply Chain Vulnerability. Your cus-tomers will require a WISP from your busi-ness to protect their supply chain. Your busi-ness needs to have the same requirements of your supply chain.

One of the most famous local data breach-es was actually the result of the failings of a

subcontractor. A business can build a wall of protection, but if the milkman has a key and leaves the door unlocked, the business is no longer protected.

Will you require a WISP T&C from your vendors? Can your business provide the as-surances to your customers without requir-ing the same of your vendors?

ConclusionIn this new cyber security age, you can

expect companies to ask to see your WISP. If you don’t have one, or it’s inadequate, you will become the new weak link in their sys-tem and they’ll move on to a company that can demonstrate the right information secu-rity protocols.

The security regulations discussed in this column are really only just the beginning. We fully expect ongoing changes in response to new threats and hidden vulnerabilities.

NBM

Deb Vosejpka is President and CEO of Market Communications of MN, Inc., which provides education, tools and guiding principles for developing and executing a well-written infor-mation security program known as a WISP. She works with small to me-dium sized business to facilitate poli-cies and procedures for data mainte-nance and information security. She can be reached at (651) 274-0575 or debv@wispusa.comJames Cook is the owner of Exact Business Services LLC, a business service provider of financial, market-ing and educational services. He is a collaborator and trainer in coopera-tion with Market Communications of MN, Inc. He can be reached at(763) 273-4964 or jamescook@wispusa.com

By Dawn Bijou Janes-BartleyMinnesota Insurance Group

Becoming a business owner can be as subdued as waking up and finding your hobby is now a business. Or it

can come with a big splash and fanfare with investors, an open house and lots of advertis-ing and press.

No matter your journey, your business is exposed to potential claims from many sources. Insurance is one tool, but not the only tool, used by businesses to limit those risks.

Many business owners don’t think much about insurance. Well, at least not until someone asks for proof of insurance or un-til something happens to them or someone they know that makes them realize they should have protection.

Sometimes insurance is in the business plan and is secured before a business opens, but more often than not, it is an afterthought and an expense a business owner is not ex-cited to take on.

Our office frequently works with busi-nesses that need to secure coverage instan-taneously for one reason or another. The right time to secure insurance is as soon as you recognize the need and before the loss happens.

General LiabilityInitially your business begins with general

liability exposures, which include damage to the property of others, injury to another per-son, as well as for negligence in your adver-tising materials, allegations of libel, defama-tion or slander, or claims related a product you make or sell.

Each of us has the possibility of injuring someone or damaging property in our day-to-day lives. Regardless of whether you meet clients at your office, at their office or at a coffee shop, you have a general liability risk.

Your general liability follows the activities of your business. So as long as you are in the

course of your business, your general liabil-ity could come to your defense and possi-bly pay for the claim. This type of insurance is often much less expensive to secure than people think. We have clients with policies as low as $250 yearly with an average pre-mium range of $500 to $1,000 yearly.

Professional LiabilityIf what you “sell” is a service or your ad-

vice, then you would also have professional liability exposures, often called errors or omissions liability. This protects you if a cli-ent or competitor alleges your advice vio-lates certain laws, is defamatory or harms their reputation, causes a business loss, does not deliver upon expectations, fails to meet with contractual obligation, or other claims of your failure to perform your business to the level expected.

Workers CompensationWorkers compensation is coverage for

your employees in the event they become ill, are injured or killed in the course of their employment. “Work Comp” as it is often called, is required anytime you hire anyone regardless of the number of hours they work (PT or FT), what their duties are, or how you pay them (hourly, salary, etc.). Rates for work comp are based upon the activities per-formed by the person(s) being covered. For example an office receptionist might have a rate of 18 cents per $100 of payroll, while a waiter might be $3.16, a bus driver $7.10 and a residential painter $17.68 per $100 of payroll. Occasionally a contract holder re-quires work comp even though you have no employees, and won’t contract with you un-til you purchase it. This is called an “if any” work comp policy and would generally be a policy with no payroll and would be at the minimum premium for the carrier.

Cyber/Privacy Liability & Data Breach Coverage

Today, very few businesses can operate without some form of exposure to a data privacy claim. A breach is defined as any

Not All Businesses Need Insurance; Just Those with Prospective Customers.

Using Insurance to Manage Your Risk

Janes-Bartley Continued on Next Page

loss, theft, accidental release or accidental publication of Personally Identifiable Infor-mation (PII) or Protected Health Informa-tion (PHI). These can include social security numbers, bank account numbers, email ad-dress, driver’s license numbers, credit card numbers, and patient histories. Claims arise from hacking incidents, thefts or release of information from unauthorized access by former employees or vendors, stolen elec-tronic or paper files, stolen or lost laptops, smartphones, tablets, thumb drives or com-puter discs, stolen credit card information and employee error or lack of oversight.

Some business such as medical offices, law offices, restaurants, retailers and financial service firms have a significant risk for these types of claims due to the very nature of the data they handle in the course of their busi-ness. However smaller businesses who keep this type of data in paper or electronically on their customers, vendors or employees, such as consultants, data analysis and mar-keting firms, and contractors, can still have enough data, as well as not enough security to protect against a breach nor enough re-sources to defend against it and comply with notification and related regulations.

Data Privacy and Data Breach insurance can sometime be added to a Business-Own-ers Package (BOP) in smaller limits, while other times coverage is secured with higher limits or for higher risk businesses through carriers offered by independent agents and brokers.

An example might be that a database analysis company working with retailers has access to the customer’s credit card numbers through remote access to the retailer’s net-work. They now need cyber liability to pro-tect them from virus transmission or data loss claims made by their client, as well as privacy liability and data breach coverage to protect them from privacy disclosure claims resulting in defense costs, civil awards and judgments, as well as the costs of notifica-tions and credit monitoring services to the affected customers

Other Unanticipated ExposuresNewer businesses should be aware they

have risks they might not have anticipated, such as auto liability for autos owned by the business, as well as for rented autos or non-owned autos driven by employees or others under the direction of the business.

If you have business property such as computers, software, equipment, furniture, and inventory, or if you have a loan for any amount of property, you should also con-sider business personal property coverage.

Some businesses also have some specific coverage needs. These might include cover-age for business income losses. A shoe store

in a building that burns down might be out of business for months. They would need coverage for the loss of income during the months the building is repaired in order to meet loan payments, payroll and other on-going business obligations.

A business might need employee dishon-esty coverage to protect them from theft of money from the business. A restaurant completes an accounting audit and finds out that a long time employee has been has been taking money for several months. They cal-culate they have lost thousands and would want to be reimbursed for this loss.

A company may establish a formal board of directors and need Directors and Officers coverage to personally protect the people serving on the board for the corporate deci-sions they make.

Businesses with employees, as well as those utilizing independent contractors, also have some level of exposure for actual or alleged claims due to discrimination, ha-rassment, wrongful termination, wrongful discipline, or violation of employment laws. Employment Practices Liability can pro-vide coverage for claims made by employ-ees against the employer and can also be extended to provide coverage for the busi-ness coverage for claims made by 3rd parties (your clients, customers, vendors, suppliers, visitors, patients and even volunteers) re-sulting from the same types of allegations. Claims might be an employee alleging that she was terminated for her religious beliefs or that he was discriminated against because of his race. Third party claims might be from a customer alleging that an establishment was not providing appropriate access to ac-commodate a disability, or a prospective customer, supplier or tenant alleging that he or she did not get the job, service requested, the contract or a rental opportunity due to their ethnicity. Even false claims are expen-sive to defend and can result in a settlement or a judgment in favor of the claimant.

Where to StartWith so many different areas of risk, what

is your first step? Talk to a knowledgeable trusted commercial insurance agent. If your current agent only handles personal insur-ance, or if you’re not confident in your cur-rent commercial insurance relationship, ask for referrals from other business owners you know.

Then what? Approach your relationship with your agent as a partnership in your business. You should expect them to ask you questions about your business, how you operate, what types clients you plan to serve and how, your short term and long term projections, what types of claims could someone in your field experience, and what

types of practices you have in place to pro-tect yourself from those claims.

Your agent should be experienced in your particular industry, have other relevant commercial industry insurance knowledge, or be able to demonstrate the ability to ob-tain the knowledge to be able to bring value to your business.

Lastly, a good agent be able and willing to work closely with you on identifying ex-posures you have that can first be mitigated by measures other than insurance, such as loss control measures, manuals, training or changes in business operations. Ask your agent about these non-insurance related solutions and be willing to invest time and resources into implanting loss control mea-sures. Insurance is one way of reducing your risk but there are many other things that can be done to reduce risk and thus also reduce the cost of insurance.

Every business needs some form of insur-ance. Working with an independent insur-ance broker, such as my company, allows us to custom select the right policy or combi-nation of policies from different carriers that provide our clients with broader coverage at sometimes better premiums.

You know your business better than any-one else. Work with a broker that can dem-onstrate the same about theirs.

NBM

Dawn Bijou Janes-Bartley, (CRM) Certified Risk Manager, is the CEO for Minnesota Insurance Group, is a member of the Minnesota Inde-pendents Insurance Agents & Bro-kers Association and the Twin-West Chamber of Commerce. Dawn can be reached at (952) 930-3661 or dawn@mnagent.com www.MnAgent.com

By Micheal McKeenTwin Cities Backup

Backup, backup, backup. I’m always preaching that. In fact, every IT pro you’ve ever met preaches the same

message. It’s just about the most common computer advice given. Yet people too often don’t take action until they’ve been burned, losing an important file or their entire hard drive.

I’m telling you this because the average company can’t go five days without access to its computers. According to research by in-surance companies, half of small businesses hit by a disaster either fail or take the insur-ance check and walk away. In a fire, flood or tornado, 85 percent of companies don’t recover. Lack of access to their data is often cited as a key reason.

Too many companies have no backups, inadequate backups or unreliable backups. They have a false sense of security because they don’t know what they don’t know.

Here is what they should be considering about protecting their business from a po-tentially fatal loss of data.

Proper BackupWhen I say Backup, what I mean is a

Proper Backup, which means it is part of a strategy and reliable procedures. Your com-pany should have a plan for what you need backed up, how to back it up and constantly test the backups to ensure they can be re-stored.

One time, a new client asked us to set up a backup process that they could manage themselves. They had been paying someone to do it for them. Our first step was to look over their backup logs, which seemed in order. But our attempts to restore test files failed. It turns out there had been no suc-cessful backups in six months. Fortunately, they lost nothing.

Another business owner wasn’t so fortu-nate. He came to us after he found that his

backup system and failed to back-up critical files. What we found were a massive number of er-ror messages pertaining to a key project of converting all paper documents to digital.

For six weeks they had multiple em-ployees scanning documents. It all had to be done over again. The best we could do was set him up with a solid, reliable backup plan that we managed.

Backup failures are especially com-mon with magnetic tape. I’ve heard of people who store their tapes off site, but first they stop off to watch their kid’s soc-cer game on a hot day while the tape sits in the glove box. Tapes should be stored in a temperature controlled environment.

With a reliable backup, disasters can of-ten be easily averted. For example, we had a client who couldn’t access their comput-ers due to corruption on the central server. No one could log on or do their jobs.

Fortunately, they had a successful back-up to work with and were able to restore the corrupt portion of the drive and we had them up and running in a couple of hours. Without a good backup on hand, they would have been toast.

The ideal is a full-system backup. What would you do if your computer went down and had to be replaced? How long would it take to setup the new computer – not just the data – to get you back in business?

After you buy a relpacement computer, you’ll have to find all the program disks and install files, reestablish links to your most visited websites, recall all your passwords and take the hundreds of steps to make the computer YOUR computer. Don’t forget to recreate the locations of the desktop icons

McKeen Continued on Next Page

Don’t Leave the Data Foundation of Your Business Unprotected

Proper Computer Backups are the Key to Survival When Your Data Is Compromised

that helped keep you so efficient. Then you’ll have to configure everything to match the right settings. You have to do all this before you can even restore your data.

A full-system backup replicates your computer so you can do a complete recovery in the shortest amount of time.

And now a proper backup plan should in-clude your smart phones and tablet as well. An overlooked danger with smart phones is that if someone enters the wrong pass code too many times, it could be completely erased. Now that smart phones are also the primary camera for many people, hundreds of irreplaceable photos could be lost if they haven’t been uploading them to a safe loca-tion.

In many cases we can install a backup ap-plication on your phone. If something goes wrong, we can do a restore and get your old phone back, ready to use.

Don’t Go CheapCheap media does not last forever. Back-

up tapes can fail over time and leave the business exposed without them even know-ing it. Be wary of thumb drives. They are fine for transferring files between comput-ers, but they have a limited number of write and erase cycles. Depending on use, they might only last three and seven years.

Also be cautious of using online services like Carbonite. They don’t manage anything. Since they are automated, people tend not to monitor the process or even verify if the stored files can be restored. You are very much on your own with no one to advise you

Why Use a Local Backup Service?By working with someone local, you ben-

efit from their flexibility and versatility in

meeting your needs. For example, some of our clients have a knowledgeable IT person on staff, so they only rely on us for our stor-age capabilities. On the flip side are sole pro-prietors and new businesses that may not be good at IT and backup. We can completely manage their tefchnology for them.

A managed service provider for online data backup and recovery like Twin Cities Backup works with clients to create a cus-tom strategy that meets their budget. There is a backup strategy that will fit every bud-get.

We can come up with a plan to prioritize your backup needs. Some things are abso-lutely critical, while others can wait a week. It all depends on your business practices. Next we set up a process so you can man-age it going forward with a local and offsite backup.

We have a secure chain of protection for our client’s data. The chain begins with en-crypting data before it leaves their office so it can’t be compromised.

For clients who want maximum security, we don’t even know what the data is nor have a way of viewing it. We just know the client has a certain amount of space at our location and we store it. They have to have someone who manages, maintains and ac-cesses it. They use us solely as a safe place to store, no more.

For a small business that need more sup-port and grants us having full access, we can manage the entire process, either onsite or remotely.

As important as the right backup strat-egy is, it means nothing unless everything is monitored and backups are verified. We have software to completely test and verify the recoverability of all files on a regular schedule.

A key component of our service is that we secure your data off site at multiple locations on our cloud, where we use redundant hard drives in case one fails. And because of our multiple geographic locations, if a tornado takes out one site, they still have other loca-tions.

Throughout this process we speak to cli-ents in normal talk, not “geek speak,” so they always understand what is going on.

ConclusionThe question you have to ask yourself

is how long can you last if your computer crashes or if your data is lost? Some on-line services will take days or weeks just to download your backed-up data. We’re local. We can restore all of your data and bring it right to your office. You can be up and run-ning in as short as 30 minutes to go about your business as usual.

The bottom line is that to protect your business, you need to acknowledge the val-ue of your computers and data and take the steps to secure it. Backup, backup, backup.

NBM

Reprinted with Permission Courtesy of New Business Minnesota ©2015 – www.newbizminn.com

Micheal McKeen is the Virtual Chief Technology Officer of Twin Cit-ies Backup, which helps protect small and large businesses in the event of a disaster by ensuring all data and com-puter system are backed dup. He can be reached at

info@twincitiesbackup.com www.twincitiesbackup.com

Call To Action

To learn more about Twin Cities Backup, get our free report, “What You Need to Know About Cloud Backup,” at www.twincitiesbackup.com. You can also sign up for a free trial of the backup service.