Do You have a Strategy For Safeguarding Your "Invisible" Business Assets?

The Invisible Business Assets

One of the most important part of your Internet business strategy is safeguarding your business assets and resources. Unlike a regular brick-and-mortar business, an on-line venture involves a number of invisible assets that are difficult to quantify. Here are some...

• Your domain names
• Your Websites
• Your search engine rankings
• Incoming links from other websites
• Your mailing lists
• Your products and services
• Your email communication archives
• Sales and customer records
• Your on-line accounts at your web-hosting provider, email provider, etc.
• Your reputation at forums and other community sites
• You on-line account passwords and access data.
• and so on...

One important fact about an on-line business is that it is very easy to lose everything in the blink of an eye. A computer crash can instantly kill your business or set you back by months or years. Some thing as silly as not paying a $10 domain renewal fee can make your profit making website disappear!

Plan your business restoration strategy

So, if you haven't done so already, sit down and plan your business restoration strategy in case of an emergency.

Consider creating a document containing important information on your business assets. Leave detailed instructions about how to manage your websites even when you are not around. Keep it in a safe location so that your successor can find it. Include important passwords and other login data.

Make a list of all essential monthly and yearly payments. Make sure that these are paid even if you have an emergency.

Use a remote backup service like Mozy (or any other backup service) to do daily backups of all your important work. It is important to backup to a remote location so that the data is safe even if there is a natural disaster in your area.